When God seems Far Away

Sometimes God feels distant, and often it is when you are hurting most. Everything in your life seems to be going wrong and you wonder what good could possibly come of this? Why do I have to go through this? I thought that God loved me, but how can a loving God let me feel this lost and confused, why would he let me doubt? Question after question you ask and never seem to get an answer. You try to pray but your mind is cluttered and it doesn't feel like he's listening anyway. What's the point? Sometimes you just feel like saying I DON'T GET IT! WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? I CAN'T FIX THIS! I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE!

God is always with us, no matter what. We won't always feel his presence, and those times are hard, but if we trust in him, and have faith in him then we will not be disappointed. If we continue to seek him out, then he will meet with us. The Lord comes to those who wait on him. There are many good things, blessings even, that come out of the dark times in our lives, even though it may not seem like it at the time. God brings us comfort so we may comfort others. He draws us into a deeper relationship with himself, he teaches us to trust and depend on him completely in all things, and he shows us his love more deeply when he reaches into the darkness and pain to draw us up into the light and gives us healing.

God is always at work. Sometimes he's just bringing us back to him, because like all sinners, we wander from him after our own way - thinking that it's best. It's when we don't rely on God, and we don't think that we need him, that we really need him the most. We can't make it on our own, and trying to do so is futile. All we'll end up doing is becoming proud, frustrated, or broken.
It's not at all about what we do. We are human beings! What can we do? Every good and perfect gift comes from God above. We can try as hard as we like but we'll never get anywhere. We need to give ourselves up to God; to completely surrender ourselves as a living sacrifice. We need to surrender everything to him: our pride, our hurt, and our confusion, and uncertainty.

He wants us to bring him glory in doing our best in everything, but the only reason we can give him glory is because of his grace. We are imperfect and he is perfect. He works in and through our mistakes: How's that for merciful and gracious? He defines mercy and grace.
He loved us while we were still sinners, while we hated him. Nothing we do can make him love us more! Not making a lot of money, not getting straight A's, not having the perfect body by the worlds standards, not being the "perfect" example of doing everything that Christians "ought" to do, not knowing the Bible backward and forwards. He already loves us, we are his, we don't have to, and we CAN'T earn anything from him. That's the amazing thing about God and his love. It is unconditional; he is forever faithful. That is GRACE. And nothing, no NOTHING can separate us from his love.
A lot of Christians say that they believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith, but in the back of their minds they still feel like they have to earn it in some way, yet it's impossible to do; so they get frustrated and feel inadequate. God doesn't require us to be perfect: Christ already met that requirement. All he asks is that we surrender our lives to him in worship. Is that so hard? The answer is yes: it's in our nature to sin against God. Sometimes our pain is like our security, it's familiar, and it gives us an excuse to hold on to it. We will never know true deliverance until we surrender our lives to God and his will. Giving ourselves completely to God is unknown territory, yet its the most incredible, beautiful, unknown territory that can ever be experienced.
You may say, "How do you do that? Time and time again I've tried, but I just can't give it up."
Are you trying to release it on your own? If you are, you don't have the strength to. You aren't strong enough. Christ will take your burden from you, but you need to ask him to take it, because you can't carry it anymore. You need to be willing to give it to him, not hold on to it because it gives you security, or you're afraid of what you'll be without it.

When you do get through certain hard times in your life you sometimes wonder why you went through it, you just don't see the point. Yeah, you've changed, but you would rather not have had to suffer through it, couldn't God have just told you that instead of making you suffer through it? It is through experiences, especially painful ones, that we learn the most. Often God uses what he has brought us through to be a comfort and a testimony of hope to other people who are experiencing the same thing that we experienced. He makes it possible for us to relate to them and their circumstances, and that in itself can be comforting: just knowing that you aren't the only one that has gone through it. It's a testimony to God's faithfulness. He does it for a reason, and God doesn't make mistakes. Also, think of how Christ suffered for you at the cross. If any suffering is unjust, that was. We are deserving of shameful death on the cross and we are deserving to go to hell, but Christ who is perfect in every way did his Father's will and took it upon himself and became obedient to death on a cross, and rose again, setting us free from the bonds that sin had over us.
Our prayer needs to be that the Father's will will be done in our lives and on this earth. We need to faithfully pick up our crosses daily and follow Christ. We don't always know where we're going, but Christ knows the way and he is trustworthy.

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." - Jesus