Feeling Distant from God? It’s You, Not Him

Come close to God and He will come close to you. James 4:8

Where is God? Maybe you’re not sure where He is, but He knows where you are!

Many cultures use names that describe God as being “Upstairs,” or the “Sky God,” or “the Lord on High.” In the Bible, God asks, “Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:24) God is omnipresent, or everywhere all at once. But, as our Creator, He is in every way “higher” than we are. About Himself, God says in the Bible, “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).

That’s what makes it so amazing when the Bible tells us that God wants relationship with us. Scripture talks about how God is tender with us and that He is the one who seeks us out. When God describes His care for the people who follow Him, He says, “To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them. (Hosea 11:4b NIV). Another scripture says that God “bends down” to listen to us (Psalm 116:2 NIV). What other god bends down in love to care for, to listen to you and me?

This relational God stopped by the garden that He first placed human beings in, just to walk with them (Genesis 3:8-9). But God didn’t just care about people we read about in the Bible, people who lived ages ago. God is personally attentive to you. Then He let His only Son be put to death for the ways you’ve not put Him first.

What’s the secret to knowing the God of the Universe? The Bible simply says, “Come close to God and He will come close to you” (James 4:8). Feeling distant? Draw near to the God who bends down to listen, today.