When God Seems Distant: Part 1 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning. Welcome to a new work week, and our theme today is something that we all need to deal with from time to time.

My theme this week is questions to ask when God seems distant.

Well, for so many of us, we find ourselves in a place where God seems distant. Maybe we used to have a really close walk with God, and we sensed him speaking to us when we open the Bible or when we go to church, and our relationship with Him is very personal and very real, but as time goes by, something happens, and God seems really distant. We’re not hearing from him anymore, we’re not sensing his presence when we’re praying.

And we wonder what has happened. Well, I want to help you ask five questions of yourself when God seems distant. And the question we want to start with today is this question:

Have I moved away from my relationship with God?

Have I moved away from my relationship with God? I remember as a young man driving past a church and seeing the sign on the church that said, if God seems distant, guess who moved. The obvious message is God didn’t move, he’s always there, waiting to have a close relationship with you, but sometimes we move, and this is the first question, have I moved away from my relationship with God?

In Isaiah chapter 50, verse 2, here’s what God says to the people of Israel through Isaiah.

Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened that it cannot redeem, or have I no power to deliver?

You see, God asking the question. He was the one who came to them, and there was no one there to answer Him, for him to interact with. Well, I wonder, does God ask that question in your life? He’s there. He’s always knocking on the door, wanting to have a close relationship with you, but are you there paying attention and responding to Him?

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Have you moved away from your relationship with God? You remember Jesus telling the parable about the four kinds of soil, and the man who sowed the seed in the soil, the farmer.

And all the different kinds of soil represented different people’s hearts as they respond to God’s word, and one of those was thorny soil. The seed – God’s Word – went down into that soil. It was so fertile. The soil, the seed took root. It started to grow up. That’s like your early days in your walk with God when it just seemed so fresh. God was so real to you. But then it says the thorns grew up and choked out God’s word, and it became unfruitful in that person’s life. And as Jesus explains that parable: He says the thorns are the cares of this world.

In the deceitfulness of riches. These things that just start to crowd out your relationship with God. You ever experienced that?

I’ve experienced it. I remember times in my Christian life where I would come to the end of a week and suddenly realized I hadn’t opened my Bible all week.

I hadn’t been praying except at meal times or in home group meeting, but not just in my personal life. Well, of course my relationship with God was struggling and God was seeming distant to me. My Christian life seemed kind of cold, like I was just doing the routine of going to church.

When you find yourself in a place where God seems distant, the first question to ask yourself is, have I moved away from my relationship with God? Have I become distracted? Have I let busyness squeeze out the most important thing in my life, which is my daily relationship with God.

Well, if God is speaking to you today about that, why don’t you right now stop and in your schedule for today, carve out some time to spend reading your Bible, listening to God and praying to Him.

I’m John North.

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