Notes - 16th April 06

'When God seems distant'
Bible Passages:
Psalm 13
John 1-18

How much are you a person who is 'feelings' based in your relationships, rather than 'trust' based? By that I mean how much do you require emotional experiences to keep you assured in your relationships, or are you able to be secure in your relationships simply because of the commitment you have entered into through these relationships?

(Read Psalm 13). According to v1-2, how did David feel about his relationship with God, when circumstances were decidedly tough for him? Have you ever had an experience when God seemed a million miles away from you in your times of trouble? What did you feel like in the midst of that time?

The natural thing is to assume that we have done something wrong, that has made God distance himself from us. 'When God seems distant, you may feel that he is angry with you or is disciplining you for some sin. In fact, sin does disconnect us from intimate fellowship with God. We grieve God's Spirit and quench our fellowship with him by disobedience, conflict with others, busyness, friendship with the world, and other sins'. Can you think of a time when you have known this experience? What had to happen before the situation changed?

But often this feeling of God being distant has nothing to do with sin. Rather, it is a test of faith - will you continue to love, trust, obey and worship God, even when you have no sense of his presence or visible evidence of his work in your life?
Why do you think God wants to put us through a test like this? Why does God not want us to rely on feelings of closeness to him before we worship him?

(Read Ps 13: 3-6). How does David move beyond his feelings of God, to a place of trust, regardless of whether he feels God's closeness or not?

Moving into our New Testament reading, in what ways do you think the followers of Jesus may have felt that God was distant over that first Easter weekend from Friday to Sunday morning?

(Read John 20: 1-9) How did Mary feel when she discovered the tomb open and Jesus not there?
How do the reactions of the three individuals mentioned differ?
Mary saw the evidence, do you think she was distraught/upset/believing/hopeful?
Peter saw the evidence, what was different about his reaction? (cf Luke 24: 12)
John saw the evidence, and tells us (v8), but what did that mean in the light of the following verse(9)?
Is it important to recognize that we may each have very different responses to a situation and to a sense of God's presence in it?

(Read John 20: 10-18) Mary gives us an illustration of the importance of hanging around the place where the Lord has presenced himself, and of waiting for illumination. Why is it that if we feel God is distant, many of us want to take ourselves away from the people and the places where we have known God in the past?
Why do you think Mary didn't recognize Jesus immediately?
What was it that convinced Mary of the reality of the risen presence of Jesus?
Why do you think Jesus discouraged Mary from holding on to him? (v17)
'Yes, he wants you to sense his presence, but he's more concerned that you trust him than that you feel him. Faith, not feelings, please God.'

God is real, no matter how you may feel. God is present with you, no matter how you may feel. He has promised, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'
But probably all of us have had what various Christian have called, 'the dark night of the soul' (St John of the Cross) or 'the ministry of absence' (Henri Nouwen).
How can I stay focused on God's presence, especially when he feels distant?
How can I put faith before feelings in my relationship with God?
Trust his promises 'Never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light' (Raymond Edman)
Remember what he has already done for you
How can we help ourselves to do these things?