I thought that God wasn't listening to my prayers because I felt He wasn't listening to them. I thought that God was distant from me because I felt that He was distant from me. I thought God was being silent because I couldn't hear Him. At first it was uncomfortable, then stressful, and then I couldn't handle it anymore. I had to ask myself "Which is trustworthy, my feelings or God's Word"? My feelings argued that God was ignoring me, distant from me, and dead silent, but God's Word says not to trust our feelings.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" - Jeremiah 17:9. God doesn't want us holding on to our feelings. He didn't give us feelings to guide us, that is His job. He wants us to turn to Him, to follow and to trust Him to guide us, not our feelings. Our hearts are evil and do not lead us anywhere Holy, rather they only lead us into sin and selfishness. Believe me, I know It can be very difficult sometimes not to listen to your feelings when they are screaming at you while it seems God is hardly whispering.
But God is listening!
You are in God's presence where ever you go, however you feel, you cannot get away from God, even if you tried.
O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,"
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
-Psalm 139
You are as close to God when you can feel His breath as you are when cannot even hear remember what He sounds like.
Your feelings have absolutely nothing to do with your closeness to God. Do not listen to your feelings, but rather listen to God's Word, because in the end, His Word will be all that is left.
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