When God Seems Distant: Part 3 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning. I hope your day is getting off to a good start, and we want to help it just get even better by taking some time with God.

We sometimes talk about the Christian life as your walk with God. I really like that expression. It’s like when you get up in the morning, you start walking together with God through your day. That’s what God wants with you. He wants a real relationship like that, that’s so close. He’s always with you.

And if you pay attention to that and journey through life arm in arm with God, you will find your life being dramatically different and dramatically better.

He’s the one who designed your life to work perfectly when you are walking close to Him, and to not work at all when you keep him distant in your life.

So how can we walk closely with God?

We’re asking 5 questions this week when God seems distant. The first question we said is, I need to ask, have I moved away from my relationship with God and just let the busyness of life distract me from my relationship with God. Secondly, am I giving my relationship with God what it needs in order to grow just like any other relationship needs time, communication, shared experiences.

And today we want to ask this question when God seems distant.

Am I becoming close friends with the world?

Am I becoming close friends with the world? Now when the Bible talks about the world, it’s talking about the secular world system that just leaves God completely out of the equation or even makes fun of God and rejects God.

Am I making friends with that way of thinking?

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Because if I am, it’s no wonder that God might seem distant in my life. Here’s what James tells us in James chapter 4 about how friendship with the world affects your relationship with God.

This is what he says.

You’re in a covenant relationship with God. Like marriage. And you’ve been unfaithful. Here’s what he says.

You adulterous people, speaking of spiritual adultery, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that it is to no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over your spirit that he has made to dwell in you?

But it gives more grace, and it talks about how God, even if you have been making friends with the world, is reaching out to you, inviting you to come back from that into a relationship that puts Him first in your life, and he ends with, humble yourself before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Well, that’s what God wants, but is it what you want? Now, of course you say, well, I’m a Christian and I want a close relationship with God, but of course also there is the part of you that wants a close relationship with the world, right? You can’t ignore that reality. So here’s the big question.

What do you want the most?

That’s the big question, isn’t it, because the answer to that decides where you’re going to make your choices. What do you want the most?

Well, am I being close friends with the world? Do you see that in your life? Do you see yourself making your decisions, totally ignoring the reality of God in your life? Do you see yourself doing entertainment activities that you know are not pleasing to God, but they’re really pleasing to you and to the group of people that you’re with?

Do you find yourself when you know something is wrong, still choosing it just because it brings you instant gratification? Well, this is friendship with the world, and the Bible says that that is hostile to your relationship with God. So sometimes we don’t stop and think, and so we just slip into that way of life.

But you need to stop and think and say, I’m going to choose what matters to me the most, and what matters to me the most is my relationship with God.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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