When God Seems Distant: Part 5 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning. I hope you’ve had a great work week, and I hope our theme this week has been really helping you in your relationship with God. Each weekday morning at this time, we stop and take some time with God. That just means opening His word, the Bible, listening to Him, inviting Him to speak to us, and then thinking about what it means for our lives. What a great way to start the day, and that’s what we do each weekday morning.

Now we’ve been asking this week, all week, what do I need to ask myself when God seems distant?

You may be in a period of your Christian life that you would describe as a bit of a desert, a wilderness, where you really want to hear from God, but God seems so distant to you.

And we’re saying there are 5 questions you need to ask yourself when God seems distant. Number 1, have I moved away from my relationship with God? Have I allowed other things to distract me and push my relationship with God into the background?

Secondly, am I giving my relationship with God what it needs in order to grow? All relationships need time spent together. Am I spending time with God? Am I communicating with God? Am I sharing my life experiences with God and walking through the day aware of His presence in my life?

Third question, am I becoming close friends with the world? Because loving the secular world and its approach to life that leaves God out is damaging to my relationship with God.

And then yesterday we asked the question, am I obeying God? Because disobeying God severely damages my relationship with him.

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And today we come to the 5th question that is so crucial when God seems distant in my life, and that is this question.

Am I listening to God?

Am I listening to God? And maybe you think, well what does it even mean to listen to God and how does a person listen to God? Well, let’s see a few things from the Bible. In John chapter 15, Jesus gives us this beautiful picture of the vine and its branches.

And he says, I’m the vine, you’re the branches, you need to just live in me and draw your sustenance, your life force from me. He goes on to say in John 15:7.

If you make your home in me and my words make their home in you. Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Well you see this picture.

We have to make the priority of our relationship with God, not let it get squeezed out into the background. We have to make our home in Jesus, and Jesus’ words have to make their home in us. So this is listening to God number one.

Just open your Bible.

And as you open it, say, God, I really want to hear from you. Help me understand more about you and what you’re like and who you are. Help me understand more about me, myself, and why life works the way it does, and help me understand more of what you want to say to me today that applies to my life today. When you start to do that, start to listen to God, you find God coming close to you.

One of the people in the Bible who walked so close to God was King David.

And he wrote so many psalms that just reflect his intimate relationship with God. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, and there’s one paragraph in there I just want to read to you all about David’s heart for God’s word and listening to God and meeting with God.

He says, how can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart, I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are You, O Lord. Teach me your statutes with my lips. I declare all the rules of your mouth in the way of your testimonies, (the stories in the Bible), I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word.

The 5th question you need to ask if God seems distant. Am I listening to God?

I’m John North.

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