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When God Seems So Far Away

Not long ago when I woke up in the middle of the night and I felt like God was a million miles away. Automatically, I went into a search mode looking for something to blame this feeling onto. I asked, why would God leave me? What have I done to drive God away? My mind went blank looking for a reason to explain why I felt that way, only to realize that there wasn’t a satisfactory reason.

I know that Jesus Christ lives in my heart, so why do I feel as if God were a million miles away? I was reminded of a verse in Isaiah where God said these people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me Isaiah 29:13.  When I felt as God were a million miles away, I found that it was I who was away from God. While my body was the temple of God, my mind was focused on the stress of daily life. The things I focused on affected my mind and my intimate relationship with God. I felt as if God were a million miles away, but I had also excluded God from my mind and daily routine.

Turning your face towards God does not mean that you drop everything you are doing. It means putting aside everything that hinders your walk with God and spending time and the effort to make a relationship with God grow.

The first commandment of God’s royal law of love demands all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, the very attributes this world competes for. There is a tug of war for your life and the things that make your life comfortable. There is a reason for knowing God as stated this way, Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:3. The world on the other hand wants just enough of you to arouse God’s jealousy.

God wants all of you, not just what you can give when you have extra time. On the other hand, people want the sensation, the feeling and knowledge that God is near. Most people know that you can live with a companion so long that your senses grow accustomed to their presence. Consider also that the sights, sounds and smell of the work place are also ignored by your senses when they become a normal part of your life. When the normal routine of life is broken, such as the loss of the job or a lifetime friend dies, you sense their loss while riding an emotional roller coaster

Should we place our trust in the feeling that God is a million miles away? Feelings can be manipulated and Satan will use your feelings against you. Your feelings come from the awareness of the conditions that affect you both physically and spiritually. Those conditions affect the way you perceive life and formulate the decisions you make. Your feelings may come as impressions that move you to respond accordingly, thus we also need to consider that God stirs the heart and moves his people to obey him while Satan incites God’s people to sin. Impressions come in many forms and the spiritual man must come to grips with who or what is guiding his feelings.

Where is God and how do we know that God is a million miles away? Don’t we have to answer these questions before we can place trust in our feelings? Are your feelings an impression or doubt that makes you ask that question? Where God is in your relationship should be a matter of faith and your confidence in God’s word. Feelings can be manipulated as easily as a gray sky makes the day dreary. If we were to trust God and seek him diligently he would be exactly where he said he would be.

The answer is never easy because in the back of your mind you will always be looking for something to blame. Instead of finding something to blame, use your time to seek God while he may be found. God is never a million miles away but are you willing to do what it takes to be close to God? Could it be that God is on the same page with us, but we are not in tune with God? Is God is waiting on us when our spiritual eyes and ears fail to see and hear our Lord? Is our minds focused on the here and now and has our heart been driven from God by the pressures of this world

When God seems to be far away it is not a time for asking questions but a time for seeking. By seeking God you stir the embers of love allowing it to burst into flames of love. Taking God for granted is something most Christians do, but remember that every intimate relationship needs rejuvenating. Both partners of the relationship need to feel loved and perhaps you have been neglecting the love God has for you. There is nothing wrong with feeling that God is far away. It is an alarm, a wakeup call to renew you fading relationship with God. 07/01/2015

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