When God Seems Distant
Sometimes as we walk through life, it can feel as if God is distant. He doesn’t seem to be involved in our lives. We don’t feel the emotions of love, joy, or abundant life. It’s just kind of blah. It’s as if He just left.
When that happens, a lot of us wonder if we’ve done something wrong. Did we do something that upset Him? Is He mad at me? Is He disappointed in me? Is there something I can do to bring Him back?
Others of us try to get busy doing more stuff. We go to church more, read our Bibles, listen to Christian music, or watch a sermon online. Yet still, it can feel like no matter what we do, He still feels distant.
We want to experience His life, love, and joy again, but we just can’t seem to get what we used to have with Him back.
What are we supposed to do when this happens?
RENEW YOUR MIND TO THE TRUTH
The first thing we must do is know the truth and then renew our minds to that truth as we journey through life. The truth is that if you’ve put your faith in Jesus for salvation, God is not distant. When you don’t feel Him, He hasn’t gone anywhere, and you haven’t strayed away from Him.
The moment you put received His grace by faith in Christ, you entered into a spiritual union with Jesus.
“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.” (1 John 4:15)
Take your hands, bring them together, and interlock your fingers together. This is the picture of your spirit joining and intertwining together with the Holy Spirit.
17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit (1 Cor. 6:17)
The truth is that you are one with Jesus. You are in a union with Him that is so spiritually intertwined that you can’t tell where Jesus ends and you begin. You are one with Him, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:17.
This union is an eternal union. You are already spiritually seated in Heaven.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ… 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:1,3)
You have been raised up and seated in heaven already. Your life is now hidden with Christ in God. That is an eternal reality.
There is no separating you from Jesus. God cannot be distant from you, and you cannot be distant from Him.
This is the truth you must know. When you feel like God is distant, the first thing we must do is renew our mind to the truth. We must believe we are in union with Him before we feel and experience our union with Him.
WHY DO YOU FEEL DISTANT FROM GOD?
Even though you are in an eternal, inseparable union with God through Jesus, it is possible to feel distant from Him. This can happen for several reasons.
First, you may not have known the truth about union with Christ.
If you don’t know you are in an inseparable union with Him, you’ll think that it’s possible for Him to leave or for you to leave Him. That is why it is so important to read and study Scripture. We need to know the truth to experience what we have in Jesus.
Second, you may be too focused on the world.
Every single day, most of us consume a tremendous amount of media. We are immersed in the news, scrolling through social media, searching the internet for content, and are also bombarded with ads from companies vying for our attention to convince us we need their product or service to bring us something we are missing in our lives.
The more our attention and focus are on the things of this world, the less we will experience our union with Jesus. The more it will feel like God is distant.
This is why Scripture tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus (Heb. 12:2) and to set our hearts and minds on things above (Col. 3:2). The more we give our attention to Christ in us and us in Christ, the more we will begin to experience our relationship with Him and what He is doing in our lives.
Third, you may be involved in sin.
While we live in a permanent union with Jesus, it is possible for us to act in our own power and strength (flesh). When we do this and step into sinful behavior, we are going to feel distant from God. We aren’t distant from Him, but we will feel that way.
When we are walking dependently on Jesus, the life-giving stuff from the Vine flows through us as the branches and we experience His life. However, when we act in our flesh and our own power, we miss His Life producing real fruit, and we are left trying to manufacture our own counterfeit fruit. This will leave us feeling distant from God even though we are still in that eternal, inseparable union with Him.
In those moments, we are to acknowledge our sin to God and thank Him for His forgiveness. Then we turn our focus back on Him and begin to live dependently on Him as our Source.
Fourth, you may be under spiritual attack.
Satan hates God, and he hates you. He doesn’t want you to experience His life, love, and His joy. Therefore, Satan will do whatever he can to rob you of what you have in Christ.
Sometimes, he will place what feels like a black fog or a veil over your spiritual ears and eyes to keep you from hearing and seeing Jesus’ activity in your life. This is his work as a deceiver. That’s who he is, a deceiver (Rev. 12:9). He’s attempting to deceive you of your union with Christ by keeping you from seeing Him or hearing His voice to make you think God is distant.
This is when we renew our minds to the truth. This is when we pray and remind Satan that he has no authority and that we live in the victory of Jesus’ sacrificial death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.
TURN TOWARDS JESUS
In order to experience the union we have with Jesus at a spiritual level, we must turn our souls (mind, emotions, will) towards Jesus. Our soul cannot be turned towards the world and our flesh.
"I cannot imagine how religious persons can live satisfied without the practice of the presence of God. For my part, I keep myself retired with him in the depth of the center of my soul as much as I can. And while I am so with Him, I fear nothing. But the least turning from him is insupportable." (Brother Lawrence)
When we turn our attention away from Jesus, it can leave us feeling distant from God. It’s not true, but we can feel that way. We are still one in spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17), but we are not experiencing our oneness.
For me, it is helpful to spend at least 30 minutes to an hour first thing in the mornings, turning my soul to Jesus. I turn away from all media and everything else going on in my life. I release the people and the things that I’ve been holding onto in my own strength. Then I read and meditate on Scripture, read some of my favorite Christian books, pray, listen to worship music, go on a walk of gratitude, etc. I also do a shortened version of this as the last thing I do before I go to bed at night.
This turning of my heart towards Him each morning allows me to experience my union with Him in that moment and also sets me up to keep my soul turned towards Him throughout the day. As I notice my attention is being turned away from Him throughout the day and that I am feeling distant from Him, I pause for short breaks and renew my mind to truth.
It helps. Really helps.
When God seems distant, remember that if you are in Christ, you are never distant from Him. God lives in you and you in God (1 John 4:15). Pause, and turn your attention and focus back on Him. Pray against the things Satan is attempting to do to rob you of what you have all the time in Christ.
