This is Part Six of my seven-part Drawing Nearer to God series. I heard my pastor talk about “drawing nearer to God,” and I found myself wondering - how do I actually do that? So I did what I always do: I started digging, Googling, and writing. Now I’m sharing what I’ve discovered along the way.
There are days when God feels close – when worship hits just right, when prayers flow, when life feels aligned with heaven itself. And then there are the other days.
The silent ones. The dry ones. The “is anybody even listening?” ones.
I wish I could tell you those days never come if you’re faithful enough. But that’d be a lie. Even spiritual giants had seasons when God felt distant. David wrote in Psalm 42:2–3, “I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, ‘Where is this God of yours?’”
Sound familiar? It does to me.
Here’s the Average Joe confession: when God feels far, I don’t usually respond with poetic psalms. I get impatient. I get doubtful. Sometimes I just stop trying for a while. If God’s not answering, why bother asking?
But here’s the kicker: distance doesn’t mean absence. God’s silence isn’t His abandonment. Isaiah 41:10 says, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” Notice the present tense – I am with you. Not “I’ll come back when you get your act together.” Not “I might show up later.” Right now. With you. Even when you can’t feel Him.
Maybe God lets us walk through the dry places because it strips away the illusion that we can run on feelings alone. Feelings are fickle. They spike when the worship band plays our favorite song and vanish when the bills pile up. Faith isn’t built on feelings – it’s built on trust.
And trust is forged in the silence.
Think of Job. He lost everything, sat in ashes, and begged God for answers. Heaven stayed quiet. Yet Job still declared, “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last.” (Job 19:25). Job’s faith wasn’t about what he felt – it was about who he knew God to be.
So what do we do when God feels far? We keep showing up. We keep praying, even when the words sound hollow. We keep opening Scripture, even when it reads dry. We keep gathering with believers, even when worship feels flat.
Because sometimes faith is less about soaring and more about stubbornly standing.
If God feels far from you right now, you’re not broken – you’re normal. The saints before us felt it too. The good news is that God’s nearness isn’t measured by our emotions. He’s closer than our breath, whether we sense Him or not.
And maybe – just maybe – the silence is God’s invitation to trust Him more deeply than we ever could when everything feels easy.
