54. When God Feels Distant

Welcome back to the broadcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is episode 54 when

God feels distant Why does

God sometimes feel distant Why are there times and seasons when it seems like God is either aloof or further away from us than at other times?

As a pastor, I've received various versions of this question over the years questions like why does

God feel distant from me? I know that I'm saved. I've have assurance of that from the scriptures.

But why do I go through periods of deadness and dryness? How is this true?

And why does this happen? I am NOT really changing anything about my routine I have the same

Bible plan that I've always had I dedicate the same time every morning to prayer I'm repenting and I'm doing everything that I know to do pastor.

So yet why? Why is it that sometimes God feels nearer to me?

While at other times I feel like that he has left me and I am all alone Why is that?

Now there is undoubtedly many reasons why this phenomenon may occur such as our own sinfulness our rebellion the quenching of the

Spirit of God or even God's chastening of his children When those things happen

God will often withdraw the experience of his presence from us Which is meant to lead us to repentance

He does not however Remove his presence entirely from us since the

Bible tells us that there's now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ his spirit

Remains in us yet at the same time While God is fully present with us through the spirits and dwelling.

He's fully present in all places through his omni presence There are times when he veils our capacity to comprehend his presence

Allowing us to experience distance from him darkness even in shadows Now as we said before this occurs often because of habitual indwelling and unrepentant sin

But what happens when that's not the case? Do we have any examples of that in Scripture? How do we explain the other occasions when we are in the word?

When we're repenting fasting praying singing mortifying the flesh we're doing everything that we've always done

That seemed to bring us closer to God and yet For some reason we're now filling the absence of God His distance is more palpable even than his presence.

Why how do we explain that? well, these are questions that I've also asked myself countless times before and unfortunately,

I've Not been really given a biblical reason from Scripture to account for such occasions instead

I've been taught that my relationship with God is sort of based upon this quid pro quo

Relationship and rule where if I repent of my sins and I do all of the right things then

God is going to Automagically reward me with the gift of his presence now this actually caused a lot of Dysfunction in my relationship with God because it encouraged me to have a performance oriented faith

Where I believe that my experience of God the nearness of God was wholly dependent upon me and Yet I did not have someone come alongside me and tell me that this is not what we see in Scripture Now take for Job for example the

Bible tells us that he was a righteous man that he was exemplary among the men of his time and yet God allowed him to experience awful suffering and the diminishing of his presence take

David for instance There's another one His Psalms are riddled with with pleadings and beggings of God that God would draw near to him that God would

Allow him to experience the joy of his nearness. Once again, you think about another example in Jesus Who never sinned and yet in the garden felt such agony and distance from God that he wept tears of blood

How do we account for those situations? Now to answer that question today,

I would like to share 13 things that I wish someone would have shared with me along the way that I've now

Praise the Lord been able to learn and some of those things I've been learning over the years some of those things I've learned just even this week

Now what I'm not gonna do is I'm not gonna be diving too deeply into the the question of why

God is distance Distant from us at times there. There's a lot of mystery in the scripture on that and frankly

We can't know the decreative secret will of God. We can only know what's revealed in the text

So what I would like to do instead of answering the question of why is God distant? I think that's a great question.

But instead I would like to answer How are we to think about the distance of God?

And then what can we do about this reality? So I want to think about those two things

Actually, I think that that will help soften The tension that we feel from the why question.

Why is God distant? Well, I think that's the wrong question How are you to think about his distance? And what are you to do about his distance?

Those are the two things that I'd like for us to wrestle with today now in the rest of this episode

I want to offer six reflections to consider When you feel distance from God and I'd also like to provide seven that's 13 total things seven biblical remedies for you to employ

Should you ever experience distance from God so part one How are we to reflect upon the distance of God?

Number one. I want you to reflect upon God's rights Here's the principle

God has every right and ability To give and take away the experience of his presence as he deems appropriate

One of the greatest doctrines that we often recoil from is the doctrine of the sovereignty of God Sovereignty entails that God has every right ability and power to accomplish whatever it is that he wills

And since everything that occurs is under the canopy of God's will Then every pain displeasure and discomfort comes about first by divine knowledge and by divine permission

Therefore nothing happens outside of the will of God nothing Job says this fact poignantly in chapter 23 verse 16.

He says it is God who has made my heart faint And it is the almighty who has dismayed me.

You see what he's saying here He's saying this is not accidental. My heart is not faint by happenstance

It's God who willed it to be so jeremiah is a man who's also acquainted with with great grief and he's heartily concurring with with uh

Job in lamentations 3 2 through 2 and 8. This is what he says. God. He has driven me

And made me walk in the darkness and not in light even when I cry out and call for help

God shuts out my prayer Now while these verses may rub the inner drama queen inside of us the wrong way.

Do we really? truly Have a cause to be angry about it

All of us at some point or another have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God Most of us have sinned this very minute

Well that includes job And jeremiah, but it also includes us God said to all of us who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God that the punishment for that sin would be death

He says that in the day you eat of the tree you shall die and yet look at how long we live

The very fact that you and I are alive today means that God Has been exceedingly generous to us

It means that he's not given us what we're owed but is instead offered to us unmerited mercy beyond comprehension

Beyond this if you're a christian and you're listening to this you've received unfathomable grace

Now remember grace is not just being spared from the punishment that you earned that's mercy But grace is receiving blessings comforts and joys that don't belong to you

That you couldn't pay for In your sin you and I should have suffered eternal torment and terror forever and yet god sacrificed his son

To rescue you Instead of us suffering he watched his baby boy undergo emotional

Spiritual and physical anguish To offer to you and I grace

Our salvation even if it were the only good thing that ever happened to us Would be infinitely more than we could ever ask for or expect

And it's yet it's not the only good thing that's ever happened to us Tell me Can you count the blessings and the graces that god has given you?

Can you count them? Are you are you gonna forget some of them? Of course All of the joys that he's imparted to you and I through family and friends and children through a lineage and a heritage

He's given us wealth being in one of the richest nations the richest nation probably in the history of the world He's given us food wine safety security vehicles means

Think about it like this. Has he ever answered any one of your prayers? Has he given you oxygen to breathe or organs that work without your direct involvement or management?

Has he given you a physical copy of the bible which if you think about it from a historical standpoint you are blessed

What about other blessings that are stacked up as high as heaven blessings upon blessings

Gifts upon gifts that you and I overlook and forget You see when we add up the mountain of kindnesses that we have received from god

And we compare that to the eternal torment and suffering that we deserve It is shocking how much we actually complain to god

I want you to think about this clearly if we've received nothing But our salvation from god and if our temporal lives were filled with nothing

But heartache and misery and unimaginable suffering

And if we never once felt the comfort and the nearness of god's presence

Then we would be inconceivably and unreservedly blessed remembering that We should not be surprised whenever god feels distant from us

We should actually be surprised that so frequently he act he feels near We should be shocked that such an immense and pure being would persist for so long with such petulant peasants

And if we should ever walk through a period like this where we feel that god is distance our first reaction ought to be

Gratitude we shouldn't feel like we've been slided. What do we even slided from? This same god who is working out our salvation is also working out this

Situation that you're going through right now for good Whether right now you're in a season of blessings or whether you're in a season of discomfort depression and pain

God has given you that for your good and for his glory

And because he is sovereign over all things. He's perfectly and we know that he's perfectly good in all things.

We can trust him In all things whether you no matter what you go through every conceivable

Nanosecond of your life Is a gift from god that you ought to praise him for there is simply no reason for us to ever complain

And ever feel sorry for ourselves and to ever feel bitter when we think about these things rightly

We can rest knowing that we are more blessed than our minds could ever conceive Which I believe will help us patiently endure

The hard times that we walk through until our situation or experience improves now

Number two, we need to also not just reflect upon god's rights Which is

I think if you get that point If you understand the first point in this then you you really kind of the whole thing

Opens up for you It's like 80 percent of the point if you can get point one

Then all of the rest of this is sort of application on that But the second thing beyond the sovereignty and the providence peace of god's right to do with his presence as he wills

The second thing that I want us to reflect on is we need to reflect upon our understanding of righteousness Here's the principle our righteousness

Our obedience and our sanctification in christ Do not obligate god to give us an experience of his nearness

They just don't The book of job proves this the book of job is predicated upon the fact that job is a righteous man.

Job 1 1 throughout the pages of the book Job himself announces the fact that he's blameless that he's guiltless that he's righteous.

Look at job 27 6 for another example and God himself doesn't disagree with this.

He actually Says that job is blameless in the beginning of the book in chapter 1 verse 8

This book then Is a fascinating thought experiment and a case study on what happens?

Why and how do the righteous suffer and experience distance from god? and according to the book of job sometimes righteous people experience

Distance from god not because they lack righteousness Job certainly didn't god admits this but because they have it

And so the book of job Which was an entirely foreign concept To job and his friends at that time

You see at that time the prevailing wisdom, especially among job's shoddy friends

Was that good people obtained blessings and favors because of their goodness? At the same time they believed that the wicked were going to suffer because of their wickedness

To that culture the world operated along strict rules of reciprocity good people were rewarded

And bad people were punished The obvious conclusion from such a philosophy was if you are suffering

Then you must be wicked which contradicts god's own words at the beginning of this book

With that the book is not about how good people are blessed and bad people are cursed that's that's wrong

The book invites us to explore why god sometimes Causes blameless righteous and even people that he has commended

To undergo the loss of intimacy with their creator Notice how job recounts his sufferings

He doesn't describe it entirely as the loss of material and physical wealth and health and all of that He does describe that but his most poignant remarks are not about his material losses in his in his

Mental losses or any they're all spiritual. Listen what he says This is chapter 23 verse 3 and then verses 8 and 9

Oh that I knew where I might find him. That's god that I might come to his seat behold

I go forward, but he is not there and backward, but I cannot perceive him When he acts on the left,

I cannot behold him. He turns on the right and I cannot see him in addition

To job's constant declaration of his rightness and fairness. He is also describe describing

What he considers to be the the brunt of his problem his righteousness

Did not secure for him intimacy and fellowship with god. He thought it would

He thought that because he was good then god would bless him You see job is far less vexed actually over the loss of physical material blessings instead

He's broken -hearted that god feels like a million miles away from him

Job can't conceive of a world where a man like him is actively pursuing righteous living

Who is doing all the right things and god knows everything so god knows that he's doing these things

And yet god still withholds his presence from him. Job can't conceive of that That's really the complaint

That job has all throughout the book How is this possible god that i'm righteous and you are treating me this way.

That is what job is saying Now just like job had to learn his lessons and get his licks in the end

We too need to expand our view of god Like job, we must understand that works of personal righteousness

Individual obedience and dedicated work in holiness by the spirit of god cannot guarantee the experience of feeling near him

God doesn't operate Under the terms of reciprocity or quid pro quo or vending vending machine spirituality

He grants the awareness of nearness as he deems fit

This is not based upon our schemes This is not based upon our effort or machinations

There will be times in our life when god graciously allows you and I to experience an abundance of his presence

And yet there's going to be times when he doesn't And we need to become familiar with that and comfortable with that remember

God is sovereign over all things Recall that our sanctification and our growth and righteous living do not indebt god to us

And then rest in the fact that god is using everything even periods of perceived distance deadness dryness and spiritual

Lack of intimacy he's using all of that for his good and for his glory job says in verse

Or chapter 13 verse 15 though god slays me yet. I will hope in him.

It's a great verse to memorize number three beyond looking at the rights that god has and beyond looking at Our own righteousness.

We also need to reflect upon our past record. Here's the principle just because god

Has given tremendous experiences of his presence in the past Does not mean that he's obligated to repeat them in the present

Psalm 44 begins this way Oh god We have heard with our ears.

Our fathers have told us of the work that you did in their day in the days of old

For by their own sword, they did not possess the land and by their own arm They did not save them but your right hand and your arm and the light of your presence has favored them

The psalmist is seeking to remind god of the days of old

Those days when his presence was powerfully with his people and it went ahead of them and delivered them Safely into the land that god had promised the reason that the psalmist is issuing this reminder is telling because He's saying that this current generation is not experiencing those same things

Even though they had not violated the terms of the covenant The psalmist tells us in verse 17, even though they have not turned aside into idolatry verse 18 and 20

He's telling us that god's heavy hand was against them Their enemies were defeating them and making a mockery of them among the nations which led to incredible confusion

They were wondering to themselves if god's people of old experienced him in such and such a way

Then why aren't we having the same experience they believe that the experience of nearness with god was a repeatable phenomenon

The psalmist cries out in verse 9 and then in verse 19 you have rejected us And you've brought us to dishonor

And you do not go out with our armies yet you have crushed us in the place of jackals and you've covered us with the shadow of death

Do you feel the weight of their confusion there They essentially say god

We're doing the same things that our forefathers did we're not dishonoring you

Which warrants the question that they're asking god Why are we not getting the same results that they did?

and surprisingly God does not answer that question. He leaves it hanging

But what this psalm does teach is as profound While the psalm offers no insight into why this generation was suffering at the hands of their enemies

That's verses 9 through 16. And while it offers no reason as to why god was pulling back his presence

It's verses 21 through 25 It does however clarify and it confirms

That god's past record of graces that he gave to one people does not guarantee

That he's going to act in the same way at a different time with a different people it just doesn't

Graces are non -repeatable events His presence and how he allows us to experience him

Are deeply personal and they're and they're intimate and they're peculiar in particular to different people at different times in different seasons if god

Dispensed an experience of his presence and i'm not talking about the truth that's revealed in scripture here Because truth is truth.

It never changes. But but how god Impresses his spirit upon unique individuals

If if we were to look at that and say god if you dispensed your presence Because I followed step a b c and d and if I did that Then I would feel near to you.

And if I did not do that, then I would not feel near to you what we've done Is we've reduced experiencing god down to a formula that you can that you can complete like a checklist

In your life, you may have had moments of blissful intimacy with god, but those weren't formulaic There may have been a season when he was especially near to you pressing his love down upon you

Enlivening your eyes giving life to your bones, but it wasn't because you did step a b c and d it was because of his grace

There's also times You know them you've heard about them from other people where they've experienced god in ways that you can only dream of Maybe they have stories that you don't have where god moved and did things in the past in their life or maybe he's doing that in their lives right now in the present and you're like God, why has that not happened to me?

What am I doing wrong? This is what the this is what the generation in psalm 44 was asking Beloved remember this

Past records of god's grace Do not guarantee that he will repeat them in the same way in the present

God is personal He's not a robot, which means that he gets to decide

How near and how far you get to perceive him to be? That is what makes a relationship with god so dynamic and so wonderful and allows us an occasion to praise him

Since we would never ultimately adore a god who acts like a vending machine We know this is true.

We don't we don't treat our wives or our or our husbands that way We we don't treat them like if I do these things then you have to show affection to me we're dynamic beings

Nobody loves a vending machine Nobody would love nobody would ultimately love god if he were like that we would find him useful

But we would not find him beautiful, which I think is a quote from tim keller Number four

We need to reflect upon the way that we think we need to reflect upon our reasoning The principle goes like this our perspective on experiencing god is finite and lacking

We fail to account for the myriad of ways That god can use distance dryness and deadness in our soul to sanctify and bless us

In job's opinion god had slighted him You can hear the tone in his bombastic appeal.

Let's look at job 13. We're going to read verse 15 17 19 23 through 24 Job says this nevertheless.

I will argue my ways before him Listen carefully to my speech. He's talking to god.

Listen carefully to my speech And let let me declare let my declaration fill your ears god

Behold now i have prepared my case And I know that I will be vindicated who will contend with me

How many are my iniquities and sin god Make known to me my rebellion and my sin

Why then do you hide your face and you consider me your enemy? You see job is appealing

To god and he's basically saying lord if I really am this righteous man, and there's no sin that I can remember

Then why are you treating me like I am your enemy What gives god?

Job is assuming that the only thing that can separate him from god is in His an experience of god's nearness is unrepented sin and he's saying that doesn't apply to me

He has no memory of a time where he has an unconfessed sin his entire paradigm for how to be near to god has been blown

And he's saying god you must submit to my judgments you're not being fair that's what job is saying

Job obviously Failed in many ways here. He finds that out later

But but the main way that he failed is that he failed to account for the complexity Of what he was talking about he had a very simple view of the world if I do good god gives me him if I do

Bad god withdraws that is far too simple and the world is far too complex and beautiful for such simplicity god

Has a myriad of reasons for allowing distance in a relationship to occur job In fact his view was far too simple

In the same way there are countless reasons why god may allow you And may allow

I to experience distance in our relationship with him It's not a simple topic

See like job. You don't need to have all the answers and know all the reasons why? Because our brains our finite capabilities and understandings just can't go there

If god has not revealed to you why he is pulled back from you

Then you don't need to know why Now if it's obvious you have habitual indwelling unrepentant sin repent

But if it's not obvious to you and god has not revealed it to you Then the question of why is god pulling back from you is not yours to judge

That's what got job in trouble as he thought his judgments Were somehow more sophisticated

And more fair and more right than god Remember we are not required to have an infinite knowledge of god's secret will on things

Our reasoning like job is flawed we're incapable of understanding the mysteries that god has revealed That's deuteronomy 29 29 all you and I can know is what scripture tells us

Scripture tells us that god is sovereign That god is good And that whatever happens to us whether it be good or whether it be perceived by us as ill

It comes from his loving and kind hand so that we can trust him Brothers and sisters rest in that Receive that Lay down your human opinions and reasoning and remember what the psalmist says

He says this to himself. Why are you in despair all my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me hope in god?

For I shall again praise him for the help of his presence number five

We need to learn how to reflect upon the ruins We need to learn how to reflect upon God's rights our righteousness

Our record of the past our reasoning we also need to be able to reflect upon the ruins

Here's the principle our problems pain and experiences of trouble Do not obligate god to relieve us in any way

One of the most consistent cries that you see In the psalms is for god to arise and to aid his people when they are suffering

Now as we've mentioned before when we are living righteously when we see other people getting A different experience than we're getting and when all the powers of our reasoning would say that god owes us his presence

Sometimes god will surprise us and he'll allow us to feel distance This isn't because god is capricious on the contrary

Whatever god does he does because at that moment It was the very best thing that he could do

There is never a moment where god doesn't do absolute perfection Where something is less than god does not sit up in heaven grieved that he made a wrong decision

Sometimes and I say that sort of tongue -in -cheek Every time

Even though we can't explain it The distance that god sometimes causes us to go through is the very best thing for us

If that were not true, then god would not have chosen for you to go through it Again god doesn't make mistakes

Nowhere in the bible is that tension more perplexing and more poignant

Than in times when people are going through suffering See we expect god to come to our aid when we're in pain

Unexpectedly, those are the moments. Sometimes god seems the most distant Here's a few here's a few examples from the scripture on how this

On how other people in the psalms or other people in the bible have experienced this psalm 10 verse 1

Why do you stand far off? Oh lord. Why do you hide your face in times of trouble?

God right now is the time I need you. Why are you distant? Look at psalm 13 1

How long oh lord, are you gonna forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me

Especially poignant is psalm 42. It's one of my favorite psalms It's by the sons of korah.

They say this in verses 1 through 3 as the deer pants for water

So my soul pants for you Oh god My soul thirst for you god for the living god when

I When I when shall I come and appear before god? My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all day long.

Where is your god? Do you see the picture that the writer here is painting for us?

He's casting himself as the character of a deer That is on the verge of death

Panting frantically for water Before she falls under the crippling weight of dehydration

In this psalm, you have a deer that has gone a long time without a refreshment Even a drop of water upon her tongue in the same way

The psalmist is saying to god god it has been a long time since i've seen you It's been a long time since i've heard you

It's been a long time since i've experienced you and I am dying here The salty tears that I lick off my glisten cheeks are the only drink and food that I have.

Where are you god? Where are you Now like the psalmist there's going to be times when you and I walk through tragedy

And disaster, but that's not what the psalmist is talking about There's going to be times like it

Like where we're going to feel like count rugen and the princess bride where we've been locked away in the in the pit of despair

But again, that's not really what he's talking about He's talking about aching

Because he's not near god Because the experience of god has been taken from him

In those times and if you've experienced them if you've experienced the weight Of the departure the the distance if you've experienced that especially in juxtaposition to a time that you had before where god felt

Especially near maybe right when you became a christian and and god felt near to you and and every part about the relationship was fresh

And it was good. And now it feels like you're walking through through the pits of despair if that if you can feel that and What I want you to do is for a moment,

I want you to allow your heart to settle I want you to allow yourself to rest

Before your mind goes on reeling and I want you to understand that these moments of distance do not prove

That god doesn't care for you they do not invalidate his existence. In fact, they actually reinforce it

You see like a wise parent god does not always give you what you want If a mother did that she would soon have a a miniature monster on her hands instead of a child much the same way dear ones

Sometimes god brings relief when we ask and yet sometimes he doesn't Sometimes he allows us to knock and then the door flings wide open and then there's other times

Where we're outside standing for a little while knocking When jesus says in the new testament knock and the door will be open that verb actually is

It's not like a one -time event like where you knock and then it's over That verb is is what in greek you call continuous aspect and it says knock and knock and knock

That's what it means If you continue to knock god's going to let you in but sometimes you're going to stand there a little while Not forever

Not eternally Because you're his you're his child but temporally

There's going to be times when that door doesn't open as quickly as you were hoping it would And there's going to be times where you're going to stand there a lot longer than your flesh can endure

Where despair and complaining is going to rise up inside of you? I want you to remember that god is in control

The situation you're walking through is challenging. I don't want to diminish it And it is stretching you beyond your ability to handle it gracefully

That's okay. God's allowing it for a much better purpose

God is allowing it because he wants to accomplish more in your life than if he gave you what you want

Remember God often uses our pain to sanctify us and grow us.

Thank god for that And trust god in that Number six the last reflection that we're going to give is we need to also reflect upon resilience

We need to reflect upon what resilience actually means Here's the principle just because we have reached the end of our rope

Does not mean that we have reached the end of god's The psalmist says in psalm 88

One through three. Oh lord the god of my salvation. I have cried out by day

And in the night before you let my prayer come before you incline your ear to my cry

For my soul has had enough of trouble And my life is drawn near to she'll the psalmist is saying

I had enough I'm ready to tap out god Wish everybody's had that moment, right?

We've all had a moment where we thought we've reached our breaking point Where all of us we've went so far, maybe some have gone further than others, but there comes a point when everyone breaks

And everyone taps out And everyone gives up We see this in sports when the body breaks down and the athlete just can't go anymore we see this in mental health when

One too many tragedies one right after the another Eventually causes pretty stable and normal people to have full -blown panic attacks

We all reach a breaking point But what we do not see in scripture

Is when we reach that breaking point that god is somehow obligated to relieve us We don't see that scripture says actually god is faithful And he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you were able

That's the closest verse you've got if you think that When I tap out when i'm done when I when

I throw in the towel Then god has to do something for me then god has to respond if you have that expectation

You're going to be frustrated in your relationship with god because god often doesn't do that The passage doesn't say what you think it says.

It doesn't say god will never give you more than you can handle. It doesn't say that Instead it simply promises you

That god will be with you and that he will aid you and that he is faithful in helping you defeat your temptations when they come

But that is not at all the same thing is that god will never give you more than you can handle There are going to be times in your life when god gives you more than you think you can handle

I don't know about you But every day that I serve as a pastor I have more On me than I think I I can handle in my flesh or ability praise god for that Because I shouldn't be serving in my flesh or my ability

My life and i'm assuming yours is the same way is one event after another where I have to depend upon god

Because the task is too big for me And that's consistent All throughout the scriptures of how god interacts with his people

He doesn't uh, he doesn't allow them to have a comfortable squishy road. Actually. He causes them to walk on In the valley of the shadow of death

As far as I can tell from scripture god never allows you and I to define what we think we can handle

If that were the case then we would never grow because we're pain averse and avoidant people If we got to decide

Whenever We could throw out the stress card If we got to decide whenever we whatever whenever we could say no to something that oh, we can't handle that We can't face that we would become fat sick

Spiritually lazy weak and miserable creatures with no strength no grit and no backbone

Because we'd never face anything we would opt out of everything Praise god

That he forces us into pain Thank the lord that he doesn't accept our excuses

Glory be to god that he doesn't allow us to walk through Pleasures every day, but he causes us to go through the deepest aches and to pant like a deer through the most expansive wildernesses because We wouldn't go there on our own

And as a result we would not become the kind of people that he wants us to become Again Our opinion on how much we can handle is irrelevant our opinion on how near Or on how far god feels to us is not god's primary concern for your life

He is primarily concerned with making you holy And not relieving your discomfort

Now it's not to say that he doesn't relieve discomfort i'm just saying it's not his primary purpose in your life Remember Remember what paul says in the second letter to the corinthians and I want you to find comfort in that Second corinthians 4 17 says for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison praise be to god

That's part one What are we supposed to reflect upon those are six truths?

That don't answer the question of why but the answer the question of how How am I supposed to think about the fact that god sometimes is distant from me?

Now part two this is a little shorter section we're landing the plane here

But part two is what are some things that I can do When god feels distant

What are some things that I can do from the scriptures number one repent of your repentance? God may feel distant to you right now

And you may not know at all where to begin perhaps you feel like that you've confessed every sin that you're aware of and you are

Listening to this podcast and you're saying what do I do now? Well, I would say begin by repenting of your repentance

Now if you have known sin in your life repent of that first, but then after that Something that you can always do is repent of your repentance

Because like everyone our repentance is too shallow And it's too superficial

We don't look at our sin and our life like god does we've not repented in the way that that god

That god would have us to repent We overlook millions of egregious sins that offend the spirit of god and those sins lie hidden dormant inside of our hearts and our minds

And they rarely see the light of day because we've either suppressed them because they're uncomfortable for us

Or we've overlooked them because we didn't think they were a big deal In fact knowing this we should be shocked that god ever feels close to us every time that god

Feels near to us every time we enjoy the comfort of his presence. He is he is overlooking billions

Of unconfessed sins on the basis of the finished work of jesus christ The miracle of the gospel is that christ?

Did it all for you? As you did nothing instead of Skipping repentance now as a christian because jesus has done all of this for us and that's true.

We believe that But because jesus has done all of that for us now, he's equipped us and he's empowered us to grow in our repentance to to have better repentance

Our repentance this year ought to look better than it did last year where we were repenting for Pretty obvious things now we're repenting for nuances in our heart and our mind

Motivations even that that are much harder to identify idols that are deeper down than they used to be

We need to repent Of the old shallow ways that we've handled repentance

We need to say along with king david if we really are in the place like job Where we don't have a single unconfessed sin that we know about Well, we need to say with king david

Search me. Oh god, and david's not saying search me. Oh god, because he thinks nothing can be found

He's saying I can't find anything else. God search me And know my heart

Try me And know my anxious thoughts and see if there's any Hurtful sinful way in me and then lead me

To the path of the everlasting way David knew that there was stuff in there inside his heart

And he knew that he couldn't find it. He knew that he couldn't build a

Microscope powerful enough An x -ray machine detailed enough. He knew that he couldn't find it.

He needed god To search him Maybe your first step today As you're thinking about I feel distant from god.

I feel dead in my walk I feel dry. I feel like the deer that's panting for water

I feel Thirsty, I feel hungry. I feel famished. Maybe your first step dear brother and sister

Is to repent of your repentance To Give up trying to find sin in your life and say god, where am

I offending you? Where am I hurting you where am I grieving your spirit lord

And then lead me Encourage to lay those things down so that I can join you in the everlasting way

Invite god to examine your heart and reveal your offense and then confess and repent to the lord. That's the first thing

The second thing is to remain steadfast because we know That god's not obligated to show up just because we improved in our repentance

Jeremiah speaks a profound word to everyone living in this microwave and 5g generation that we're living in right now

Where we want things done quickly, but then jeremiah is going to come and he's going to give us a word That's going to help us understand not to look at things quickly, but to but to how to approach things rightly

Lamentations 3 verses 25 and 26 and also verse 31 and 32. Jeremiah says the lord is good to those who wait for him

To the person who seeks him It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the lord

For the lord will not cast you off forever. But though he causes grief He will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love jeremiah is saying don't use your energy to complain and to grumble and to be

To and to sit down in your bitterness and oh how easy it is for us to do that all of us jeremiah saying remain steadfast

Use your energy to patiently wait upon the lord seek him Wait on his nearness to return

You may feel like god is far from you right now But dear brothers and sisters those are just feelings they are not facts

God is in you through his spirit He is with you because of his covenantal love expressed through christ

And your experience will improve This is not an eternal situation for you.

It is a very temporal Reality that is meant to cause you to run back into the arms of your father

Wait for god's timing Echo david in psalm 27 14 where he says wait for the lord be strong Let your heart take courage.

Yes wait on the lord today. Will you wait? If you're in a particularly difficult season, will you be patient And hopeful

Even quiet As you wait on the lord to return and to fill you with his presence

That's number two remain steadfast number three It's okay to remind god of who he is the bible actually gives us

Warrant to do this After you've repented of your repentance and after you've waited patiently on joy

And god's presence to return back into your life. It's okay like david to remind god of who he is god appreciates that God loves it when we remind him according to scripture who he has revealed himself to be

Here's a couple of examples that you can use even maybe today in your prayer time rise up Be our help.

Oh god and redeem us For the sake of your loving kindness psalm 44 26 david is saying because we know that you are kind We're going to request that you rise up and you rescue us

Psalm 89 verses 33 through 34, but I will not break off my loving kindness from him

Nor deal falsely in my faithfulness my covenant. I will not violate nor will

I alter the utterance of my lips That's god speaking to the people of israel that he will not violate his covenant to david remind

God of that. It's not like god needs you to remind him of that But think about what happens

When you sit before the scriptures and you reflect upon who god is and then you pray that back to god

Look at the intimacy that you're building with your father As you Revel in who he is and remind him of who he is.

It's a beautiful thing So I would encourage you pray god's character and his attributes back to him.

That's number three Number four you need to remember who you are because who you are well

That's the problem After reminding god of who he is and all of his covenant loyalty and love don't forget to remind yourself about who you are

You are finite You do not understand the deep things of god at least not clearly at all.

You're looking at stuff through at best a stained glass window You get the wrong idea when god seems distant to you

You blame it on yourself. You blame it on others. You even blame it on god You could not possibly understand the depths and the beauty of what god is doing in his absence remember

You're frail And you're finite And you don't really know all that much

For a refresher course, I think the greatest chapters ever written in human history on this topic

Is when god deals with joe at the end of the at the end of his book in chapters 38 through 41 and he he makes job

Answer this litany of questions, which job can't answer. He says where were you when I created the the world?

Where were you when I divided the water from the sea? Where were you when I when I put the pleiades in the in the sky? Where were you in the mountain goat gives birth?

Where were you? Where were you where were you job and job says at the end of the book? I've spoken about things that are far too wonderful for me to even understand

I take back everything I repent of everything I said job in that moment knew

Who he was In comparison to an infinite and beautiful and holy god now

Read those passages job 38 through Through 41 and then even the beginning of chapter 42 where job responds.

They're beautiful. They're humbling even but also It's crucial for us to understand that every single time

That we feel bitterness with god every time every time we feel distance from god every time that we feel like God has slighted us or god has held back from us or god has not been fair to us

Every single time that happens We are the problem We are the problem.

Look at what the psalmist says in psalm 73 verses 21 through 26 When my heart was embittered he says

And when I was pierced within Then I was senseless and I was ignorant

I was like a wild beast before you nevertheless. I am continually with you

You have taken hold of my right hand With your counsel you will guide me out of my ignorance is what he's saying

And afterwards you will receive me unto glory Whom have I in heaven but you?

And besides you I desire nothing on earth my flesh And my heart may fail

But god is the strength of my heart my portion forever He's saying when

I was mad at you god, it was my fault when I was disappointed in you god, it was my fault I was ignorant.

I was stupid. I was the the bumbling beast who knew nothing And he even admits my flesh my heart may fail god

But at the moment of my greatest lucidity when I am at my best when I When I can see reality most clearly

I Understand that god is the strength of my heart and he is my portion forever

Beloved remember who you are you're weak And god is strong You are broken

But god can fix it number five

After you've remembered who god is and after you've remembered who you are. You need to reign over yourself And i'm not saying r -a -i -n i'm saying r -e -i -g -n you need to rule yourself

Your greatest enemy my friend is you Same is true for me

That internal chatterbox that is always running its trap speaking lies about you and discouraging you

And clouding your judgment must not be allowed to go on speaking

Instead of listening to yourself you need to repent Remain steadfast in your experience until it until it improves you need to remember who god is and who you are and then you need to rule yourself

Instead of listening to yourself and letting yourself rule you you need to begin by ruling you speaking to you commanding you and to hope in god and to believe that that god is going to Improve your experience by his presence.

You need to stop listening to yourself and all of the lies that you tell yourself And you need to start speaking to yourself with holy scripture and a good one

To begin with is psalm 42 5 Why are you in despair? Oh my soul see how he's questioning himself.

He's tired of listening to himself now. He's questioning himself Why are you in despair? And why have you become disturbed within me hope in god he's commanding himself hope in god

For I shall again praise him for the help of his presence he's commanding himself

If today As you've been listening to this and you realize that you're in the depths of depression despair or even if you're in good times and nothing at all is going on in your life and Every time you walk outside The the handles messiah plays the birds chirp like we're in new england and that doesn't happen to anybody

But maybe it's happening to you if that's no matter if it's bad or if it's good You've got to remember that you can't let yourself control you you've got to rule over you

You've got to mortify you the part of you that's trying to take over is your flesh

And that's the part of you that needs to be crucified again and again and again So that it dies Take control of yourself dear one

Speak to yourself command yourself to hope in god because You will again sing the praises

Because of the help of his presence number six rest in his plans As I stated before Remember that this light and momentary affliction that you are now going through or you will be going through Is going to produce an eternal weight of glory in you

Although that pain can be searing And the silence of god can at times be deafening

You are being prepared for something greater and more glorious than you could ever possibly imagine

I want you to remember that this what i'm going to read to you is your future listen to this

Your bad day doesn't nullify What god is going to do in you and through you this is your future

I want you to hear this Revelation 21 3 through 4 john says and I heard a loud voice from the throne of god saying behold

The tabernacle of god is now with men. He's saying god's presence is now with men And he will dwell among them

And they shall be his people and god himself is going to be Their god and be among them and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will no longer be any death

And there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain or distance from god. The first things have passed away

I love how the bible ends. You've got all these verses that we've shared with you today that that are saying

That sometimes god removes himself from his people for good reasons but in the end

When we enter into new jerusalem and where we live with god forever that reality stops

When sin and curse and death are thrown into the lake of fire You live with the presence of god forever and it's never pulled back again

You never have tears again never cry never mourn again that is your future

And while your present might look bleak And while your past may not be what you hoped it would be

Your future is better than you could ever dare dream Allow yourself to rest in that hope

And then number seven let's close out with this After you've repented of your repentance and after you've rested in or remembered who god is and remembered who you are and you've done all of the things that we've talked about you've looked at your record and you've and you've acknowledged the fact that those things aren't repeatable and you and you've died to your opinions and Your reasoning and all of that when you've done all of that rejoice

Rejoice in your suffering Rejoice in your pain Rejoice when you feel alone

Rejoice when you're in despair Rejoice when you feel abandoned Rejoice when you feel forsaken

Rejoice when you feel like god is a million miles away from you And rejoice when he feels near Do not forget

To keep on rejoicing Especially in seasons of spiritual dryness and feelings of god's absence

It is the most important thing That you can do to lift your heart out of the out of the glum melancholy

Ditches of depression You may have more going on in your life right now than than you have at any other time

But you have also more to be thankful for More that you could remember to praise god for god has been exceedingly good to you

And your salvation and rescuing you out of your sin and he has a plan for every pain that you felt

Whether it's past present or future Whether you can see it or whether you can understand it.

You are more loved by god Than you could ever hope You are more cared for by god than you could ever dare.

No Do not allow bitterness and frustration to rob you of the joy that is available to you in jesus christ

And even follow jesus's example, it says for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross well

In the little crosses that you walk through today and tomorrow in the next day in the Crosses that cripple you in this life and pain you and hurt you

For the joy set before you endure them like christ God may feel distant to you today

But those are only feelings remember that they're not facts Repent of your sin

Repent of your ineffective repentance Remember who god is remember who you are reign over yourself reign over your reasoning reign over your old opinion of of the old timey record

And then rest in his plan and rejoice every day of your life whether in pleasure or in pain

And I want you to sing with the apostle paul the same apostle by the way who was shipwrecked multiple times

Beaten within an inch of his life several times bitten by a snake I mean he lists all this stuff out in philippians chapter 4 of all the the awful things that he went through And it's in that chapter that he says

Rejoice always rejoice in the lord always he says again.

I will say rejoice Rejoice Paul doesn't give a rip how many things that you and i've been through Paul is saying in light of who god is and in light of what he's done for you and in light of what you actually deserved

You've never had it. So good rejoice Rejoice in the depths of your pain and rejoice in the tops of the mountains where you're

Where you're singing god's beauty and his glory sing in both rejoice in both again

I say rejoice I know this was a longer episode of the podcast. This was a really important topic for me to cover

I have experienced depression in my life And I know there's many who experience depression and when those moments when when it feels like god is distant from you

Those are those are really difficult moments to walk through and i've spent a lot of my time before You know years ago even

Thinking that I was the problem that I was to blame and that I just needed to work work work work work

And then god would be pleased with me. Don't view the distance of god that way Listen to this episode a second time notice the kinds of things that i'm pointing out to you

Think through them and and put your hope on god and again rejoice Because these light and momentary afflictions are only here for a moment

And if you're in christ Your eternity is secure with him in his presence forever