FOOD FOR THOUGHT : Six Important Questions to Ask Yourself When You Feel Far from God | Princy Biju, United Kingdom

God has created humans to seek something greater than what is in this world. To be on the lookout for something with real value.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 states that God has “set eternity in the human heart”. In every human soul, there is a God-given awareness that there is something greater than just this life. People often try filling this life with things of this world only to find out that it leaves them empty. The only one that can fully satisfy our heart is the one who made it. Until you realise that God is the only one that can complete you, you will feel incomplete even with a spouse, a good job, wealth, and everything else that you seek to gain in this world.
Ignoring your soul’s desperate need for God is going to make you feel further away from God each day. In this article, I will be walking through 6 questions that you can ask yourself when you are feeling distant from God.

1. Have I spent time with God?
Firstly, we can feel far from God when we are neglecting our spiritual life and doing a lot for our flesh instead.
Have you heard the quote “It’s hard to get in shape spiritually if you only work out on Sundays?”
We do so many things to feed our flesh and to look after our flesh, but our spiritual being needs looking after too. Paul suggests in 2 Corinthians 4:16 that it doesn’t matter how his flesh is doing if his inner man is strong. The verse says, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day”.
We cannot cultivate a good relationship with anyone without spending time with them. If you are feeling far from God, the first question to ask yourself is “Have I been spending time with God?”
If you haven’t, then start praying again, read your Bible again, get yourself involved in your church community and start serving again. These are all some examples of things you can be doing to feed your soul rather than your flesh.

2. What am I consuming?/ What am I spending more time on?
I understand that not everything we watch is for our spiritual life. And there is nothing wrong with watching or listening to things for entertainment, but the problem starts when it is pushing you farther away from God. We should be mindful that we get influenced by the things that we watch and listen to. Be intentional with the things that you are watching and the music that you are listening to because the things that we consume ultimately influence how we act and live our daily lives.

3. Is there anything in my life that is keeping me away from God?
The world poses a million distractions that can lead us away from God. As we see in the story of Adam and Eve, Satan wants us to sin and to run away from God every time we do. In 2 Corinthians 2:11, Paul says the devil is scheming. The devil is finding a way to cause the children of God to fall. If you are feeling far from God because of sin in your life. Here are three things you can do.
Firstly, confess your sins to God. In 1 John 1:9 it says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and He will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.
You are never too far gone for the grace of Christ. If you decide to hide from God and live in your sin, then you will feel far from God constantly. If you are a person that doesn’t want to take action right now and would rather choose to sin that one more time, then remember that ‘one more time’ won’t satisfy you. One more time will leave you with more shame than before. One more time could be the last time if you died today. One more time is enough time to be the reason Jesus was tortured, beaten, and crucified. One more time was what Judas thought before betraying Jesus. One more time is not worth it. Don’t choose that sin one more time, because many more times will always follow it.
If you are feeling far from God because of your sin, God still loves you, and His love and His desperate desire for you to come back to Him haven’t diminished a single bit. You can fix this separation that you are feeling from God by confessing your sin, leaving that sin behind, repenting and accepting that God has forgiven you and He still loves you. As Jesus said in Luke 5:32, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”.

4. What is my desire?
Think about what you would like to achieve in your life. Are your goals in line with the plans of God? Do your goals have eternal value? The plans God has for you have eternal value. We can start to feel far from God when we are fixated on this world and the treasures of this world. We get so busy with this world that we forget this world is not our home. We get so busy pleasing the people of this world rather than our Father in heaven.
Sometimes if the devil can’t get you to sin, he will just make you busy. He will make you want to chase worldly dreams and leave you too busy, too tired, and too exhausted to spend time with God. Curling up in bed and watching Netflix sounds more ideal than spending time with God.
I recently saw this quote and it made me think a lot “if prayer was your job, would you still be employed?” Our relationship with our Father in heaven is just as important as making a living here on this earth.

5. What is my priority?
If you feel like you are spending more time with earthly desires and ambitions the next thing to think about is “What is my priority?” When you are feeling far from someone the easiest thing to do is avoid them. The only way to get out of that cycle is by going to God even when you don’t feel like it. Make God your priority. Put God first and the things for God’s Kingdom first on your to-do list.

6. How has God been with me in the past?
I deliberately didn’t say, “How has God been good to me in the past?”. Your life wouldn’t always be filled with good times, but that doesn’t change who God is. No matter what season you are in right now God is still good. In my podcast (The Wow Bible Podcast) I expand on the question “Why would a good God allow suffering?” God is good. Always good even when our world feels like it’s falling apart. God has a plan, and He sees the bigger picture.

In summary, if you want to fix your relationship with God, ask yourself these six questions:
1. Have I spent time with God? If not, get back into praying and reading God’s word.
2. What am I consuming? Have a look through to see if you are watching, listening or giving more time to things that are stopping you from giving your time to God.
3. Is sin causing me to not want to seek God? Remember Satan wants you to sin and live and hide in your sin. God wants you to come to him, to ask his forgiveness and to abide in God and not become a slave to the devil.
4. What is my desire? Ask yourself what you are aiming to do with your life. Are you making yourself busy building a kingdom on this earth, or are you seeking and working for the Kingdom of God?
5. What is my priority? If you find God isn’t your priority. Put God and Godly activities at the centre of all your actions.
6. How has God been with me in the past? Finally, think back in your life and remember the times when God has been with you. It’s easy to look at current difficult situations and doubt God’s goodness.
I hope this article encourages you to run back to God at all times. Your time to go back to God is now and not later.

Princy Biju

-ADVERTISEMENT-