God is closer than you think. That’s as may be but what about God being closer than you want? Is it not true that sometimes we may actually want to block God from being close to us?
It seems quite clear that if we are purposely going against God’s will, if we are consciously disobeying, and letting sin reign in our lives, then we would want to keep God at arms length, because we don’t want Him to see it. However, God can see our whole lives anyway. We can’t control that. The point is though, that we can, to an extent, control how much we let ourselves feel God’s closeness. Sometimes it is easier to push God away than it is to change the things in our lives that He will ask us to. It’s almost like saying, “If I don’t let God come close to me, if I refuse to lift my finger to meet his outstretched hand, then I won’t feel so guilty about not doing His will, and I can even convince myself that it’s not that big a deal and God doesn’t care that much about it anyway.
Also, sometimes if God has asked us to do something huge for Him, and we are obedient, it is so easy to push Him away afterwards. Why do we do this? Is it because of resentment or bitterness? Maybe fear of having to do something else that hurts that much. Maybe it could even be a determination to control our own lives; we obeyed and now we want to regain control. It’s almost like telling God that He came too close, and now it’s time for Him to back off for a bit – a need for some breathing space now that He has made us deal with this hurt and pain.
Maybe we sometimes think it is easier to go though the desert of feeling far away from God, than it is to go through the pain of sacrificing our will to follow His, or to acknowledge that pain and hurt after the sacrifice is complete. Therefore, hearing that God is closer than you think is not always the comforting message it ought to be. It is in fact a bulldozer that shatters an otherwise quite comfortable view of God being distant and un-involved in our individual lives.
Having written this post, I am beginning to feel that it is a bit random; a kind of statement stuck in the middle of a huge bundle of questions. I wrote it mainly as an accompanying part to the previous post, as I felt I wanted to make sure that these were more than passing thoughts in one discussion at cell group. I think it is important to acknowledge that it is not always a matter of teaching people that God is closer than they think. It may sometimes require the acknowledgement that, in truth, God is closer than we want.
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5 comments:
If GOd gets frustrated (?) then I think that your final statement would frustrate him loads - or rather the way it reflects that feeling that we have from time to time. We pray,'Dear God, please be with me when I.....' and then we resent his 'intrusion'The other thought I have is this word 'want' When my kids were little and even sometimes now, they say ,'Mum I want a ...whatever' and occasionally I respond with,'You mean - you WOULD LIKE' I am wondering now what difference it actually makes other than to make my kids sound more thoughtful and polite than they might really be at the ages they are.God is closer than I WOULD LIKE - sometimes, but I do WANT Him to be close to me all the time.Hasn't someone said that God would never ask us to something beyond our potential capabilities? Don't know if that's theologically sound or not, but I do know that He fills the gap when we step out into his will. That's when I know He's close, when I am more than I can be without Him. I am living in the GAP.All very metaphorical, but TRUE for me
:).
Interesting thougts Liz. I am sure you are right about God being frustrated by the last comment. I think that I try to tell God what he is allowed to be involved in and what he's not. Of course - I am not saying any of this is ok. We should give God our all, and we should want him to be involved in our whole lives. I am just simply trying to be honest and say that, sometimes, I don't. Sometimes I want to push him away. Mainly when I know that His coming close will require something of me that I just don't want to give.
I just noticed how much I put WANT in this comment! I am not entirely sure what the difference is between God being closer than I would like, and God being closer than I want. Deep down I know I would hate it if God said, "ok then, I really will leave you alone", but sometimes I do actually want that as well. Its kind of like wanting something and not wanting it at the same time. Maybe thats the difference.
Very interesting and enlightening post! I think you are right - we do so very often push God away and maintain the illusion that we are in control. The battle continues!
Hi Kirsy!
This is the first time I have left a comment on your blog!!
In the past I have truly felt that god was closer than i wanted. When I lost my faith and left the army I KNEW God was still lingering and i really didnt want him there, when I look back now though I realise how grateful I am that god didnt say "fine you dont want me, I'll leave you to it" He kept on at me till I came back. I also think that the reasons I didnt want him there was because I knew the things I was doing were wrong. Like how you would hide naughty things from your parents I tried to hide from god, not that it worked!
Any way the reason I wrote this was to say - isnt it great that we can shut god out time and time again and even try to run away but god keeps loving us unconditionally and pulls us back when we need him most!
Rachel Hills (thought i'd put my last name as theres another Rachel)
Thanks Rach.
It is great that God will still love us and still take us back even though we have done things wrong, and pushed Him away. I for one am very glad that He didn't let you go. Its great having you at Romford.
I guess a big challenge though is to learn to stop saying, "well it doesn't matter because God will love me anyway, and one day I can get it sorted."
xxx
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