Like any close relationship, following God involves periods of perceived nearness as well as spells when you feel completely dis-connected

3 min read

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. -Romans 8:38-39

Mark couldn’t believe it. Yesterday he was feeling great about his life and how close he seemed to be to God. His time in the Word was meaningful. His prayer life had traction. It actually felt like he was being heard and there were obvious answers.

But not today.

Suddenly, for whatever reason, the feeling of closeness is gone. It’s as if Mark doesn’t even know God, he feels that far away.

How did it happen? How do you go from enjoying a tight one-on-one vibe with someone on one day to barely having a memory of it the next?

Factors

Truth is, there are a number of factors that contribute to this weird phenomenon. Here are a few of the possibilities:

1. Stress is doing its thing. There is nothing like life coming at you hard to make you lose sight of God’s presence and his promises. When we find ourselves immersed in the nitty gritty details of life, it tends to diminish our spiritual perception. It’s as if that part of us shuts down while we deal with the “real” world. 
2. Fatigue. As someone once cautioned, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” In other words, everything is difficult when your heart, mind, and body are all exhausted at the same time. You lose touch with reality, including the reality of God.
3. Failure. This is another possibility we should mention. Maybe you acted out and it has you feeling alienated from the Lord. This just means your God-given conscience is working. Like Peter, who one moment was in Jesus’ inner circle, and in the next moment was out on the shadowy fringes of town having just denied three times that he even knew Jesus. When the rooster crowed, Peter probably felt like he and Jesus would never speak again, much less have close fellowship. But he was wrong about that.

False Alarm

When you’re feeling distant from the Lord, the good news is, He didn’t actually go anywhere. He didn’t up and relocate on you.

It just seems like he did.

Because of his extraordinary, fabulous, and unrivaled love, God is as close to you on the days that you don’t feel him as he is on the days that you do. In his word, God says nothing will be able to separate us from his love in Christ Jesus. We can take that promise at face value. Nothing means nothing.

Not even a really bad day.

So, the next time you’re having one of those days and you feel a million miles from God, just remember one word: NOTHING.

It’s a new day with God. Run with it.