What it really means when you can’t feel God’s presence
How many times have you heard someone say, “I don’t feel God’s presence anymore”? Or maybe you’ve said or felt that yourself.
When that happens, we wonder, “Where did He go? Has He abandoned me?” I can’t count how many times I’ve thought the same thing. I’ve been in that place where everything around me felt dark, desperate to feel His presence again, feeling rejected, forgotten, even betrayed by God.
But when I was finally able to think clearly, I realized something many others have realized long before me:
When God feels silent, it doesn’t mean He’s abandoned me. It usually means that I’ve turned away from Him.
There are so many little ways we drift from God in our everyday lives. Whenever I find myself desperate to feel His presence again, I can usually trace it back to one thing—I’ve let myself be too influenced by the world. Circumstances, worries, relationships, finances…all those daily pressures creep in and start to dictate how I think and feel.
Instead of trusting that God will handle it, I try to control everything myself. That’s when the distance begins.
This doesn’t mean we should never feel worry or concern. It means that in those moments, when fear or doubt takes hold, we must still choose to trust Him. The moment we stop trusting, the moment we hand our peace over to the enemy instead of giving it to God, that’s when He starts to feel distant.
And this isn’t only true in hard times. Sometimes everything in life is going beautifully, and yet God still feels far away.
Why? Because even—especially—in our happy moments, we often forget Him. We get comfortable. We pour ourselves into the joy of life and forget to praise the One who gave it. We forget to thank Him, to show love and appreciation for all that we have, and naturally, He begins to feel distant.
I’m guilty of this in both the bad times and the good. When life is hard, I cling to Him. But when life is good, I sometimes forget I need Him just as much.
We need God every second of every day, through the good and through the bad. He isn’t just supposed to be a part of our lives; He’s supposed to be the center of them. Without Him, we are nothing.
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