Episode #373 When You Don’t Want to Spend Time with God – God Is Already Here

Hey, friend. Do you ever feel bad because you know you should want to spend time with God, but you don't actually want to? I think we all can relate to that, even me. I'm sitting here over 30 years in the faith, I'm a Bible teacher, and I do not always want to spend time with God. And I wanna talk about this today because it's not the problem that we can think that it is. And one of the ways that I approach this is I simply turn it around into a conversation with God. I straight up tell him, "God, something's going on with me. I don't want to spend time with you, but I don't want to feel that way." And then I'll explore what's going on with him. Maybe I have an indication of why. Maybe I'm feeling tired or frustrated or alone. Maybe I need to eat something or take a nap or whatever's going on. But when I sense that hesitation, when I sense that withdraw, I turn it into a way to draw close.

But you might be sitting here thinking, "Yeah, I don't actually really wanna do that right now," or, "I'm not sure how to do that." And so we're using this episode, even in those moments, as a resource and a tool to help you turn toward God. Even in those moments when you don't really feel like it. Because the most important thing is not what I have to tell you here on these episodes, but it's the conversation that you get to go and have with our God who knows you and sees you and loves you.

And our Good God wants to talk with you.

And the reality is desire often disappears where pressure lives. When that pressure is building, that we're supposed to show up, that we should be different than we are, it can push us into performance or obligation. And so that can shrink the desire that we have to come near God. And the beauty is that our good, amazing God is entirely alluring. He woos us with his loving kindness. He is majestic and holy, and there is none that is like him. And so there's no real good reason for us to not want to spend time with him. There's something else that's going on there that's impeding that, that's distracting us or pulling our desire. Sometimes it can simply just be the pressure to feel like we have to do the right thing and we don't know how or we feel like we're failing at it and so we withdraw. But the other good news is that all throughout scripture, God meets honest yet conflicted hearts.

And so I wanna read for us from Psalm 42, and this is one of his examples of how we can be honest before the Lord, even when we have conflicting needs or desires. And this is written by the sons of Korah, and it begins by them talking about their desire for God.

"As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God." But then clearly we can see that they're going through a difficult time. "My tears have been my food all day and night." And people are saying to them, "Where is your God?" So they say, "These things I remember as I pour out my soul."

I'm picking it up in verse five:

"Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. But then again, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I remember you."

And all throughout this psalm, the writers are talking about the difficulty that they're going through and how it's aided, and how they overcome it by remembering what's true about God.

"I remember how I would go into the house of God with loud shouts and songs of praise. I remember from the land of the Jordan and the Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

I remember from the lands that God has brought us from. By day the Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say, 'Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go on mourning as my adversaries taunt me?' They say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me?' Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God."

If you're in a place right now where you don't even feel like you want God, I hope you find encouragement from these verses. And it gives us a model too, not only of self-reflection, but of bringing this confusion, bringing this angst to the Lord and talking with him about it.

You don't have to pretend with God.

You can drop the pressure to do the right thing or keep up the good appearance, and simply be honest with God and see what insight he has to share with you.

So here's a question I invite you to take to God today:

God, what's going on with me, and how do you want to meet me in it?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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