What to Do When God Feels Distant
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.000 | Brandon writes in with a very common question.
00:00:07.000 | "What do we do when God has seemed silent for a really long time?
00:00:12.000 | I feel almost no joy.
00:00:15.000 | I go repeatedly to the Scriptures and most often walk away still discouraged and unhelped.
00:00:22.000 | I pray continuously and feel like I get no response.
00:00:26.000 | I am so cast down, Pastor John. What do I do?"
00:00:31.000 | Brandon, I am sorry for the darkness and the distance that you feel.
00:00:39.000 | Your situation is so common to God's people that many, many books have been written
00:00:48.000 | about this kind of experience of darkness and distance.
00:00:54.000 | I know that doesn't make it easier that books have been written about your experience,
00:01:00.000 | but it might help you not doubt your standing with God just to realize that I and others,
00:01:10.000 | thousands of others, have shared seasons like that.
00:01:16.000 | I wish I knew you better, Brandon, so that I could be sure you really do grasp the gospel of Jesus,
00:01:26.000 | that he died for sinners like us, he absorbed the wrath of God against his people,
00:01:33.000 | he covered our sins by paying the price of the suffering and death we deserved,
00:01:40.000 | he rose from the dead to give invincible hope, he purchased a new covenant promise
00:01:47.000 | never to let his people fall away into destruction, and he makes all of this available to us by faith alone,
00:01:59.000 | by seeing ourselves as helpless and receiving, receiving like a little child,
00:02:05.000 | all that God is for us in Christ and embracing him as our supreme treasure.
00:02:11.000 | That's the gospel, so I want to make sure that you are resting there, embracing that,
00:02:17.000 | even though you may be experiencing some feelings of distance from God right now.
00:02:24.000 | I hope you're casting yourself wholly on that.
00:02:28.000 | Even so, I know there are seasons of darkness, so I want to try to answer your question.
00:02:35.000 | You say, "What do I do?" Let me point you to the biblical pattern in answer to that question.
00:02:42.000 | It's as if the Bible hears you, asks the question, and answers it,
00:02:48.000 | and some of the answer is, "Seek him continually and wait for him."
00:02:55.000 | Seek him and wait for him. So here's the seek part.
00:02:59.000 | Psalm 27, "You have said, 'Seek my face, Lord.' My heart says to you, 'Your face, O Lord, do I seek.
00:03:09.000 | Hide not your face from me." So what does that seeking look like?
00:03:16.000 | The Psalms are so helpful here. They're just full of examples.
00:03:20.000 | Psalm 6, "Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing.
00:03:25.000 | Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul is greatly troubled.
00:03:31.000 | But you, O Lord, how long?" Or Psalm 13, "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
00:03:39.000 | How long will you hide your face from me?
00:03:43.000 | How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?"
00:03:49.000 | Or Psalm 90, "Return, O Lord, how long? Have pity on your servants.
00:03:55.000 | Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love."
00:03:59.000 | So there's a picture of people who, they don't know how long this is going to last.
00:04:04.000 | God has seemingly gone away. They don't presently experience much satisfaction in him.
00:04:11.000 | That's why they're crying out for it.
00:04:13.000 | So we are to seek the Lord by crying out to him continually like that to show up in power and reveal himself.
00:04:22.000 | So don't stop seeking because it's been a long time.
00:04:26.000 | And then comes that "wait" part. Oh, how many places and parts of the Bible are "wait, wait."
00:04:36.000 | Dozens of passages. Psalm 37, "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.
00:04:42.000 | Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way."
00:04:45.000 | There are people who are just going on just fine and leaving you behind.
00:04:48.000 | Don't fret over that. Wait.
00:04:51.000 | Psalm 27, "Wait for the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord."
00:04:57.000 | And perhaps most encouraging of all for me is Psalm 40.
00:05:02.000 | I remember when I first came to Bethlehem, I wanted people to know how I felt about these seasons of distance and darkness.
00:05:10.000 | That summer, I think it was the summer of '80 or '81, I preached summer psalms, I think I called them.
00:05:17.000 | And one of them was called "In the Pits with the King."
00:05:22.000 | Psalm 40, "I waited patiently for the Lord."
00:05:27.000 | No indication of how long. Just, "I waited. He inclined to me and heard my cry.
00:05:32.000 | He drew me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog."
00:05:38.000 | So there's David for a season, we don't know how long, in a pit and in a miry bog.
00:05:46.000 | And then he finally experiences God come and it says, "He set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
00:05:54.000 | He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
00:05:58.000 | Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord."
00:06:01.000 | And in those last words, you hear one of the purposes of God.
00:06:05.000 | If you wonder, "Why would he do this to David and to me?
00:06:08.000 | Why would he leave us languishing in such a pit as this?"
00:06:13.000 | And his answer is, "Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord."
00:06:18.000 | It's a strange kind of evangelism, it really is.
00:06:22.000 | But take heart, that may be what he's doing in your life.
00:06:25.000 | I mean, the world doesn't just need chipper, successful people.
00:06:30.000 | The world needs people who have walked through darkness and come out at the other end in some measure
00:06:37.000 | and can empathize with what they're going through.
00:06:40.000 | So my own experience is that my sorrows and my struggles and my sense of God's distance
00:06:50.000 | have made me a better pastor, a more effective pastor, not a less effective pastor.
00:06:57.000 | So I would encourage folks who think this is just all pointless.
00:07:04.000 | If you ask, "How long?" I don't know. I just know you mustn't let go. Don't let go.
00:07:11.000 | I had a friend who was seriously depressed for eight years, almost to the point of immobilization.
00:07:18.000 | If I described it, it would be way beyond what you're experiencing, I think.
00:07:22.000 | And then one day, after years of memorizing Scripture and holding on and waiting and seeking,
00:07:30.000 | something happened. God broke in and he broke out of his depression.
00:07:36.000 | I knew him until the day he died, and he never went back into it.
00:07:41.000 | And he always chalked it up to the fact that he continued in the Word,
00:07:46.000 | even when he didn't feel much and could barely function,
00:07:49.000 | he continued in the Word and sought the Lord.
00:07:52.000 | So a book may not be helpful right now.
00:07:55.000 | Sometimes being told there's a book about your situation when you're dark doesn't help.
00:07:59.000 | But if it does, if that sounds hopeful, I wrote a book because I have been asked,
00:08:05.000 | Brandon, I have been asked this question so many times about what if I don't have joy?
00:08:10.000 | What if God feels distant?
00:08:12.000 | So I wrote a book called "When I Don't Desire God,"
00:08:16.000 | and I would send you there when you feel able.
00:08:20.000 | But let me pray for you that God would take this and help.
00:08:25.000 | Father, I just want to close with a quick prayer for Brandon that you would work,
00:08:30.000 | that you would return to him, open his eyes, grant him to see you,
00:08:35.000 | grant him to feel your preciousness and the love that you have for him.
00:08:39.000 | I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
00:08:42.000 | Yes, amen. Thank you, Pastor John.
00:08:45.000 | And that sermon mentioned earlier is titled "In the Pits with a King."
00:08:50.000 | And if a book is of interest to you, see "When I Don't Desire God,"
00:08:54.000 | and see also a little book that John Piper wrote titled "When the Darkness Will Not Lift."
00:09:00.000 | Go to DesiringGod.org, and there you can find the sermon and the books
00:09:04.000 | and thousands of other free resources from John Piper, all free of charge
00:09:09.000 | and all intended to help explain why God is most glorified in us
00:09:13.000 | and why we are most satisfied in Him and to get help when you find this is difficult.
00:09:18.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll be back on Monday.
00:09:21.000 | [Silence]
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