Does Your Heart Feel Far from God This Week?
Photo by Amy Treasure
Does your heart feel distant from God? Are you worried that you’re somehow failing Him or that He’s disappointed with you? Has it been a while since you’ve heard His voice?
Here are a few simple reminders of who you are and how God your Father really feels about you.
1. God actually likes you.
The Lord appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. (Jer. 31:3 ESV)
Therefore: You don’t need to live with any fearful internal voice that says, “Oh no! You’re about to be cut off from God. He’s annoyed at you. He’s mad. If only you were different.” None of those thoughts/ideas have any role in your life whatsoever. You can say “no” to them, because they aren’t true.
2. God wants to be with you, and He is taking steps to be with you.
This, you see, is how much God loved the world: enough to give his only, special son, so that everyone who believes in him should not be lost but should share in the life of God’s new age. (John 3:16 NTE)
Therefore: You don’t have to listen to any voice that says you aren’t good enough or you don’t measure up. God has proven His love to you—you have proof of it in Jesus. God wants you in His life so much that He was willing, and is willing, to do something about it, so you can be with Him. His love is not fake or weak or preoccupied.
3. God has not rejected you, and He never will reject you.
So now the case is closed. There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed One. (Rom. 8:1 TPT)
Therefore: You will not be rejected when you fail. Failure happens, but His love endures. His love is real, and real love doesn’t let go when it has a bad day or has to wait. It is as strong as death. It is “flames of fire” (Song 8:6 NASB). It is “all consuming as the very flashes of fire from the burning heart of God” (TPT).
4. God hasn’t let go of you.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. (John 10:28–29 NIV)
Therefore: Many people worry that their connection with God is a tiny, weak thread that will snap at the first sign of stress. But that is not true. Our connection with God is 1 Corinthians 6:17: He is “joined” to us. We are “one spirit” with Him. This isn’t a thin, weak link—this is a connection that can endure earthquakes and toppling mountains, and it laughs at its enemies because it knows God has won.
5. God hears you when you ask Him for help, even if you’re in trouble because you did something dumb.
Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Bound in affliction and irons—
Because they rebelled against the words of God,
And despised the counsel of the Most High,
Therefore He brought down their heart with labor;
They fell down, and there was none to help.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
And broke their chains in pieces.
Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
For He has broken the gates of bronze,
And cut the bars of iron in two. (Ps. 107:10–16 NJKV)
Therefore: God’s love for you has nothing to do with your performance. This means you will have His love even if you perform badly. When you make mistakes and do things you later regret, His love is still there. In those times when you feel like all hope is lost and the shadow of despair presses down on you—His love is still there. In the dark, He will show you His goodness.
6. God doesn’t look at you and see someone who makes mistakes and fails a lot. He looks at you as separate from your mistakes.
So if my behavior contradicts my desires to do good, I must conclude that it’s not my true identity doing it, but the unwelcome intruder of sin hindering me from being who I really am… Truly, deep within my true identity, I love to do what pleases God. (Rom. 7:20, 22 TPT)
Therefore: God doesn’t look at us the way we often look at ourselves. It’s so very easy for us to glance in the mirror and see all our failings and shortcomings, the things we could have done differently, the things we could be doing differently now. Some of us are more aware of our sin than we are of His love. But He doesn’t look at us the same way we do—He sees us set apart from our sin. Even when we make a bad mistake, He knows what’s true about us.
Declarations for This Week
If you are struggling to love yourself, if you have trouble believing the heart of God for you, speak the following declarations out loud. Do so multiple times a day for the next several days. Assume these statements are true, even when you don’t feel like they’re true. As you renew your mind this way, gradually your heart will start to believe these statements:
God likes me. He likes me. He sees the truth about who I am, and He likes that truth. He is delighted with me and how He made me.
God wants to be with me. He loves me so much that He actually desires my company. He wants to live every day with me and to go through life with me.
God has not rejected me. And He won’t reject me. I never have to be afraid of losing Him or finding myself outside His love.
God has not let go of me, and He won’t let go of me. I am genuinely safe in His hand. I am “trapped” there—in the best of ways! He has captured me.
God’s love for me is not based on how well I follow “the rules.” I mess up and make mistakes sometimes, and His heart is continually for me.
God doesn’t think about me the way I think about me. When I see myself as unworthy and a failure, He sees His prize.
Does your heart need to remember who God is? Check out these other devotions:
For more information on sex, marriage, and finding the person who is right for you, get a copy of Becoming the One by Salomé Roat. Click here to learn more. The book is also available in Spanish.