When We Feel Far From God

Has God every felt far away? What do we do when we feel far from God? Why do we feel that way and how do we reconnect with Him? I answer all these questions and more in episode 23 of the One Spiritual Journey Podcast: When We Feel Far From God.

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Podcast Transcript:

Intro

Hi friend, I’m Brigette Henry. And you’re listening to the One Spiritual Journey podcast where I share stories from my spiritual journey and teach you how to walk closer with God on your spiritual journey. I’m so glad you’re here because that means you want a deeper relationship with God. In Colossians 1:28, Paul says,

“We proclaim Him warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

And that’s my goal for this ministry: to help present you mature in Christ. So, grab your coffee, or your tea if you’re a tea addict like me, and let’s dive into today’s topic.

Feeling Far From God

Has God ever felt really far away from you? Like, you’re going through the motions. You’re going to church, you’re spending time with other believers, and you’re doing your devotions daily. But no matter what you do, God just doesn’t feel close to you. And you’ve experienced it before, that feeling of closeness with God. And so, it’s frustrating, right? That suddenly you don’t know what it’s like to feel close with God.

In Acts 17:27-28, it says,

“He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being.” 

The reality is, even if God feels like He’s far away from us, He’s not. Acts says He’s not far from any one of us. We can know for sure that He isn’t, but it is frustrating to feel like He’s far away.

Our Breath Says His Name

One thing I’ve found really comforting is the idea that our very breath says His name. In Genesis 2:7, God breathed the “breath of life” into Adam. And some people say our very breath says His name because His name is Yahweh. Now, we say it as “Yahweh”, but we’re adding vowels in there to make it say-able. “Yahweh” is actually spelled Y-H-W-H. So if you pronounce that without vowels, it’s going to sound a lot like breathing in and out. And I just love that idea: that our very breathing in and breathing out says His name. I hope you find some comfort in that.

But even knowing that, sometimes God just feels far away from us. And so I have two questions, two things that I want to talk about today. Number one, why do we feel disconnected from God? And two, how do we reconnect with Him.

Why Do We Feel Disconnected from God?

So first, why do we feel disconnected from God?

I think if I were going to answer this question simply, I would say “sin”. Sin is why we feel disconnected from God. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean personal sin. I’m not suggesting that you are openly sinning or committing some sort of heinous sin and that’s why you feel far from God. Sometimes it’s the depravity of the world, the sin of the world, that causes us to feel far away from God.

So, when Adam and Eve ate the fruit, sin entered the world. And that’s what we refer to as “depravity”. It’s capital SIN. Sometimes you’ll see it spelled with all capitals. And then personal sin is spelled all lowercase because there’s a difference between the SIN that exists around us and our own personal sin. And this SIN that exists around us is the reason why we experience death, and disease, and all kinds of things that are not our own doing. But we live in a sinful world. And because we live in a sinful world, we’re exposed to sin, even if we don’t commit it. And that can cause us to feel distant from God because sin is so unlike God. And if we just surround ourselves with sin all the time, we’re going to have a hard time feeling close to God.

 Depravity and Physical Illness

Any idea that I’ve kind of been considering: when I’m sick, I feel far away from God. And for a long time, I thought this was spiritual warfare or maybe I was angry at God because I wasn’t feeling well. I struggle with depression and migraines. When I was pregnant I was incredibly ill. And I always thought it was spiritual warfare, or God was challenging me, or something like that.

But now I’m wondering if when I’m sick, physically sick, my awareness of depravity increases.

Job’s Physical Health

In the book of Job, in Job chapter one, Job loses everything. All ten of his children are killed. All of his wealth is taken away. He loses everything. And in Job 1:21, Job says,

“The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

But then, in Job 2, Satan is allowed to affect Job’s physical health. And so Job becomes ill. He gets all of these boils all over his skin, and he’s picking at them with a broken piece of pottery. And his wife tells him that he should just “curse God and die”.

Now, Job rebukes her for saying that and he doesn’t curse God. But he also doesn’t worship Him. And this is the beginning of a subtle change in Job where Job never denies God, he never renounces Him or curses Him. But he does question why these things are happening to him.

And I wonder if illness, physical illness, is a sort of solemn reminder of our depravity. And our distance from God just feels more intense. I’ve talked with a lot of people who have experienced health issues, and while they’re experiencing those health issues they just feel farther from God. And it doesn’t really seem to make sense. And I’m curious if that’s because our awareness of depravity has just increased when we experience physical illness.

So, I would love to hear your thoughts on that. You can email me or message me on Instagram and tell me what you think! It’s just kind of an idea I’ve been playing with.

Distance From God As A Result of Sin

But regardless, I believe that the reason we feel disconnected from God sometimes is sin. Whether it’s personal, or whether someone else has sinned against us. Or it’s the sin of the world and we’re just feeling it more intensely at that particular moment for whatever reason.

How Do We Reconnect With God?

So, how do we reconnect with Him when we feel so far from Him? So, how do you reconnect with an old friend. Like, somebody you met in college that you haven’t talked to in forever. You message them. You call them. You meet up for coffee. You spend time with them. I think especially when we feel far from God it’s so hard to spend time with Him because we feel like He’s not present. We feel like He’s not there.

But we have to try. We have to commit to spending time with Him and engaging with Him. So I’m going to give you three different ways that you can reconnect with God.

1. Get in His Word

I know this one seems obvious, but I think the reason why is not as obvious. The reason we need to get in God’s Word is because we need to surround ourselves with truth.

There are a lot of lies we believe when we feel like God is far from us. In fact, one of those lies is that God is far from us! Psalm 119:105 says,

“Your word is a lamp for my feet
and a light on my path.”

If we spend time in the Word, His lamp will light up our path. And we’ll make this journey through this difficult time of feeling far from God easier.

We also need to get in the Word because sometimes the lies we believe are about God and His character. And when we feel far from God it could be because we are looking for a God that doesn’t exist. We’re looking for someone who doesn’t exist because that’s not who God is. We don’t understand Who God is. So getting in His Word will teach us and remind us Who He really is.

2. Silence and Solitude

I talk about silence and solitude a lot! Yesterday I went for a run and I purposefully went a little farther away from home then I normally do. So that I was in a place where I could have some silence and solitude. I stopped running. God told me stop and be still. And I just stood there for a moment and just breathed and just felt my heart beat. Which, I really haven’t paid attention to in a really long time so that was interesting just experiencing that moment of stillness and presence with God.

Silence and solitude are really important disciplines. You could go for a walk, and just don’t speak, just let Him speak. Clear your mind to allow Him to speak with you.

Dallis Willard in The Spirit of the Disciplines said,

“In stark aloneness it is possible to have silence, to be still, and to know that Jehovah indeed is God (Ps. 46:10).” 

The reality is, our world is too busy. We are constantly bombarded by the depravity of the world. We are constantly bombarded by the busyness of the world. We have to create time to separate ourselves and meet with Him where we can hear Him. Which requires silence and solitude.

Silence and Solitude for Mommas

Now, if you’re a momma like me, that doesn’t happen all the time. Which is why when my husband came home for dinner yesterday, I said, “You eat dinner with the kid and I’m going for a run. Because I really need some silence and solitude!” Silence allows us to hear God and we find that in solitude. So, find some silence and solitude whether that means that you’re getting up before everyone else so you can have that quiet time to yourself. Or if you’re taking a break during the day, maybe while your kids nap or on your lunch break at work you go for a walk. Find a way that you can find silence and solitude in your day.

It doesn’t have to be everyday. It’s very difficult to do it everyday, I can tell you that for sure! But finding silence and solitude and practicing it regularly? That will help you reconnect with God.

3. Self-Evaluation

The third thing is self-evaluation. So, this sounds a little odd, but growing up, I thought self-evaluation and any sort of self-reflection was selfish. And so, I really didn’t self-reflect. Which meant that I wasn’t aware of sin in my life. I wasn’t aware of what I needed to repent from or the things I needed to work on.

Self-evaluation, or self-reflection, is really helpful for spiritual growth. It’s key for spiritual growth. We have to look in our own hearts and see what darkness there is there so that we can remove it.

So, a couple questions you might want to ask yourself:

Are you avoiding connecting with God?

Is there hidden sin in your life?

Are there things God is asking you to do that you aren’t doing?

Are there ways He’s asking you to obey?

Ways He’s asking you to change?

Things He’s asking you to give up?

Journaling

Journaling is a really good practice to slow your mind and reveal deeper thoughts. In fact, just before I say down to record this podcast, I sat down and journaled through some very deep, heavy, frustrating stuff that I did not want to go through. But, God is invested in our growth. Because He understands that our emotional growth helps our spiritual growth. And so sometimes we need to sit down, we need to journal through things, we need to ask the hard questions, and we need to self-reflect. So we can see what God is asking us to do and how we can do it.

Self-Care Worksheet

I have two free tools for you on my website that can help you through this process of self-evaluation. The first one is a self-care worksheet. I do a monthly check-in. I call it the Mind-Body-Heart-Soul check-in. And then I also do a short one weekly where I just kind of review what I wrote about my Mind, Body, Heart, & Soul for the month. But basically, the Self-Care worksheet just works on this principle that there are four different parts to our Self. There’s our Mind, our Body, our Heart and our Soul. And we need to give all four of those to God!

So we need to evaluate and consider how we need to grow in each of those areas. We need to reflect, we need to ask ourselves, check-in with ourselves and see what areas need more help than others. If we don’t practice basic self-care and give ourselves room to grow, we risk serving others poorly. And that’s why when we haven’t had a break, when we haven’t had a mental rest, we lash out at our kids and our spouse.

There’s a lot I could say about the concept of Mind, Body, Heart & Soul. That has been really helpful to me in building a basic self-care practice and understanding how God has asked for all of us. Not just the spiritual part of us but all of us and how we can give all of ourselves to Him. So if you have any questions about that concept I will link a podcast episode I did earlier this year on Mind, Body, Heart & Soul and how that concept applies to your walk with God. And, of course, you can download that Self-Care Worksheet from my website.

The RENEW Study

I also have the RENEW Study. I wrote this study in 2021, and I have gone through this study at least 3-4 times, maybe 5 times since I wrote it. I just completed it again, and every time I read it, I’m like, “I can’t believe I wrote this. Like, where did this come from?” It must have just clearly come from the Holy Spirit because every time that I read it, it reminds me Who God is and it reveals to me areas of my life that I have not surrendered to Him.

I specifically wrote it to help women reconnect with God. It talks about five different areas of like. It talks about change, and obedience, and a few others things. And it just gives examples from scriptures and asks lots of questions about how you can surrender yourself to God and let Him have all of your life so you can reconnect with Him. It’s a really great study and I will tell you more about how you can that in a minute. But it is also free on my website.

 Spiritual Winter

Before I finish for today, I want to say a quick word on the concept of spiritual winter. It’s this idea that sometimes we just feel far from God. And there is no known reason for it. And sometimes it lasts for awhile. We try all of the things and it just doesn’t go away.

We can do all of the right things and still feel far from God. Sometimes that’s just a feeling, and that feeling is wrong. We shouldn’t panic based on the fact that we can’t feel God near us when His Word specifically tells us that He is not far from us. So if you are experiencing a spiritual winter, I want to encourage you to keep pursuing Him. Because winter doesn’t last forever. Hang on to the truths we talked about today.Spend time in the Word, in silence and solitude, and in self-reflection.

Be gentle with yourself. Be kind and have extra grace. Because it is so difficult, day-by-day, to live when we feel far from God. So be extra kind to yourself.

This is not something you have to punish yourself for. If you have asked God to reveal sin, if you have been open with Him and surrendered yourself to Him. If He has not revealed anything to you, you are not in the wrong here. And we may not ever know why we experience these periods of spiritual winter, but regardless, God is still good. Hang on to the truths you find in scripture. Spend time with Him. Lean into Him. And know, based on scripture and not on your feelings, that He is God and He is close to you.

Free Resources

So, if you’re interested in the Self-Care Worksheet or in the RENEW Study, which again I highly recommend, you can find both of them in the Freebie Library on my website at brigettehenry.com/freebies. Now, in order to get into the Freebie Library, you have to subscribe to my email newsletter. It’s free. I use my email newsletter about once a week, sometimes once every two weeks if I’m behind on the podcast. But I use it to alert you to new podcast episodes, new free and paid resources on my website, and new recommended resources from other people. I sometimes share some personal things going on in my life.

I try to be really careful with what I send email-wise. I try to respect that information that you’ve given me. But my Freebie Library is my way of growing my email subscriber list. It is exclusive to my email subscribers, and so if you haven’t subscribed yet, please go do that. You will receive a welcome email after you subscribe with the password in it. And if you are a subscriber to my email list but you forgot the password you can email me at brigette@brigettehenry.com. and I will make sure you’re on my list and then I will send you the password.

All the the links for all of those things are in the show notes. I hope that the Self-Care Check-in and the RENEW Study will bless you and help you reconnect with God so you can build a deeper relationship with Him and keep growing to maturity in Christ.

Outro 

Thanks for joining me today! If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to like, follow, and comment so I can help women become mature in Christ. A few things before I go:

First, I would love if you prayed for me, my ministry and the women I impact whenever you get a chance. And if you need some help, I have prayers on my website you can pray over each of those things.

You can find links to the resources I mentioned today in the show notes. If anything is missing, or if you have any questions, please email me at brigette@brigettehenry.com. My name is spelled differently, so you can also find that email link in the show notes.

If we haven’t connected yet, let’s connect! You can follow me on Instagram for encouragement and to see the behind-the-scenes of my spiritual journey. I also have a weekly email newsletter if you would like to get updates on new podcast episodes, access to my freebie library, and more! You can find links to all those things in the show notes.

Lastly, if you are located near Northeast Ohio, I’m working to establish myself as a speaker. If your church has any upcoming women’s events, I would love to be your speaker! You can contact me through the link in the show notes.

Thanks for listening to One Spiritual Journey. I hope to hear from you soon! Bye!

Links: 

Things I Mentioned Today:

Dallis Willard’s The Spirit of the Disciplines: https://shorturl.at/I7BYY 

Mind, Body, Heart & Soul podcast episode: https://brigettehenry.com/biblical-self-care-mind-body-heart-soul/

Freebie Library: https://brigettehenry.com/freebies

Subscribe for Access to the Freebie Library:  https://brigettehenry.com/subscribe

Self-Care Worksheet: https://brigettehenry.com/freebies

The RENEW Study: https://brigettehenry.com/freebies

Connect With Me:

Contact me: ⁠brigette@brigettehenry.com

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/onespiritualjourney

Join my mailing list: ⁠https://brigettehenry.com/subscribe⁠

Other Fun Links:

Visit my website: ⁠https://brigettehenry.com⁠

Notes:

Music by AudioCoffee via Pixabay

All scripture is CSB (Christian Standard Bible)

All Greek word definitions come from Strong’s Definitions. You can get access to this resource and more at blueletterbible.org.