This is because there are times in life that God seems far away. When prayers appear to be banging off the ceiling. When we read the Bible and get no feeling. When we ask ourselves whether God is even listening. I have been there, and, I tell you, most of us. But the question to ask is - is God far or have we simply lost our way?
The truth is, God never moves. According to James 4:8, the Bible says, *"Come close to God and He will close to you." Something there is told in this verse unobtrusively--the movement is upon our side rather than His. When we are being distanced by God, almost everything has intervened between him and us. It may be unconfessed sin or things which distract our attention, or is busyness or even pain which we have not brought to Him in good faith.
Sin is among the most important walls that bring about this distance. Isaiah 59:2 regards, *"Your iniquities have distanced you with your God." It is not that God has turned away His face upon us in vile cruelty but that sin is the gap between the fellowship. It dims the connection. I have observed that whenever I carry guilt without taking it to God, the only thing that is empty in worship and dry in prayer.
Sometimes, it is not even sin. It is just that life becomes loud and God is relegated to the silent farthest areas of our day. We cease to read and to pray and to stay still - and gradually, and unknowingly, we get lonely.
But here is the beauty of the character of God, that he is never waiting. Luke 15 reveals us a Father running to His coming back child. God is not hiding from us. He is tolerant, intimate, and willing to rebuild that intimacy the instant we revert to Him with a heart that is sincere.
God bless his word
Amen