Welcome to today’s Daily Redemption — where we confront the ache of feeling distant from God despite His Spirit living within us, and discover that His nearness never wavers — only our awareness of it shifts.
Featured Scripture And Commentary
John 14:16–17 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth… he lives with you and will be in you.
Does it sometimes feel like when Jesus asked the Father for this Spirit He said “no”? Well you are not alone. Even Jesus on the Cross echoed in His last moments the anguish of David at his most Messianic in Psalm 22 – “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Aside from that, though, we don’t always understand our feelings even about Earthly experiences do we? What we know is the Word of the Lord is always true. The Dead Sea Scrolls proved to the world that the Bible’s word never changed. The version in a cave in a remote part of the Middle East turned out to be saying the same things as the Bible on the podium in your church which says essentially the same as the Bible in your night table at the hotel room you last checked into. There are many places which corroborate Hebrews 13:5 and so we know that the Lord is in us who are saved and He will never leave nor forsake us. Not permanently. Not for a moment. He can’t. It is His presence that is in us. How can He leave Himself? He didn’t say… I am just going to leave this here or “hold my beer”. He said He would be with us forever with us and in us. (John 14).
So how come sometimes we don’t “feel” it? Here we go…
1 how much have you been reading your Bible?
2 are you praying “always” as covered in 2 Thess, Eph 6 and in this space the last few days?
3 how many hundreds, thousands, 10s of 1000s of messages of different kinds on different media do you get daily? Do you think that in this noisy time we might get a wee bit distracted? It’s a wonder that we can feel close to our own personalities with such a beating and battering that our minds, hearts and souls take on a daily basis. And in spite of this most people identify as feeling alone a great deal of the time because soulless marketing messages and electronic messages on our phones is not what community is made of. Think of the one whom from your church who rarely shows up on Sunday but whom you chat with sometimes. Now think of the one who is always there on Sunday, even participating. Where is the real community?
I have taken to listening to a recording of Eph 6:10-14 every morning as my first official act of the day and I feel it sinking deeper into my awareness – the helmet of salvation, the sword of His word, the belt of truth, the shield of faith etc. I did have to look back to make sure that I had those right but I did know them off the top of my head. I couldn’t say that a few days ago.
How to get closer to God? Maybe try picking a handful of your favorite Scripture quotes and committing them to memory.
Do you want to know why the Bible is not the world’s largest game of “telephone” as some accuse it of being? 1. In the time when people were handing the Word down by generations it was a very quiet time for the most part. There was no electronic media, no internet (can you believe it?), no TV, no print media, not even a printing press until the 1500s. Telling stories was the entertainment and telling the same Biblical accounts over and over again was done without significant distraction. Also we might feel like their food was lacking – gosh no pizza, no egg roll, no burritos, no hot dogs at the park in the Summer, not even a hamburger or sliced bread and cheese? Well right but their food was great for human body functioning – olive oil, lentils, whole grain bread grown naturally, greens and fruits (even going back to Eden) no chemicals in any of it etc -lamb, fish, beef – all organic, all optimum nutrition! Food wise their brains were fed in an optimum way They may not have had the knowledge although there were libraries but their brains were primed and ready. When they met in the town square, yeah, they played some sport and engaged in races. Don’t forget, the Olympics go back to the ancient Greek. But the older folks and often the younger were focused on keeping the Word.
Lord, I’m ready. Where’s the time machine?
Want to feel closer to God? Saturate yourself in the Word. Find the Bible confusing? I hear ya. There are huge essential aspects of the Bible which we cannot properly understand if we don’t dig into the original meaning of certain words from the original Aramaic, Hebrew, Latin and Greek. Logos and other software will dig up the original meanings. Some influencers such as Nate Sala on the Wise Disciple YouTube channel or worth giving a try. Part of his routine format is “what did this scripture mean to the original audience?”. You know, the Bible was not written to be read as stories of people from long ago. It was written to a contemporary audience of the time and we are expected to read it as if these stories are our current headlines and happening to us. See how much the Word means to you if you just do that.
OK this is much longer than I intended so let’s cut to the chase. Your closeness to God is a personal thing and it varies but it is not genetic, it is not only a gift and dictated by God. We have something we can do about it. Try to take some noise and complications out of your life. Try reading the Word more often and ensuring you have it right. If reading anything makes you doze off, watch video presentations and commentaries if you have someone you feel you can trust in the graveyard of nonsense that is most of the internet and especially influencer videos and pray to God that you want to be closer to him. Pray always. In the name of Jesus our Lord and Saviour, all the people say “amen”!
Homily
He created you. He breathed His Spirit into you when you said yes to Jesus. He sealed you as His own. Yet some mornings you wake and feel only silence. The heavens seem brass. The prayer feels like it hits the ceiling and falls back down.
This isn’t abandonment. It’s disorientation.
God hasn’t moved. You haven’t been evicted from His presence. What shifted is your awareness — not His reality. Like a child running ahead in a crowded market, you turned a corner and panicked: “Where is my father?” But He never let go of your hand. You just stopped feeling it.
The Spirit within you isn’t a mood. He’s a Person — constant, faithful, unchanging. Your emotions about God are not the same as God Himself. He is near when you feel Him — and He is equally near when you don’t.
Don’t mistake spiritual dryness for divine distance.
Don’t confuse emotional silence for abandonment.
He is closer than your breath — even when you cannot sense Him.
Lord, I feel distant from You today — and that feeling terrifies me. Forgive me for confusing my emotions with Your reality. You have not moved. You have not withdrawn. You have not revoked the Spirit You placed within me. Wake me up to what is true: I am Yours. You are mine. The distance is felt — not real. Help me walk by faith when I cannot walk by feeling. Remind me that a child lost in a crowd is still held by the Father’s hand — even when he cannot feel it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
