What To Do When God Feels Distant: 7 Ways to Reconnect with God
Are you wondering why you don’t feel God’s presence? In this blog, we show you how to navigate spiritual dry spells and find God when He feels far away. Learn how to embrace silence and discover God in quiet times, even when you wonder if He’s there.
Does God Feel Distant?
“Then my spirit made a diligent search: ‘Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has His steadfast love forever ceased? Are HIs promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His compassion?’” Psalm 77:7-9
Several years ago, I was at a concert and struck up a conversation with my seatmates before the show. I learned that they were following the band’s entire tour. Impressed by their diligence, I asked what compelled them to see the band so many times.
“Every show gives me this euphoric feeling. I guess it’s the same reason people go to church: whatever they get there, I feel from this music.”
The person described an insatiable desire to chase euphoria. Rather than judge their response, as a believer, I identified with their rationale regarding my own Christian journey.
We all want the mountaintop experience to revel in God’s blinding majesty. Every believer wants a heart that overflows with His goodness.
But that’s not how life shakes out, is it? If you’re reading this, there’s a strong chance your prayers are dry and you feel God abandoned you.
When we feel distant from God, few other experiences or emotions akin to that kind of numbness exist. We long for the days of elation, but every prayer and act of worship is cold and disheartening.
What I’m about to say may sound counterintuitive, but congratulations, you’re in a wonderful spot with your Creator! While many online resources will either tell you to ignore the feelings or pray them away, in this blog, we’ll explore the root of your distance and provide a path to revival.
So, to get started, let’s create a baseline and establish what God’s presence is.
What is God’s Presence?
“Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples. You, with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.” Psalm 77:13-15
Deep within us is a thread of longing—a yearning for connection with something greater than ourselves, for an encounter with the divine. Regardless of how we search, nothing satisfies our soul like our Creator.
As believers, we anticipate encounters with God’s presence (1 Peter 1:3-5). When our sensitivity is attuned and we encounter God, we experience relaxation, trust, elation, beauty, security, confidence, vitality, and ultimately, a peace that surpasses understanding.
The concept of God’s presence is foundational in Christian theology. It encompasses both His immanence and transcendence—the idea that God is both intimately close to His creation yet beyond it. Let’s explore what those look like.
Transcendence
Mystery and Awe: Contemplating God’s transcendence evokes a sense of mystery and awe. It reminds us of the vastness and grandeur of God’s being, which exceeds our finite comprehension. (Exodus 3:14)
Beyond Comprehension: God’s transcendence refers to His surpassing greatness and majesty, which transcends our understanding. God is beyond the limitations of space, time, and human categories. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Otherness: God’s transcendence also highlights His “otherness”—that He is wholly distinct from creation. While immanent, God is also wholly other, existing beyond the confines of the created world. (Psalm 113:4-6)
Immanence
Nearness: God’s immanence refers to His intimate presence within creation. This means God isn’t distant or aloof but actively involved in the world and our lives. (Psalm 139:7-10)
Sustaining Creation: God’s immanence is evident in the ongoing sustenance and preservation of the universe. Every aspect of creation bears the imprint of God’s presence and care. (Acts 17:27-28)
Indwelling Spirit: God’s immanence is often associated with the presence of the Holy Spirit within believers. The Spirit dwells within the hearts of believers, guiding, comforting, and empowering them in their spiritual journey. (1 Corinthians 3:16)
With a beginner’s foundation formed of God’s presence, let’s look inward to identify the root of our separation.
Identifying the Root of Our Distance from God
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.” Psalm 85:6-7
The Law of Undulation, a concept articulated by C.S. Lewis in his book The Screwtape Letters, refers to the return to a level from which individuals repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.
Lewis outlined that while our spirit can be directed to an eternal object, our bodies, passions, and imaginations are in constant change because “to be in time means to change.” We will experience undulation in every aspect of our lives. As long as we’re on earth, we’ll alternate between periods of “emotional and bodily richness” and “numbness and poverty.”
In our faith, we will experience peaks of spiritual fervor that evoke deep assurance of our faith. However, those will inevitably be followed by troughs, which are periods of spiritual doubt, dryness, and desolation.
This undulating pattern is not abnormal but a natural part of the human experience. It’s not always a sign of spiritual failure or deficiency but a reality of living in a fallen world.
Let’s examine some of the possible elements causing your trough.
What’s Causing Your Trough?
Are you spending enough time in prayer?
Are you studying Scripture (not just reading it)?
Do you feel that you’ve sinned too much? Are there blockades in your life, such as secret sins, toxic relationships, etc.?
Does questioning God’s nearness or distance depend on how right or wrong your life is going?
Are you relying on a feeling to quantify that God is real rather than having the faith that He is?
Are you equating a medical (i.e., depression, anxiety, OCD) or livelihood (i.e., changes, loss) experience as a lack of God’s presence?
Was your spiritual walk in the “good times” a religious walk instead of one with Christ?
As you answer those questions, you may notice a trend. Based on how you answered, there are two paths you can take.
Backsliding: I’ve become distant from God, and my faith has waned, but I’m experiencing a nudge from the Holy Spirit.
God is Silent: My faith is being tested, and God is teaching me a new spiritual maturity.
Let’s explore those two possibilities.
Backsliding: I’m Distant From God
When you talk with others who are questioning their relationship with God, you see many similarities in their stories. “I prayed daily but felt like God was never answering me, so I stopped.” “I was on fire for God when I got saved, but over time, I fell back into old habits, and slowly, God drifted from my life.”
When God calls us into relationship, there is nothing like the experiential love that He manifests. However, life is never strictly at the peak; the trough will come.
“[God’s] tactic is always the same. You will one day doubt whether the first days of Christianity were not, perhaps, a little excessive. [God] causes not to think ‘I’m losing interest in this therefore it must be false.’ No, that’s too straight forward and rationale will prevail there. Instead, the word ‘phase’ will do the trick.” Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
When we exit the peak phase, the things of God will have less luster. It always happens two degrees at a time. We’ll skip a few days of reading the Bible due to busyness, tiredness, or boredom with our reading plan. We won’t make time to pray because we’re frustrated that God hasn’t answered past prayers. Over time, apathy overtakes us, and our once-raging fire will be tamped into a few burning embers.
There’s a lot of comfort in apathy. The Enemy won’t challenge you unless you desire change. Your vices will offer a temporary soothing that keeps you pursuing more. But suddenly, you’re aware of how distant you are from God. And when you desperately try to rekindle the flames of your faith but find nothing left but ash.
Consider the good fortune of your situation—the Holy Spirit is nudging you! What if you’re being pushed to a new and authentic faith? You’ve had time to shed a religious walk that lacked substance.
“The Lord may be doing in your life something very different. I’m suggesting the Lord is not, in these [times], allowing you to lose a close walk with God, but rescuing you from a phony walk with God.” Piper
Be encouraged that it’s okay to question God. Doubt, when done healthily (READ MORE: What is Deconstruction) and with the intention of developing your faith, can expand our understanding and reliance on God, ultimately drawing us closer to Him than before.
When speaking about backsliding, Tim Keller said, “To have light from God’s face is not just to believe in God but to experience His presence. It is also to have a life conformed to His, not merely by compulsion out of a sense of duty but by inner desire out of a sense of His beauty.” (The Songs of Jesus, Psalm 80)
Trusting Him, even when things don’t make sense, and acknowledging that you sinned shows a heart of humility. While in a trough, those activities may feel fruitless, but sometimes, going through the motions with pure intentions is the bridge to rediscovery.
God is Silent
“Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day.” Psalm 86:1-3
The life of every believer will periodically encounter silence from God. Does that mean God has abandoned us? Nope! Even better, it’s likely that He’s very present and trying to teach us something.
“Sooner or later, He withdraws.… He leaves the creature to stand on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone, duties which lost all relish. It is during such trough period…that it is growing the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best.” Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
The reality is when God is seemingly silent, He’s working to draw something out of us that gives us a richer comprehension of His character.
Consider Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness. During His 40 days of isolation, fasting, and searching, Jesus’ heart was being prepared for ministry. Could it be that you’ve entered the wilderness in preparation for your next ministry?
In his book The Ignatian Adventure, Kevin O’Brien lists four reasons why we experience dry seasons as believers:
God may be gently tilling the soil of your soul for some future harvest.
God may use the times of dryness to heighten your sense of His presence so that you will be more aware later.
God may invite you to ordinary times to kindle deep desires and longings. In this case, restlessness is a good thing.
God may want to give you a rest after an intense experience of prayer and worship.
Your prayers may be dry, your spiritual life dull, and your ministry seemingly slipping away, but your desire to experience God’s presence is a genuine threat to the Enemy.
“Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do [God’s] will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Do not give up hope; it’s not lost on God that your heart yearns for Him.
7 Ways to Reconnect with God
Our hearts can lead us astray (Jeremiah 17:9), and the truth of God’s love isn’t dependent on how we feel. However, in our striving, it can take time for our hearts to catch up with our head knowledge.
Until then, here are seven private practical methods of reconnecting with God:
Pray: Prayer is a vital communication with God and allows us to express our needs, repentance, and seek His will.
Confess & Repent: Acknowledge any sins or areas of disobedience in your life, humbly confess them to God, and remember that God is faithful enough to forgive us when we confess. (1 John 1:9)
Saturate Yourself in Scripture: The Bible is God’s divine word, alive and active, capable of penetrating the deepest recesses of our hearts (Hebrews 4:12).
Worship: Worship encompasses more than just singing songs—it’s a posture of the heart that acknowledges God’s greatness and holiness.
Fast: Fasting involves temporarily abstaining from food or other comforts to focus on prayer, repentance, and spiritual renewal.
Ask God For Revelation: Invite God to search your heart and ask Him to renew a steadfast spirit within you (Psalm 51:10).
Show Yourself Grace: Recognize that God’s love and grace are greater than your mistakes. No condemnation exists for those in Christ (Romans 8:1).
Welcome to Revival
“O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? I am helpless.” Psalm 88:14,15b
Psalm 88 depicts a desperate plea of someone in the suffering amid the full extent of God’s wrath. It’s one of the only Psalms that ends in deep hopelessness rather than a return to praise.
However, when we read beyond the words on the page, this psalm also depicts our hope. We see the representation of Christ in the author’s words. In Jesus’ final days, everyone, including His own disciples, turned against Him. Even as He hung on the cross, with His dying breath, He cried out to God, “Father, why have you forsaken me?” Think about that—Jesus, the Son of God, felt like God had abandoned Him!
Just as you feel abandoned right now, you are not alone. Jesus walked through the same turmoil in His darkest hour. Where the psalmist ends with no hope, we have the missing piece. Jesus endured actual separation from God so that we could be reconciled with God. This can only happen through faith and repentance.
“Revival requires repentance, a turning back to God. Only through uniting with Him by faith can we become branches and have God's life flow into us. Through Him we can be revived.” Tim Keller, The Songs of Jesus, Psalm 80
Living by faith means believing that we’re not alone during the dark valleys when God feels absent. Faith is persevered by a longstanding belief.
“In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14
When the Holy Spirit dwells within you, He doesn’t leave until the day of redemption, no exceptions. We are liberated in Christ, and the death that sin brings is no longer our captor.
While God may feel far from you, stay firm in your faith. You are on the precipice of revival.
TL;DR
This blog addresses the common feeling of distance from God, exploring the reasons behind spiritual dryness and offering strategies for revival.
It discusses the importance of understanding God's presence, identifies the causes of spiritual troughs, and provides practical steps for reconnecting with God.
The piece encourages readers to persevere in faith, even when God feels distant, promising that revival and deeper understanding await on the other side of spiritual challenges.
Related Reading
How Do I Find Satisfaction in God by Rev. Paul Lawler
How to Hear God Amid Divine Interruptions by Rev. Paul Lawler
How to Meet With Jesus by William Merriman