WHY DON'T I FEEL LIKE I'M CLOSE TO GOD?

By Charlie Monk, Op-ed contributor Saturday, January 13, 2024

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Have you ever eaten something broken? The bitter taste of bad almonds pleasantly surprised me when I ate them last time. It was disgusting and unexpected. Sometimes, in my Christian life, I have this kind of event: I sit down to pray or read the Bible, only to be surprised at how bored and dry it is. I realized that this was not supposed to happen. So, what causes that to happen?

One major truth in the Christian life is that we need to be close to God. By having a good time with God, we can give God the glory he deserves (Psalm 29:2), because he gives us the spiritual food we need (Isaiah 55:1-3). As long as he served in this world, God always found an opportunity to spend time with his father. Although he could not be "more perfect" or "holier," his example shows how important this time with the father is. She loves her father and loves to spend time with him. We must follow his example.

How we feel does not affect this truth. We may feel distant from God; we may feel he doesn't need us; or we may feel that we need to be closer to him, but it seems impossible. No matter how we feel, the fact is that spending a good time with God is worth it. If the time we spend with God doesn't make us feel better when we show our respect for God, then it's not a good time.

The lack of guidance of the Holy Spirit is a sign of a bad time with God. If we do not hear the voice of God, the Holy Spirit, we will not receive all truth, and Christ will not be revealed to us. If one only reads The Word of God without hearing the spirit, the Bible will become dry and the Christian life will become boring. Jesus said that the words he spoke were Spirit and life (John 6:63). He also tells us that he wants us to do great and mighty things. He does not want us to experience a stagnant and boring Christianity.

But we will not receive the satisfying presence of the Holy Spirit unless we have fellowship with God. Romans 12: 1-2 shows that we must completely surrender ourselves to God so that he can change our lives with this fellowship. Sin will hinder this fellowship with God (1 John 1: 7), but broken fellowship does not necessarily mean living a bad lifestyle; it will inevitably result in broken fellowship, even more subtle than that. However, broken fellowship always means the absence of one good thing—focus on Christ. We are to live our lives "looking to [focus on] Jesus" (Hebrews 12: 2), and if we disobey him, it will prevent us from walking with him.

If we do not focus on Christ, it may seem wrong in the eyes of man. However, if we focus on something other than God (such as idolatry), it may become wrong in God's eyes and may hinder us. This is completely wrong in God's eyes because it violates his command to focus on Christ. The truth remains the same even if we look at it from our limited perspective (Romans 3: 4).

The Lord says, " If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses [literally, purifies] us from all sin."One need not strive to avoid sin; rather, they must walk with God. "Cleanseth" is used in the present tense because it occurs consistently. We can respond with faith and repentance when the spirit punishes us for a sin by agreeing with God's Truth About Our Sin (1 John 1:9, which literally means agreeing with God). By gaining this right immediately, the blood of Christ will sanctify us, and we will continue in communion with God.

God told Israel in this situation that when they sought him with all their hearts, they would find him (Jeremiah 29: 13). To seek God wholeheartedly, we need to desire his presence in our lives and understand our need for him. It involves the earnest conviction that without him working through us, we cannot do good before him (John 15: 5). When we have this right perspective, a wrong focus on ourselves will not distract us from a right focus on Christ.

Now we can focus on Christ and not be distracted by ourselves. Since he is not only our Lord (John 13:3), but also our friend (John 15:14), we must speak to him. We can praise him with all our hearts (Psalm 9: 1), because he deserves it (Psalm 29:2), and we can praise him for how he delivered us from the power of sin (Romans 6:11). We can pray that he adds heart to his spiritual kingdom (Luke 17:21) and that he will return soon (Matthew 6:10a).

We can pray that his will be done in our hearts, through our lives, and through the lives of others. We don't just need to pray in general! We have the right to pray specifically for things that we know God wants to happen, but have not yet happened because his children have not asked for them (James 4:2). We know that God wants everyone to be saved (1 Timothy 2:1-2), both the president and the store clerk. He wants them to be saved for the glory of himself, not to add weight to us. He does not share his glory. God promises that we will see the wonderful results of prayer as we seek His Will and pray that it be done here as it is in heaven.

When we pray, we gain a better understanding of God's heart. We witness that God wants everyone to be saved; he wants to give good gifts to his children; and he wants his children to honor him. We witness God's love and concern for a broken and dying world. We begin to be men and women like David, according to God's own heart. We knew before that the Bible was true, but now it is more than just knowledge in our heads; it is the truth that we have believed all our lives. We don't just want what God wants because we know it's true—we want what God wants because his desire has become our desire. According to Psalm 37: 4, he will grant us our heart's desire if this is the case.

Asking him to seek US is part of seeking God with all our hearts. This is found in Psalm 139: 23-24. He reveals us, including stains on our clothes, when he examines us. This was before Isaiah cried out," I am unclean in lips " (Isaiah 6:5). That's lucky it doesn't end here. Although Isaiah had unclean lips, he agreed with God about his sin (he saw it from God's point of view and wanted him to be erased), and God cleansed him. Isaiah's focus was not on his sins, but on his God. While we wouldn't consider Isaiah evil, there are a few things he needs to fix. Stains on our clothes become more visible as we get closer to the light.

Friends, let's get closer to God. Let us humble ourselves, pray, seek his face, and forsake our wicked ways. The Bible says," draw near to the Lord, and he will draw near to you " (James 4:8), no matter where we are. With every little step we take toward God, he takes a big step toward us. Let every Scripture we speak shine in your life.

Charlie Monk is currently working as a research assistant at Ann Arbor Baptist Church.

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