When God Seems Distant, Who Has Moved?

By Dr. David L. Chancey
Pastor

You’ve probably heard the old story of the husband and wife who were driving along, and the wife says, “Honey, do you remember back when we used to sit real close to each other in the car. We’d be driving along, and we’d cuddle up right next to each other.”

The husband said, “Yep. I sure do.”

The wife asked, “Why don’t we do that any more?”

The husband responded, “you tell me. I haven’t moved.”

When it comes to our relationship with God, if it seems like God is far away, who’s the one who moved? Know this: God hasn’t moved. We’re the ones who have allowed distance to come between us and God. Possibly we’ve lost our focus. Or maybe the busy-ness of life has mixed up our priorities. The fact of the matter is, we’re as close to God as we want to be.

The reality is that we don’t always feel as close to God as we’d like. Author Philip Yancey wrote, “Any relationship involves times of closeness and times of distance, and in a relationship with God, no matter how intimate, the pendulum will swing from one side to the other.”

It is normal to have times when God seems distant. That’s part of our experience of spiritual growth. One church father referred to these experiences as “the dark night of the soul.” Henri Nouwen called them “the ministry of absence.” A. W. Tozer called them “the ministry of the night.”

Floyd McClung in Finding Friendship with God wrote, “You wake up one morning and all your spiritual feelings are gone. You pray, but nothing happens. You rebuke the devil, but it doesn’t change anything. You go through spiritual exercises, you have your friends pray for you, you confess every sin you can imagine, then go around asking forgiveness of everyone you know. You fast . . . still nothing. You begin to wonder how long this spiritual gloom might last. Days? Weeks? Months? Will it ever end?”

Even David the Psalmist cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear, and in the night season, and am not silent” (Psalm 22:1, 2). Of course, God was right there, because He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. But to David at that moment, God was far, far away. These dark times can be blessings when they cause us to struggle, and thereby grow stronger in the Lord.

When God seems distant, how do you cope? It would be easy to grow discouraged from this “spiritual down in the dumps” stretch. Keep trusting that God is still right there with you. Keep loving God and depending on Him even though He seems far away. Stay faithful to the little things that bring you closer to God: daily prayer and meditation, corporate worship each Sunday, Bible reading and small group Bible study, finding ways to serve God day by day.

A woman went to see her pastor, and shared that no matter what she did, she didn’t feel close to the Lord. She went to church, she visited residents in the nursing home, and she had a morning devotional and prayer time every day. She was still doing everything she’d always done to stay close to God. She said, “I pray and pray, and it seems like my prayers go no further than the ceiling.”

The pastor responded, “yes, but you’re still praying. That’s great! You haven’t given up. You have to keep doing what you know will bring you back to a close relationship with God.” She was still trusting in God, even when he seemed distant.

It may seem at times like God’s not there, but He is. He hasn’t gone anywhere. Have you?

(Dr. David L. Chancey is pastor, McDonough Road Baptist Church, Fayetteville, Georgia. The church family meets at 352 McDonough Road and invites you to join them this Sunday for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m.).