When God Seems Distant

Proverbs 1:23-33
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div.
© 2007 Harold Dinsmore

             For years people have expressed to me the feeling that they experience as being far from God.  Some have described the feeling in terms of like estrangement, distant, and separated.  Others have explained their plight as God not answering their prayers.  He seems so far away to them.

            As a result of our American way of life we have accustomed ourselves to instant gratification.  We have instant everything at the snap of our fingers, don’t we?  We have instant breakfast, instant coffee, instant TV dinners….you get the picture?  We expect things to happen just like the Genie of Aladdin’s Lamp.  Our children are not used to waiting in a quality restaurant for food.  If they can’t serve it up in a couple of minutes they don’t want to wait.

            Our concept of God has become clouded in this respect.  We think of him as our big Genie in the sky.  The fix it man!  We goof up…..he makes it better.  Just like when our kids were little they would get hurt, like a cut or scrape and they would come to mamma and what would she do?  “Oh, you have a booboo, let mamma make it all better.”  Which in that context is perfectly acceptable and fine.  But the sad fact of the matter is that we have turned to God and expect him to fix our booboo’s. Irregardless of our own accountability and responsibility for our actions.  We sin and begin to reap what we have sown…we cry unfair, foul!  Even when we repent and seek God’s forgiveness we are still responsible and often times must bear the consequences of our sin.  Forgiven most definitely can be our state if we are truly sincere about our repentance.