[fuel] cell bible study

When God Seems Distant

We have all gone through times in out lives when it seems that God is nowhere to be found. We feel dry, we feel like God is a million miles away. It is like you wake up one morning and all of your spiritual feelings are gone. You pray…nothing happens. You meditate…nothing. You confess every sin you can think of, you ask every person you have ever possibly wronged to forgive you…and still…nothing.

The bible says that God will never leave you or forsake you, (Hebrews 13:5)

Okay…God, where are you at then? The truth is that God is always with us. God is always watching over us.

It is important to state that sin will separate us from God. God even turned away from Jesus when Jesus took on the sin of the world. But it is even more important to say that just because God seems distant, or someone tells you that they don’t feel close to God that there is rampant sin in their lives. Job’s friends are a good example of what not to do. We cannot look at others and judge why they are going through what they are going through…we can only be there to support them and to remind them that they are not alone.

God will use distance to bring us closer. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. The test of any relationship is distance and silence. To mature your relationship, God will test it with periods of seeming separation—times when it feels as if God has abandoned or forgotten you.

God called David a “man after my own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), yet David frequently complained about God’s apparent absence. Read Psalm and you will find David saying: “Lord, why are you standing aloof and far away? Why do you hide when I need you most? Why have you forsaken me? Why do you remain so distant? Why do you ignore my cries for help? Why have you abandoned me?” Did David doubt that God was there? I believe that David was simply expressing what he felt. God promised not to leave us of forsake us…but God did not promise that we will always FEEL his presence. In fact the bible says that God sometimes hides from us. (Isaiah 45:15)

So what do we do when we don’t feel God’s presence? We do the same things that we do when we do feel God’s presence.

• We tell God exactly how we feel
• We trust that God keeps promises
• We focus on who God is – God’s unchanging nature (per Job)
o God is good and loving
o God is all-powerful
o God notices every detail of my life
o God is in control
o God has a plan for my life
o God will save me
• We remember what God has already done for us
• We encourage each other
• We pray for each other

I go east, but he is not there, I go west, but I cannot find him. I do not see him in the north, for he is hidden. I turn to the south, but I cannot find him. But he knows where I am going. And when he has tested me like gold in a fire, he will pronounce me innocent. Job 23 8:10