Dear Christians who feel far from God
I’m an English teacher, and the other day during a private Zoom class, one of my students asked to talk about God. Specifically, she wanted to discuss times in our lives where we felt God was very near to us.
As I gave her request some thought, so many situations flashed before my mind of when God felt far away. Situations of frustration, fear and anger. It saddens me that the first thoughts to come to mind were those of disappointment, of when I felt alone, of thinking that God was far away and either unable or unwilling to help me.
In times of trouble we remember those who were around to help us. But even more that that, we remember the silence or inaction of friends who stood by and did nothing to help. Feeling like God is far away happens to all of us.
“If you feel far from God, guess who moved!?” As Robin Jones Gunn so aptly phrases it, our feelings of distance from God are often of our own doing. But that’s certainly not something that we like to hear!
During my English lesson we both shared our experiences. Though it was easier to recall times of feeling far from God, we also reveled in sharing times when we truly felt God’s nearness, his love and his care.
Feeling far from God has many causes and many different solutions too. (Prayer, bible reading, asking yourself hard questions, etc.) What is important is that you know that God hasn’t turned his back on you. He may feel far away, and it may be so easy to remember the times you felt hurt, but he is a God of goodness. He isn’t going anywhere. Draw near to him.
Dear Reader, you may be interested to hear that I have issued myself with the January Writing Challenge. I’ve tasked myself with writing and publishing one new article to Medium every day for the entire month. So follow along for more stories and adventures as we see what the first month of 2021 has to offer!
