Latest / Daily Devotions for Busy Lives / What to Do When You Feel Distant from God

Transcript

What to Do When You Feel Distant from God · Daily Devotions for Busy Lives

• 0:01
  Bart Leger: Sarah Haggerty wanted to be a mother, and for
• 0:03
  years the answer was no. Month after month, the test came back
• 0:07
  the same, and the ache of it settled into everything. She was
• 0:11
  a believer, and she had known God as close and warm, but
• 0:16
  somewhere in the long wait, he seemed to step back. She'd pray
• 0:19
  about the emptiness and feel like she was talking to a shut
• 0:22
  door. The strange part was that she hadn't done anything to
• 0:26
  cause it. She was still showing up, still bringing him the same
• 0:29
  request, and it felt like nothing came back. We'll come
• 0:33
  back to what she decided to do, but
• 0:38
  first, welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm
• 0:41
  Bart Leger. There have been Sundays I stood up to preach
• 0:45
  about the nearness of God while feeling like He was a thousand
• 0:49
  miles from me. Nothing dramatic had happened, and my prayers
• 0:53
  just seemed to stop at the ceiling, and the Bible read like
• 0:55
  a textbook for a while. And there I was, telling a room full
• 0:59
  of people that God is close. On a morning, I couldn't feel it.
• 1:02
  What got me through was nothing remarkable. I just did the next
• 1:07
  faithful thing and let God know how I felt, every time the
• 1:11
  nearness came back. Maybe you're in one of those stretches right
• 1:15
  now. Almost every Christian goes through this at some don't get
• 1:20
  past the ceiling. You open your Bible, and the verses that used
• 1:23
  to move you now seem like nothing more than words on a
• 1:26
  page. Nothing scandalous has happened, and you didn't walk
• 1:29
  away. God just feels far off, like He simply stepped back and
• 1:34
  didn't say why. And it can be very disorienting, especially
• 1:38
  because it can last a lot longer than you expected. Weeks or even
• 1:42
  months of reaching for our presence. It feels absent. When
• 1:46
  you're there, it helps to know God has already spoken to this,
• 1:50
  and what He said is an invitation. Listen to Isaiah 55,
• 1:54
  6. Seek the Lord while He may be found, and call upon Him while
• 1:59
  He is near. Seek the Lord. Call upon Him. I want you to notice
• 2:05
  the tone in that verse. God is inviting His people to come, and
• 2:09
  He attaches a promise to the invitation. He can be found, and
• 2:14
  He is near. God's not the one who moved. When God feels far,
• 2:18
  the feeling is telling you one thing, and God is telling you
• 2:22
  another. He says He is near. Even on the mornings, your heart
• 2:24
  can't detect Him. The distance you feel is not the whole story
• 2:28
  about where God is. So here's the way back, and I believe it's
• 2:32
  simpler than you'd guess. First, just keep coming. Don't wait
• 2:36
  until you feel like praying or opening the Word. Come while
• 2:42
  it's even still dry. Keep the habits you had when He felt
• 2:45
  close. Second, tell Him the truth about where you are. You
• 2:49
  don't have to dress it up or pretend the distance isn't there.
• 2:51
  Just say it. God, I can't feel you right now, and I'm still
• 2:55
  here. That kind of prayer, I believe, honors Him because it's
• 2:58
  true. And here's what to hold on to while you wait. God doesn't
• 3:02
  always hand you the felt sense of His nearness on demand. He's
• 3:06
  always near, and He's always closer than you think. So Sarah
• 3:09
  made a choice that didn't fix anything overnight. She kept
• 3:13
  coming anyway. She stopped pretending she was fine and
• 3:16
  started telling God the truth about the grief and the waiting.
• 3:20
  Slowly, in a way she couldn't have engineered, the nearness
• 3:24
  came back. She began to taste His goodness again, even in a
• 3:28
  life that still held loss. Later, through an unexpected road that
• 3:33
  included adopting children from across the world, she wrote it
• 3:36
  all down and called the book, Every Bitter Thing is Sweet. The
• 3:41
  bitter parts were still bitter, and she'd found God in the
• 3:44
  middle of them. Look at what turned it for Sarah. She
• 3:47
  couldn't manufacture the nearness, so she did the one
• 3:50
  thing she could. She kept coming, and she told God the truth about
• 3:53
  the grief. Then, in a way she couldn't have arranged, the
• 3:56
  nearness came back. And that's usually how it goes. You keep
• 4:00
  coming in the dark, telling Him the truth, and one day you
• 4:03
  notice He was never as far as He felt. Here's today's challenge.
• 4:07
  If God feels distant right now, do two things today. Keep your
• 4:11
  normal time with Him, even though it feels like nothing is
• 4:14
  happening. And if you haven't been coming to Him, just come
• 4:16
  back. And when you pray, skip the performance and tell Him
• 4:19
  exactly where you are, including the part where you can't feel
• 4:22
  Him. The way back runs through seeking Him while He can be
• 4:26
  found, the way Isaiah said, and trusting that He's near even
• 4:29
  when your heart can't tell. Father, thank You that You
• 4:32
  invite us to seek You and that You promise to be found. For
• 4:36
  everyone listening who feels far from You right now, meet them in
• 4:39
  the distance. Remind them that the feeling of absence is not
• 4:43
  proof of Your absence. Give them the grace to keep coming when
• 4:46
  everything feels dry, and to tell You the truth about the
• 4:49
  performing. And in Your timing, let them taste Your nearness
• 4:52
  again. Thank You that You're always closer than we think. In
• 4:55
  Jesus' name, amen. If this episode encouraged you today,
• 5:00
  would you share it with someone who might need to hear it? Just
• 5:02
  go to DailyDevotionsForBusyLives.com
• 5:05
  slash 319 and copy the link. It only takes a second, and it
• 5:09
  might make a real difference in someone's day. Thanks for
• 5:12
  joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, when
• 5:16
  God feels far, that feeling isn't the whole story. Keep
• 5:20
  coming, and trust that He's nearer than He feels. Come back
• 5:22
  next time for more encouragement to help you live grounded in
• 5:26
  God's truth. Until then, God bless, and have a great day.