Episode #376 Trust When You Can’t Sense Him – God Is Already Here

Friend, I wanna encourage you. If you're trying to draw near to God and you're not sure if it's working, it is. In and of ourselves, in and of our own fleshly nature, we don't desire to draw near to God. Even though He made us for relationship with Him, our fleshly desires don't want to be cut away. We like being in control and asserting our own will. And drawing near to God requires a yielding and a trust and a submission. It requires our ongoing transformation as God transforms us more into His original intent, more into the likeness of Jesus. And so the fact that you wanna draw near to Him, that's a God-given desire, and that's a prayer that He delights to answer. And not only does He delight to answer you when you say, "God, I want to draw near to you," God is always the initiator. God has moved toward you first already and is ongoing in His pursuit of you.

And I wanna talk about this today because even though that is true, even though God comes after us and makes Himself known to us, we don't always feel Him. We don't always have the same sense of His presence there with us. But that doesn't mean that He's far away. God does not disappear when we feel disconnected. And I know it can feel that way, and I think the enemy tries to mess with us and tell us that if you don't really feel Him right now like you have before, it's because God is far from you. Or God is disappointed in you. Or God is rejecting you. And those things are not true.

I wanna read for us from Psalm 73, and the psalmist is going through some hard stuff. Picking it up in verse 21, it says, "When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart," or in another translation, "When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast toward you.”

“Nevertheless," it says in verse 23, "I am continually with you. You hold my right hand." And then jumping down to the first part of verse 28, " But for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge."

I think it's insightful that the psalmist says, "It's good for me to be near God. He is my refuge," even though he's admitting, "My heart was grieved. My soul was embittered. I was brutish and ignorant and like a beast." Those things don't tend to go well together in my mind. But they do go well together in human experience. We go through hard times. We experience grief. We can become brutish and ignorant and don’t act in the way that we would want to.

Nevertheless, God is continually with us.

"You hold my right hand." The right hand can speak to authority, but it also speaks to me of closeness, of intimacy, even of comfort. And so even here in this painful circumstance, in this season, in this grief, in this embitterment of our souls, even here where we are in need of a refuge, God is continually with us. And so our awareness of Him doesn't make Him show up or take Him away. He stays. God doesn't change. And so our practice in these moments when we might not feel Him or notice Him or hear Him in the way that we would like to, is to trust that He is still here. To listen for Him, to look for Him, and to trust in His Word.

The written word of Scripture is not just God's past communication with us. It's living and active, so it's God's current communication with us. We go back to His Word and what He tells us about who He is and what He's like, and we rest in this. And so we're taking this conversation over to God today, especially if you find yourself in a hard place. And we're choosing to trust Him. And we're inviting Him to make Himself known to us in whatever ways He sees fit. And yes, that requires trust and release and open hands before Him.

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

 God, I believe that you're still here with me, even in this. How do you want to remind me that this is true?

And then follow that conversation with God. Follow what He prompts in your mind and in your heart. He'll make Himself known to you. He's worthy of your trust.

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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