God had appeared absent in the rain. Instead, he had been with me through every hour, working toward a miracle. The whole time I accused him of faithlessness, he was busy raising me up so I could escape. – The Peasant King, Tessa Afshar
The sentiment behind this quote is one many of us can admit to feeling: in the midst of our darkest trials, God seems absent or quiet. Our prayers seem to go unanswered and we wonder why God doesn’t show Himself.
Where is the God who promised He would go with us? The God who said He would never leave nor forsake us?
Where is the God who claimed that He would answer our prayers if we ask in faith?
Like Job, our prayers feel like monologues, not a conversation with a loving Father.
As the darkest closes in, the enemy likes to whisper lies in our ears. He tells us God doesn’t answer our prayers because we’re unworthy. He tells us God isn’t with us in the trials because He doesn’t care.
My friend, the devil is a liar.
He will tell us anything to discourage our faith. Anything to turn us against the God who loved us enough to send His Son to die for our sins.
The truth is that God is walking with us through the deepest darkest despair. The sad things is that, because of sin, this often feels like the loneliness, scariest place to be.
Our faith may shake and we may even begin to believe we’re outside the will of God.
We may begin to think that prayer is a waste of time.
Reading the Bible may become difficult or impossible.
My friend, I have been to that dark place before, wondering why God doesn’t swoop in to fight my battles as He promised.
But the darkest hour is always right before dawn. Hold on to Jesus.
Do not let go of Him.
If you find it hard to pray, have conversations wit God.
If you find it difficult to dig into the Word, consume other content that is faith-based. Read devotionals, Christian living or Christian fiction books. Watch films where the characters are living out their faith.
Listen to sermons and podcasts where other believers are sharing their faith. Let their testimony fill up your dark spaces until you can share your faith again.
Whatever you do, hold on. Do not turn your back on Christ. He is faithful and one day, you’ll get to the end of the tunnel. You’ll look back and realize that when you thought God had abandoned you, He’d been with you all along.
About The Peasant King
Jemmah has always thought of herself as perfectly ordinary . . . until she faces extraordinary circumstances.
When her mother, the Persian king’s famous senior scribe, is kidnapped, Jemmah and her sister must sneak undetected into enemy territory to rescue her. But infiltrating their adversary’s lands proves easier than escaping them. Fleeing through dangerous mountain passes, their survival depends on the skills of a stranger they free from prison: a mysterious prince named Asher.
Asher is not who the world believes he is. Despite his royal blood, he has had to climb his way out of poverty to forge success from nothing. A manufacturer of some of the best weaponry in the East, Asher has only one goal: to destroy his father. But following his escape from prison, Asher is irresistibly drawn to Jemmah, unaware that she guards her own secret.
Jemmah must convince Asher to give up everything he has worked for, all for the sake of a higher purpose he’s not sure he believes in. The fate of the Persian empire—and possibly the Judean people—hang in the balance and in the persuasive power of one ordinary woman.
Bestselling author Tessa Afshar delivers another adventurous novel filled with romance and imagination, reminding readers of what Publishers Weekly calls her “amazing talent for packing action and intrigue into the biblical setting for modern readers.”
• Full-length historical romance novel set in biblical times
• Compelling, clean romance
• Can be read as a standalone or as a companion to The Hidden Prince
• Includes discussion questions for book groups
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