What if I Don’t Feel God’s Presence?
Recently I was in a conversation with someone who was hurting, and they stated, “I don’t feel anything from God.” Now, one aspect of spiritual maturity is knowing when to offer answers and when to offer comfort. In that moment comfort was the appropriate response. But now, since I write blog posts answering tough questions Jesus followers often ask, here we go!
The basic question is this: What if I don’t feel God’s presence? Truth be told, there are three reasons, and only three reasons why you don’t feel God’s presence.
Reason Number 1: God’s not listening.
Reason Number 2: You’re not listening.
Reason Number 3: I’ll get to that in a bit.
Oh, for the person I was talking to, God was listening, so it’s either reason number two or three. However, it’s not reason number 2. I do promise to share reason number 3 in a bit.
Sometimes God Isn’t Listening
See, now some of you may already be thinking “This is sacrilege!” “God is always listening.” Well, God is always able to listen…but He’s not always listening. Let’s look at the Bible.
“Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”
-Isaiah 59:1-2 ESV
So, to be clear, nothing can prevent God from listening, except God Himself. When we harbor unconfessed sin, God chooses not to hear our sinful prayers. He ignores prayers that are hateful and intended to harm others. Although God does allow people to harm each other, He is not in the business of answering hateful prayers or prayers that have the intention of allowing us to keep sinning.
This means that if we have unconfessed sin, we aren’t likely to feel the presence of God, unless He is actively revealing Himself to bring us back to Him. Which He sometimes does. Just ask anyone who was surprised by God out of seemingly nowhere. Like Saul on his way to Damascus.
Of course, God is ALWAYS listening for someone who is ready to come back to Him from a life of sin.
“For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
-Romans 10:13 ESV
Sometimes We’re Not Listening
Guess what? We live in a world full of distractions. Shocking, right? But distractions aren’t new. People have been not hearing God because of distractions since there have been people. We see this played out in one of the interactions with Jesus, Mary, and Martha.
“Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’”
-Luke 10:38-42 ESV
Sometimes we’re distracted by bad things, but sometimes by things that in other circumstances would be commendable. “Martha was distracted with much serving “. Martha was serving Jesus and possibly others. Is that a bad thing? No. But when Jesus was in the house, serving wasn’t the best thing. The best thing was time with Jesus.
I know for me, there have been many times where I was distracted by something that wasn’t bad but stole my focus from the Lord. Let’s be honest here. It’s tremendously difficult to hear the Lord and feel His presence when we are either single-mindedly pursuing something lesser or we are so scattered that we can’t feel Him amongst all the other things we are allowing to hold our attention.
Ready for reason number three?
It’s Normal
Reason number three is this: it’s normal to not feel God’s presence.
You may not like this truth, but I promise you there is hope here. You are not going to feel the presence of God nearly as often as you might like. You may be living completely in His will and doing your absolute best to put Him before all other things, and still not feel His presence. That is completely, 100% normal. Look at the first part of Psalm 13. This was not at a point in time when David was living in a state of unconfessed sin.
“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?”
-Psalm 13:1-2
David was being pursued by his enemies, he didn’t feel the presence of the Lord, and that was just the situation at that moment. There are many other times in the Bible where God seemed to be absent (He wasn’t) and people shared their anguish.
My Own Experience
Sisters and brothers, I don’t have a special connection to God’s throne room. It’s a VERY unusual occasion that I feel the powerful presence of the Lord. And the truth is, I don’t worry about that. If my faith and trust in God are at all dependent on my feeling His presence, then I’m going to be disappointed, as I should be. Now, I know God is always with me. He has told us that over and over.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
-Matthew 28:19-20 ESV
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
-Joshua 1:9 ESV
“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
-Deuteronomy 31:6 ESV
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
-Romans 8:38-39 ESV
I could go on and on, but you get the idea. The fact that God is always with us has been promised many times in the Bible. Hear me beloved and hear my heart for you. I know we want to feel His presence. I know we want to feel His love in our hearts. But that’s not going to be the situation the vast majority of the time.
And Here We Are
Let me begin to wrap this up with a very familiar, very hope-filled verse.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
-Hebrews 11:1 ESV
We know that without faith no one will see God. We also know that faith is, “the conviction of things not seen.” Whether we feel His presence or not, He’s always there. Can I offer a bit of advice? Live your life with that truth frequently in mind. The desire for the feeling of the presence of God is itself a distraction from the faith we have that He is always there. Don’t let the enemy plant the idea in your mind that just because you don’t feel God that He is not always there. You and I, we must unfailingly trust His word, no matter what we think, what we feel, or what we do not feel.
“God’s way is perfect. The Lord’s promise always proves to be true. He protects those who trust in him. There is no God except the Lord. There is no Rock except our God.”
-Psalm 18:30-31 ERV
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Love you Jesus follower!