What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, “Far from God?”
You may think of someone living in bold rebellion….someone seemingly unaware of the guilty stain of sin on their life and disinterested in the fact that God cares to save them from it.
Or, perhaps, you think of someone who walked with the Lord for a time but turned away from faith to pursue another lifestyle, denying what they once knew to be true about God
But, if you’ve walked with the Lord for much time at all, you might also have experienced times when, even as a redeemed child of the King, sealed in your salvation, you have felt far from God.
There’s many reasons for the emotions that create this perceived distance from the Lord.
It might be a particularly difficult season of life and you feel that God has abandoned you and that He can’t possibly care.
It might be an extremely hectic season of life and you choose self-sufficiency over God-dependency because you are too busy to pursue Him.
Or, it simply might be a particularly great season where it’s easy to enjoy the pleasures of life with barely an acknowledgement of His presence or of your great need for Him.
Whatever the reason for this distance between you and God, I can assure you of this one thing:
God has not moved.
You have.
I know because I’ve been there. I’ve been the one too sad, too busy, too consumed with enjoying the pleasures of this world. And, it was I who had moved. Every time.
I know this because the Bible promises over and over that God will not leave us. He will not forsake us. He cares for us and He is with us.
Regardless of what we feel.
And, I have found that the way back to closeness, to intimacy with God, is always the same:
His Word.
If I’m not daily encountering His word, it’s so easy to wander. It’s easy to forget His goodness, to feel hopeless.
It’s easy to become comfortable in my own ways, forgetting that He wants to conform me into the image of Christ.
His word keeps me focused. It reminds me of who I am.
More importantly, it reminds me of who He is.
His word is the still, small voice that alerts me when I begin to drift away from Him and His ways.
So, if you are feeling far from God today, I urge you to open His word….
Read Genesis 1 and stand in awe of the one who spoke the world into existence.
Read Ephesians 2:1-10 and let your heart rejoice that God has made you alive in Christ.
Read Romans 12 and remember how to abide as a living sacrifice.
Read Psalm 23 and let the Good Shepherd comfort your weary soul.
Or simply pick a book (maybe a Gospel) and read a few verses each day and ask God to reveal His great wisdom through His word.
His word can do a great work in our souls.
The Praying Through Scripture journal is a great way to encounter God’s word each day. Filled with Scripture, prayer prompts, journaling space and even a learning device to help you memorize God’s word, it is a tool that will help you deepen your walk with the Lord.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/guilty/
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