What happens when you feel far from God, but you know you still believe in him? You haven't renounced your faith, but you struggle to open your bible and read God's word.
This is something that I have struggled with lately, so maybe you can relate. A lot of people say that you are losing your faith if you don’t do enough for God every day, and I think this can hurt people. Everyone drifts away from things and people for different reasons.
If you notice that you are:
Subconsciously spending hours doing other things but five minutes with God feels like forever
Forgetting to pray every day
Choosing to not spend time with God every morning
Becoming more comfortable in the distant space
Struggling to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice
Wondering where your fire for Jesus went
You might be going through a dry season, but that doesn’t mean that you’ve lost your salvation.
Some people might reject their faith altogether in a season like this, and some people might talk to God a little bit every day and still believe in him, yet feel far from Him. For everyone, it’s different.
I would talk to God a little every day and mostly pray when I needed something, sadly. My fire for Jesus lowered, and so did my peace, strength, joy, and everything else that Jesus freely gives to us.
When we aren’t close to Jesus, we realize just how much he protects us from. He protects us from harm, from stress, from panic, from anxiety and depression, and so much more. Our sources to fight these problems can only be given by Jesus, and that can be a good reminder for you today to really hold if you don’t feel close to him.
Maybe it takes a little distance from Jesus for you to fully understand what life would be like without him. For me, that's so scary to think about. I wouldn't want to imagine anymore what life would be like if I were separated from Jesus.
Remember that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
Maybe Jesus is working through your situation, even if you feel like a lost sheep or a prodigal son/daughter right now. Write down what you’ve noticed from this season, and ask Jesus what he’d like for you to see from it. The most important thing here is sincerity- we have to be ourselves in front of Jesus.
After all, he completely knows us, so we’re not fooling him.
If we know that Jesus says to rely on his strength and not our own, why do we still drift away, thinking it’s our job to become strong enough to come back to God?
I think in those moments we expect that we have to do everything to get stronger and better for God because we’re the ones that got weaker/ lost faith/ lost confidence/ etc. But God supplies all of our needs freely to us with His love for us. Since we are His children, He’s got us. The first thing is to take that first step forward towards God- because we’ve already taken some steps away from Him- and admit that we can’t do this on our own; we need God’s love and strength. His power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).
There might be some things that you want to tell God right now in order to come back to him. Below is a list of things that I found helpful in my season of feeling far from God- maybe they will be helpful to you too.
Confess what’s happened and how you’ve treated God
Receive the love and grace he freely offers you because of Jesus' blood
Pray to be saved from any idols/ false gods in your life whatever they may be
Read at least one bible verse and hold onto it today
Know that God doesn’t expect you to be on the mountaintop immediately- Give yourself room to grow
When it comes to our Christian walk it should be what Jesus wants us to do and follow, not the world.
Listen to Jesus, not your inner critic telling you that you’re not good enough. Jesus thought, and thinks, that you’re good enough as you are because of what He did on the cross for you.
We have to go back to that truth- that we can’t do it all by ourselves, and we have to meet Jesus with what we have. It's not good to either a fake perfect version of ourselves, or not show up at all in our relationship with Jesus. He accepts the bad days, too.
God would rather have you pray five minutes a day sincerely, and hear what’s really on your heart, than hear you make yourself pray for an hour a day (just because you feel like you have to sound perfect) and that you’re not a good person if you don’t.
Remember that Jesus came for your heart- not the fake version of you.
You don’t have to run away from him to genuinely feel your bad days, your dry seasons, your grief, your anger, your fear, or whatever it is that makes you feel like Jesus might be ashamed of.
Today, let’s all bring ourselves as we are to Jesus and surrender everything to Him. When we submit to Him as we are, when we recognize that we can’t do everything in our lives, and when we trust and believe in Him, that’s when the real change will occur.
If you feel far from God today, you don’t have to stay there forever.
And guess what? Jesus is ready for you to come back to him. You don’t have to clean up yourself for him- allow him to do that.
Thanks for reading this post! All glory to Jesus!
Reflect
“Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.”
Hebrews 7:25-26 ESV
“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”
2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV
“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;”
2 Corinthians 5:18 ESV
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
Isaiah 43:2 ESV