Why Does God Seem So Far Away? // Guest post by Miss Raquel

Hey all, 

So because I was on a mission's trip this last week, a friend of mine named Miss Raquel was kind enough to write a blog post for me while I'm gone! It was supposed to post while I was gone, but the auto-scheduling messed up because...well...computers hate me. :/ But, here it is now! 

The link to her blog is at the bottom of this post, and I cannot encourage you enough to go follow it. It's a fantastic blog written by an incredibly Godly young woman, serving the Lord to the best of her ability. I hope you enjoy her post here! :D 

A friend of mine recently came to me and said, ‘I feel like I can’t reach God.  I feel like he’s beyond my grasp.’

‘Have you prayed about it?’ I asked him.

‘Yes, but I feel like I’m just talking to the air.  I don’t think He hears me.’

Needless to say, I think each of us have felt this way at some point in our Christian walk.  I know that I certainly have.  It’s a very difficult – and slightly scary – time to go through.

I remember when I was having doubts about whether or not I was even saved.  Because I felt that God was ‘so far’ from me and how I didn’t ‘feel like I could reach Him’ made me wonder if He really wasn’t there.  Maybe I really wasn’t a Christian.

But the Bible tells us that if we believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, repent of our sins and turn to Him, we are saved. (John 3:1-21, Ephesians 1:7)  I had done that.  Didn’t I?

Then, I thought of something.  Maybe it wasn’t that God was far from me.  Maybe *I* was far from Him. 

As human beings, we sin.  Regardless of if we are Christians or not, we still sin and always will.  And sin puts us at enmity with God.  Especially sin that we keep committing…

Yes, Jesus has forgiven us of all our sins and cleansed us from unrighteousness (1 John 1:9), but that doesn’t mean that we should continue sinning.  I believe that, as a part of punishment (if you will), that God seems to move farther and farther away from us because we are cluttering our spiritual life with sin that we keep committing…and not giving HIM enough time in our lives.  The time that He needs and is jealous for.

So when God feels ‘far away’ from you, take a look at your spiritual life.  Does it need some cleaning up?  Do you need to make more room in it for time with God?  God is never-changing.  His love for you stays the same.  But relationships are a two way deal.  If you’re not giving Him the praise, honor and time He deserves – and letting rubbish collect in your private love life with Him – then He won’t feel so near. 

Take some time today to ask God’s forgiveness for sins you’ve committed.  We should do this every day, but if you are feeling especially far from Him, take the time to examine your heart.  Perhaps it needs some polishing up.

Remember that God will always love you, as His child.  And He will always be just a breath away…

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Miss Raquel is a lover of words, beautiful photographs, twirly dresses, bowties, Converse, frozen yogurt, all things Western and romantic sayings.  She blogs at God's Daughter, where she writes on a variety of different topics.  Feel free to stop by any time and leave her a comment!

This soldier knows...

I don't believe in anything but myself

I don't believe in anything but myself

But then you opened up the door

Now I start to believe in something else

How do I know if I'll make it through?

How do I know, where's the proof in you?

And so it goes

This soldier knows
The battle with the heart
Isn't easily won


Falling doesn't hurt, it's hitting the ground that does. As human beings we do get hurt a lot. We get hurt by random things, we get hurt by people, we just get hurt.


Sometimes we don't feel like we have enough time to do what we need to, we feel we have too much time on our hands, we feel stressed and tired, we feel restless. We are creatures of change.

This is because we are creatures stuck in time, and to be in time means to change. Because God is outside of time, we know that he is completely unchanging. 

Scripture tells us that God is faithful and constant.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies shall never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ~Lam. 3: 22-23 

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. ~1 Cor. 1:9

Scripture doesn't just tell us that God is faithful, it shows us through examples of his faithfulness.

Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the troubles of my people, which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry, because of their taskmasters: for I know their sorrows. Therefore I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land into a good land that floweth with milk and honey, even unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ~Exodus 3:7-8 


Then afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should hear his voice, and let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. ~Exodus 5: 1-2


We all know what happened after this. God looks at people like Pharaoh and laughs. What puny resistance! God sent the pestilence and the plagues, until Pharaoh finally let Israel go. When Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued the Israelites, all of the Egyptians were drowned while trying to follow Moses and the people of God across the Red Sea. Pharaoh was great on the earth, are not our problems likely even less resistance than Pharaoh could give? What an example of God's faithfulness and protecting his children!

Here's another: Throughout the old testament, the coming of the Messiah is forecast.

I will also put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall break thine head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. ~Genesis 3:15


For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and he shall call his name, Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace. The increase of his government and peace shall have none end: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to stablish it with judgment, and with justice, from henceforth, even forever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. ~Isaiah 9:6-7


We know that the Messiah has indeed come, His name is Jesus the Christ, the son of God, and where he is there I shall be also.


These examples certainly show us that God. Is. Faithful. God saved his people from Pharaoh, he saved his people from death. Indeed, God's deliverance of his people out of Egypt is a foreshadowing of Christ's coming to deliver us from death.

My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by
He will never break his promise
Though the stars may break faith with the sky
My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by

Scripture has shown us that God is faithful! It is in his inherit being to be faithful as seen in Exodus 3, when God reveals his name to Moses.

Then Moses said unto God, Behold, when I shall come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you: if they say unto me, What is His name? What shall I say unto them? And God answered Moses, I AM THAT I AM. Also he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.  ~Exodus 3:13-14


God doesn't introduce himself to Moses as, "I was, and I am now, and I will be in a little while". God says, "I AM THAT I AM"!

We know God is faithful because God cannot change, he just "is"!

We are becoming, he is. This is why even when friends fail you, you can trust in God. People change, God does not.

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide
The Darkness deepens, Lord with me abide
When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless O abide with me

So we know that when God makes promises, he keeps them! When he tells you something, you can believe it!

So when I read in scripture,

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ~Jeremiah. 29:11


I know that even when life is hard, even when I feel hurt, even when I feel like the world is crashing down around me, God. Is. There.

So if I stand let me stand on the promise,

That you will bear me through

And if I can't let me fall on the grace

That first brought me to you

If I sing let me sing for the joy

That has born in me these songs

And If I weep let it be as a man

Who is longing for his home

You will be safe in his arms,

'Cause the hands that hold the world,

Are holding your heart.

This is the promise He made,

He will be with you always,

When everything is falling apart, 

You will be safe in his arms.

These are the hands that built the mountain,

The hands that calmed the sea.

These are the arms that hold the heavens, 

They are holding you and me.

These are the hands that heal the leper,

Pull the lame up to their feet

These are the arms that were nailed to the cross

To break our chains and set us free

You will be safe in his arms,

'Cause the hands that hold the world,

Are holding your heart. 
This is the promise he made,
He will be with you always, 
When everything is falling apart,
You will be safe in his arms. 


And so there's this constant battle that has to be fought within a person's self, between thinking that you can handle something that happened to you, or thinking that something that happened is your fault, or thinking that you can fix something-and between trusting God.

In fact, the battle is not even within yourself, it is against yourself-against your heart. This battle can't be won on your own, it is won for you by God. This is the battle where you have to learn to let go of everything that you hope for, everything you dream of, and trust that God will take care of you.

I. Have. Heard. My. People's. Cry. 


If we call on God, he will hear us. He will hear us in our pain, and he will combat it for us. He knows what say and think before we even speak or think it!

Yea, before they call, I will answer, and whiles they speak, I will hear. ~Isaiah 65: 24


I don't believe in anything but myself
I don't believe in anything but myself
But then you opened up the door
Now I start to believe in something else
How do I know if I'll make it through?
How do I know, where's the proof in you?
And so it goes

This soldier knows

The battle with the heart

Isn't easily won

...but it can be won