I Don’t Feel God’s Love

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Welcome back to the podcast.

00:00:05.720 | Today we look again at life when it's at its darkest.

00:00:10.400 | Christians often go through dark seasons

00:00:12.480 | and sometimes long dark seasons.

00:00:15.480 | Maybe that's you right now.

00:00:16.560 | Maybe this episode is providentially put

00:00:19.700 | into your life right now for a reason.

00:00:22.600 | This is the context for today's email

00:00:24.000 | from a young man named Joshua.

00:00:25.420 | Joshua lives with his dad in California.

00:00:27.960 | Dear Pastor John, thank you for this podcast.

00:00:30.320 | Is there anything I can do to help God help my dad?

00:00:34.080 | We're not in the best living situation

00:00:36.160 | and although we've prayed,

00:00:37.380 | we haven't found a new place to live.

00:00:39.740 | I'm actively pursuing the Lord in my mornings

00:00:42.620 | and trying to lead my dad here,

00:00:45.440 | yet he still struggles with his faith.

00:00:48.100 | Just last night he said that he doesn't feel

00:00:50.520 | God's love for him as a son.

00:00:53.320 | Life is hard for him right now

00:00:54.960 | and God feels distant to him.

00:00:58.120 | What can I say and how can I pray for a dad

00:01:00.440 | who does not feel God's love?

00:01:03.720 | Joshua, here's what I would want my son to do for me

00:01:08.720 | if I were in a dark place like your dad is right now.

00:01:15.480 | And I could be there.

00:01:16.920 | I have been there.

00:01:18.100 | There's no Christian who doesn't experience seasons

00:01:24.440 | when God feels distant or when we don't feel his love

00:01:29.440 | as sweetly as we would like to.

00:01:33.080 | So first, I would want you, my son,

00:01:39.240 | to speak the truth to me about the objective reality

00:01:44.240 | of the love of God in the historical act

00:01:48.920 | of the death of his son.

00:01:51.920 | Even though your dad does not now feel the preciousness

00:01:56.920 | of the love of God in giving his only son,

00:02:01.400 | he needs to hear it.

00:02:03.560 | Faith comes by hearing over and over,

00:02:06.640 | not just at the beginning.

00:02:08.760 | Make the connection for him between the love of God

00:02:13.760 | and the death of Jesus

00:02:15.880 | because that's the rock solid objective foundation

00:02:20.840 | of our feelings of being loved.

00:02:24.400 | For example, Romans 5, 6 to 8,

00:02:28.120 | while we were still weak,

00:02:30.320 | at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

00:02:34.880 | For one will scarcely die for a righteous person,

00:02:38.280 | though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die,

00:02:41.280 | but God shows his love.

00:02:43.840 | He shows, he shows, he demonstrates his love for us

00:02:48.660 | in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

00:02:53.660 | Galatians 2, 20, the life I now live,

00:02:59.120 | I live by faith in the son of God who loved me

00:03:03.400 | and gave himself for me.

00:03:06.280 | First John 4, 10, in this is love,

00:03:08.560 | not that we love God, but that he loved us

00:03:11.960 | and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

00:03:17.260 | John 15, 13, greater love has no one than this,

00:03:22.260 | that someone lay down his life for his friends.

00:03:25.520 | And that precious, present, tense word loves

00:03:31.700 | in Revelation 1, 5, he loves us,

00:03:36.380 | not loved as in most places,

00:03:39.060 | he loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.

00:03:44.060 | That's what we need to hear.

00:03:46.860 | That's what I would need to hear

00:03:48.700 | and your dad needs to hear

00:03:50.820 | when our feelings don't correspond to reality.

00:03:54.660 | We need rock solid, objective, historical truth

00:03:59.660 | about the death of Jesus.

00:04:01.900 | Number two, if I were your dad,

00:04:04.500 | I would want to be reminded that the love of God for me

00:04:08.820 | was not only shown to me when Christ died,

00:04:13.720 | but also when he made me alive

00:04:16.900 | and gave me the mustard seed of faith

00:04:20.580 | that I'm struggling to hold on to.

00:04:22.400 | Ephesians 2, 4, God being rich in mercy

00:04:28.380 | because of the great love with which he loved us

00:04:33.500 | made us alive together with Christ.

00:04:38.220 | If I have any life in me at all,

00:04:41.800 | small as it feels right now,

00:04:44.340 | it is owing to the great love of God

00:04:49.140 | for me in making me alive.

00:04:52.780 | Number three, remind your father

00:04:55.720 | that when God made us his own by his great love,

00:05:02.220 | nothing can now separate us from him.

00:05:07.060 | Romans 8, 38.

00:05:10.060 | I am sure that neither death nor life,

00:05:12.460 | nor angels nor rulers, nor things present,

00:05:15.500 | nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,

00:05:19.480 | nor anything else in all creation

00:05:22.540 | will be able to separate us from the love of God

00:05:25.560 | in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

00:05:27.560 | Number four, surprise him

00:05:31.460 | with a passage he may never have thought about.

00:05:36.060 | Micah 7, verses eight and nine.

00:05:40.060 | I love this passage.

00:05:42.620 | I've called it gutsy guilt.

00:05:45.600 | Rejoice not over me, O my enemy.

00:05:49.120 | When I fall, I shall rise.

00:05:53.620 | When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

00:05:57.900 | I will bear the indignation of the Lord

00:06:01.940 | because I have sinned against him

00:06:05.380 | until he pleads my cause

00:06:09.580 | and executes judgment for me.

00:06:13.020 | He will bring me out to the light.

00:06:16.380 | I shall look upon his vindication.

00:06:20.340 | Wow.

00:06:21.580 | Even when we sin our way into darkness,

00:06:25.420 | the child of God can speak with boldness to the darkness

00:06:30.180 | and say, "Darkness, you will not have the last word."

00:06:35.100 | Even the God who put me here in discipline

00:06:39.980 | made darkness cover me.

00:06:42.220 | He will bring me out.

00:06:43.820 | He will execute judgment for me, not against me.

00:06:48.460 | That's what I call gutsy guilt

00:06:50.740 | for the justified children of God.

00:06:53.160 | And then take your dad, fifth,

00:06:57.540 | to Psalm 139, seven to 12,

00:07:03.240 | and remind him that even when darkness covers us

00:07:07.420 | and wherever we go in our weariness and lack of feeling,

00:07:12.420 | God is there and he is our light.

00:07:17.900 | Where shall I go from your spirit?

00:07:20.180 | Where shall I flee from your presence?

00:07:22.260 | If I ascend to heaven, you are there.

00:07:24.320 | If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

00:07:27.340 | If I take the wings of the morning

00:07:28.860 | and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

00:07:31.080 | even there your hand shall lead me

00:07:33.520 | and your right hand shall hold me.

00:07:36.700 | If I say, and this is so relevant for his dad,

00:07:41.100 | if I say, "Surely darkness shall cover me

00:07:45.080 | "and the light about me be night,"

00:07:47.760 | even the darkness is not dark to you, O God.

00:07:51.780 | The night is bright as the day

00:07:53.660 | for darkness is as light with you.

00:07:57.500 | That's Psalm 139, seven to 12.

00:08:01.120 | And then add this promise for a sweet application

00:08:07.160 | of that Psalm, namely Psalm 30, verse five,

00:08:12.280 | "Weeping may tarry for the night,

00:08:14.920 | "but joy comes with the morning."

00:08:17.040 | And finally, remind him that the apostle Paul knew

00:08:23.040 | that the struggle to feel the love of Christ

00:08:27.160 | would be part of the Christian warfare.

00:08:29.640 | So he taught us how to pray about it.

00:08:31.540 | In Ephesians three, verses 18 and 19,

00:08:35.800 | "I pray that you may have strength to comprehend

00:08:40.800 | "with all the saints what is the breadth and length

00:08:44.000 | "and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ

00:08:48.400 | "that surpasses knowledge and be filled

00:08:50.740 | "with all the fullness of God."

00:08:52.540 | The amazing thing about that prayer

00:08:55.500 | is that Paul shows us that it takes strength

00:09:00.320 | to comprehend the love of Christ.

00:09:02.900 | There is a kind of soul strength

00:09:06.600 | that God gives in answer to prayer,

00:09:09.360 | which enables us to grasp and feel and enjoy

00:09:14.360 | the love of God in Christ for us personally.

00:09:19.500 | So I pray, Joshua, that you will be filled with peace

00:09:25.080 | and joy and hope as you share these things with your father,

00:09:29.500 | and you can tell him that our little APJ band here

00:09:33.720 | is praying for him.

00:09:36.100 | - Yeah, amen.

00:09:36.940 | Thank you, Pastor John, for always being willing

00:09:39.320 | to field questions on the podcast

00:09:40.980 | when it comes to the darkest seasons of life.

00:09:43.300 | Appreciate that.

00:09:44.700 | And if you want to ask Pastor John,

00:09:46.740 | and maybe you have other questions

00:09:48.440 | related to your own season of darkness,

00:09:50.740 | type out your question and email it to us

00:09:52.740 | at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

00:09:55.920 | Well, next week, we change gears to talk about books.

00:10:00.020 | How have books changed John Piper's life?

00:10:03.040 | And which books have changed John Piper's life?

00:10:06.100 | Those are our two questions,

00:10:07.720 | and they're both on the table next week,

00:10:09.140 | Monday and Thursday.

00:10:10.380 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.

00:10:11.380 | We'll see you back here on Monday.

00:10:13.020 | (upbeat music)

00:10:15.600 | (upbeat music)

00:10:18.180 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

I Don’t Feel God’s Love — What Can I Do?

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