Have you ever felt distant from God? I’ve been there too (sometimes for years). You find yourself saying things like, “I wish I could just see Him, talk to Him, feel Him near me!” You wonder whether it’s your fault, that maybe some sin is causing Him to stop talking to you or whether you’re just not “doing it right.”
After a while, God’s apparent silence can make us doubt our own salvation or even doubt God’s existence (even if we’ve had powerful reassurances and interactions with Him in the past). There’s a song that says, “we cry in anger when we cannot feel you near.” Some people cry out, others go exploring other religions, while some just quietly let their faith in God get forgotten and swallowed up by all the “real world” experiences that we CAN see and feel. CS Lewis says (in Screwtape Letters), that we have an enemy who wants us to think of our car, our phone, and our lunch as real while spiritual things (including God) are just sort of pretend and fanciful, when the very opposite is true. That’s how a lot of us here in the US are taught, and anything else seems mystical and weird.
I have some encouragement, however! I’ve been reminded to hold God’s hand in the dark by trusting in His Word, when I can’t see the truth for myself. Here are a slew of promises about how close God is to you right now (Ps 34:18; Ps 139:7-10; Ps 145:18; Phil 4:5; Acts 17:27; Rom 8:38-39; 1 Cor 3:16; 1 John 4:16). The Bible even lists a Hall of Faith of people who had to trust God without seeing (Hebrews 11). God doesn’t leave us with just a “trust me,” though. He is constantly proclaiming His love for us (Zeph 3:17) and revealing Himself to us (Rom 1:19-20).
This powerful and vulnerable video by Tim Mackie illustrates how every single aspect of our life is a chance to tap into God’s presence if we just turn our focus toward Him. That lunch that seems “more real” than spiritual things may actually point to God! In a previous article on Abiding, we talk about what it means practically and scientifically to abide in Christ (John 15:4-9; 2 Cor 10:3-5; Col 3:1-3; Phil 4:8). Even when you feel distant from God and cry out to Him, let that very crying be a reassurance, because the Bible says that crying out to Him is evidence of the Spirit of God in us (Gal 4:6; Rom 8:26).
Grant Ministry 