when God is far away

 

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Jeremiah 23:21-25:38. God says that the prophets who are running around making prophecies were NOT sent by God. They don't have His permission to speak on His behalf. And what they're saying is lies. One way He says you can tell is because "If they had listened to Me, they would have turned my people from their evil ways and deeds."

Does that sound familiar? Any prosperity gospel preachers today talk alot about how God wants us to be rich and happy, but don't ever "turn His people from their evil ways and deeds"? I think it is pretty clear they are not speaking the truth that God wants His children to hear.

But let's talk about the next verse after that. God says something odd here, but I think it's something we can all relate to. He says, "Am I a God who is only close at hand? No, I am far away at the same time."

We know that God is actually omnipresent, right? He is literally everywhere. However, He is not present in the same WAY everywhere. For example, when Jesus walked among us, that was God. That was God in a way that you and I are NOT God. He was God incarnate. He was God, present in a way that we don't see everyday in our normal mundane lives, right?

In the same way, even though we know God is always present, there are times when He seems far away. There are times when we don't sense His presence, and we feel like He is far away from us, not hearing our prayers, not caring that we're suffering. In that sense, He is ABSENT in a way that is different from His normal presence. We sense that He is not manifest among us. And the famous question is, if you feel far from God, who moved? The simple answer is "you moved. So move back to Him again."

But life isn't always that simple. Remember Job? He hadn't "moved". There was nothing he'd done wrong, he was just going through a time in his life when God seemed far away. And when he'd learned the lessons he needed to from that time away from God, God came back in a way that Job had never experienced before. God's renewed presence was so powerful and overwhelming that Job said he took back all of his questions because now he had "seen God."

So don't worry. If you're going through a time when God seems remote, take heart that He is still there. And when you've learned what you need to from His absence, like Job did, He will return to you in a more amazing way than you've ever experienced Him before.

I promise.

God, thanks for being both a God who is here and who is far away.