You've probably heard

the old story of the husband and wife who were driving along, and the

wife says, "Honey, do you remember back when we used to sit real

close to each other in the car. We'd be driving along, and we'd

cuddle up right next to each other."

The husband said, "Yep.

I sure do."

The wife asked, "Why

don't we do that any more?"

The husband responded, "you

tell me. I haven't moved."

When it comes to our relationship

with God, if it seems like God is far away, who's the one who moved?

Know this: God hasn't moved . We're the ones who have

allowed distance to come between us and God. Possibly we've lost

our focus. Or maybe the busy-ness of life has mixed up our priorities.

The fact of the matter is, we're as close to God as we want to be.

The reality is that we don't

always feel as close to God as we'd like. Author Philip Yancey wrote,

"Any relationship involves times of closeness and times of distance,

and in a relationship with God, no matter how intimate, the pendulum will

swing from one side to the other."

It is normal to have times

when God seems distant. That's part of our experience of spiritual

growth. One church father referred to these experiences as "the dark

night of the soul." Henri Nouwen called them "the ministry of

absence." A. W. Tozer called them "the ministry of the night."

Floyd McClung in Finding

Friendship with God wrote, "You wake up one morning and all your

spiritual feelings are gone. You pray, but nothing happens. You rebuke

the devil, but it doesn't change anything. You go through spiritual

exercises, you have your friends pray for you, you confess every sin you

can imagine, then go around asking forgiveness of everyone you know. You

fast . . . still nothing. You begin to wonder how long this spiritual

gloom might last. Days? Weeks? Months? Will it ever end?"

Even David the Psalmist cried

out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I cry in the daytime,

but you do not hear, and in the night season, and am not silent"

(Psalm 22:1, 2). Of course, God was right there, because He has promised

to never leave us nor forsake us. But to David at that moment, God was

far, far away. These dark times can be blessings when they cause us to

struggle, and thereby grow stronger in the Lord.

When God seems distant, how

do you cope? It would be easy to grow discouraged from this "spiritual

down in the dumps" stretch. Keep trusting that God is still right

there with you. Keep loving God and depending on Him even though He seems

far away. Stay faithful to the little things that bring you closer to

God: daily prayer and meditation, corporate worship each Sunday, Bible

reading and small group Bible study, finding ways to serve God day by

day.

A woman went to see her pastor,

and shared that no matter what she did, she didn't feel close to

the Lord. She went to church, she visited residents in the nursing home,

and she had a morning devotional and prayer time every day. She was still

doing everything she'd always done to stay close to God. She said,

"I pray and pray, and it seems like my prayers go no further than

the ceiling."

The pastor responded, "yes,

but you're still praying. That's great! You haven't given

up. You have to keep doing what you know will bring you