Turning the page…
Turning the page…
Glory · Prayer
Feeling far from God is not the same as being far from Him. Scripture gives the feeling an honest voice in the psalms, then sets facts underneath it: He has promised never to leave, nothing can separate us from His love, and anyone once far off has been made near in the blood of Christ. Where sin has dulled the sense of nearness, confession clears it. And when words run out, the Spirit intercedes while we wait for Him, because waiting on God is often how He is found.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/when-i-feel-far-from-god · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Psalms 13:1-6
As you read: David brings the feeling of being forgotten straight to God, and ends the same psalm trusting His faithful love.
1How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
2How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart every day? How long shall my enemy triumph over me?
3Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
4Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.
5But I trust in your loving kindness. My heart rejoices in your salvation.
6I will sing to Yahweh, because he has been good to me.
Psalms 88
As you read: A believer prays while heaven seems silent, and the prayer itself is still addressed to the God who saves.
1Yahweh, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you.
2Let my prayer enter into your presence. Turn your ear to my cry.
3For my soul is full of troubles. My life draws near to Sheol.
4I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no help,
5set apart among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand.
6You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.
7Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.
8You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.
9My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you.
10Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Selah.
11Is your loving kindness declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction?
12Are your wonders made known in the dark? Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13But to you, Yahweh, I have cried. In the morning, my prayer comes before you.
14Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?
15I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.
16Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off.
17They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me.
18You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.
Isaiah 55:6-11
As you read: An open invitation: seek, call, return, and find a God who pardons richly.
6Seek Yahweh while he may be found; call you on him while he is near:
7let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” says Yahweh.
9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
11so shall my word be that goes out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing I sent it to do.
Hebrews 10:19-25
As you read: Because of Christ's blood we have confidence to enter the holy place and draw near to God.
19Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
20by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21and having a great priest over God’s house,
22let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,
23let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.
24Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works,
25not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching.
'How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?' That is not unbelief talking; that is an inspired psalmist. Even Jesus prayed Psalm 22's opening from the cross: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' The Bible gives you language for the ache instead of pretending that faithful people never feel abandoned.
“How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”Psalms 13:1
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?”Psalms 22:1
Underneath the feeling stand unmovable facts. He has said, 'I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you,' and Jesus closes Matthew with, 'I am with you always, even to the end of the age.' Paul stacks impossibilities: nothing in all creation 'will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Your emotions can go dark without His presence going anywhere. Feelings are weather; union with Christ is climate.
“Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.””Hebrews 13:5
“teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”Matthew 28:20
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”Romans 8:38-39
Not every sense of distance comes from sin, but some does. Isaiah names it plainly: 'your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you.' If that is what is happening, the way back is short and well lit: 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' Do not let unnamed sin sit between you; bring it into the light and be cleansed.
“but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”Isaiah 59:2
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”1 John 1:9
The command is not to feel close but to come close. 'Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.' To exiles far from home God said, 'you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.' And the ground of your approach is never your performance but His blood: 'you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.' So come confidently: 'let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith.'
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”James 4:8
“But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.”Deuteronomy 4:29
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.”Ephesians 2:13
“let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,”Hebrews 10:22
There will be seasons when you do not know what to say. Paul answers directly: 'we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.' In the meantime, wait well: 'Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.' Micah settles his own heart this way: 'But as for me, I will look to Yahweh. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.' Waiting on God is not the opposite of finding Him; it is often the very way He is found.
“In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.”Romans 8:26
“Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.”Lamentations 3:25
“It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.”Lamentations 3:26
“But as for me, I will look to Yahweh. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.”Micah 7:7