Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
5 6 2024

Audio Version

Do you feel like God is distant?

We read words like “he builds his lofty palace in the heavens” (Amos 9:6). I know some feel at times that God is so Holy and so perfect that only the high and lofty ones get to connect with Him.  We see the Queen of England only sees people of great importance and that certainly isn’t me.  But the bible is implicit that God is always reaching out to us.  He is not far and distant.   As imperfect as we are. .. as many times as we fall, scripture assures us that God is near us always.  
But sometimes it doesn’t feel that way.

In Genesis it says God walked with Adam in the cool of the morning.  But when Adam disobeyed God, everything changed for him and us.  God sought Adam and Eve out on that fateful day.  God said,  Where are You?  But they hid from God because of their sin.  God knew what they had done but he still sought them out.  Their sin separated them from God, but it didn’t change God’s love for them.  They felt shame and fear for the first time, and they hid, just like we do today. Sin took away that great intimacy they once had with God. Adam’s sin has affected our relationship to God too. Romans 5:19 says “through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners.” All of us are sinners and this leads to that feeling of separation from God. 

Proverbs 28:13 warns us AND reassures us: “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”   Hope and Mercy is what God offers his children.  In Exodus 19, the people of Israel had to follow specific instructions; to consecrate themselves before coming into God’s presence. They were restricted from coming too close to God. God made a covenant with his people, but they continually broke his trust.   Yet, God was unrelenting in his love for them, and he always left them hope and stood by his promises even when he turned his back on them for a season. God has never given up on being close to His people. 

Although we fail God, he said his word never fails and never returns void. Is 55:11 He will not fail us or break a promise to us. Ezekiel 36:28 says “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh”   We lose hope when we stop reading Gods word, because that is God’s communication with us.  He promises hope even when we face our heaviest burdens. But our unconfessed sin separates us from God.  It causes us to lose our faith in him.  To falter in our trust in him.  Our roots are so shallow we cannot withstand the sun, or the wind and we wither and die in our separation because of our “little faith” when it awaits us abundantly in his word.   Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.  

God’s word is clear in Roman 5:19 “Just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners” so the second half of Romans 5:19 explains “also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”   Jesus.

God gave us a new covenant when Jesus came and though our acceptance of Christ, he no longer sees the sin.  There will be consequences for what we have done or failed to do.  But The blood of Christ bought that atonement so we could approach a Holy God and enter his presence with confidence. It says PS 51:17 ” that The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”  God is clearly stating he is not looking for sacrifices but brokenness. He wants to see us broken like Jesus’s heart was broken and offered up to Father God.  

God no longer resides in a man-made tabernacle or temple but has come to live within His people. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).

God is saying there is no reason for you to feel distant from him.  He is not this God off in the heavens who is not accessible to you.  He is never too far away… He lives in you.   Just as the prodigal father would wait on the hill for his son to return one day…so God waits for us the same way.  He lives to make intercession for us at the right hand of the father. Rom 8:34  We don’t hear Gods voice because we do not stop to listen.  We somehow believe that if we can’t get microwave answers God is distant and unapproachable.  God has answers and secrets for his children, but he will not share them with strangers.  God words are forever true.  God forever and abundantly offers us grace for those dark days when we cant see the light or when we feel alone and separated.

Paul Tillich. in his Book: Shaking the Foundations says it so clearly:

“Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life. It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness,
and it is as though a voice were saying: “You are accepted.” 

   God says we are royal heirs. Rom 8:31-39 says  “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, [39] Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.. Even when we lose our way or get tripped up by sin, we can come to God through Jesus and receive forgiveness.  Too often we are listening to the wrong voice that sows lies and seeks to distance us from God.  They tell us God hasn’t answered your prayers and doesn’t that prove he is not real, or that you are too pathetic to gain any access to him.  STOP.          Satan is a liar.

When we are alienated or feel separated from God, Scripture points to “THE relationship” that can be made right because Jesus made it possible. God the Father, through his Son Jesus, has done everything to be inseparable from us. Jesus has stepped into the gap so we can come close to God.  
As God’s children, we must believe God… we must have faith that what his word says is forever true, no matter the clouds that are overhead. We are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).
By His grace, God allows you and me to be joint heirs with Jesus.
Is that not encouraging?!
As Jesus said, we will “inherit the kingdom prepared” for us from the foundation of the world
(Matthew 25:34).

Enter into his presence.  Step in by faith.  Ask and He promises to be with you wherever you are.  He will give you what you need.   But, if there is any doubt,  take these words of the Psalmist and make them a prayer: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:1, 10-11). Amen

Matt West  Don’t Stop Praying