Chronic illness drains us. It touches every area of life; physical, mental, emotional, relational… But I think the place we are last to recognize it’s damage is in our spiritual life. Sometimes we have moments of inspiration, flashes of revelation in our sickness, however often God begins to feel very far away. And that hurts. Here we are at a time in our life where we need Him desperately - but we can not feel Him. If there was ever a time we wished for God to be visible it is now. We want to see His face, hear his voice, and feel His arms around us. Instead we are in a fog, a desert place, alone. Or so it seems
I came across a verse one morning that changed my view of our ’invisible’ God. In Acts the Bible describes Paul’s visit to Athens and his preaching of the gospel at Areopagus. Look at what he tells them about God. “From one man He has made every nation of men to live all over the earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live, so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:26-27) Did you hear that beautiful promise from God’s word? He - the God of creation, so loves us with an everlasting love - is not, is never, far from each one of us. And the Holy Spirit uses very human, very close words here, ‘reach out’. Think about it. No matter where you are at this moment sitting in your chair, staring at this computer screen God is right there. He is so close you can reach out and ‘touch’ Him. God does not play peek-abo with us from heaven. He does not come by once a month to make a house call. No matter how you may feel He is always, always near. God is closer than any person you can touch, more real than anything you can see. Isn’t that amazingly comforting?! Listen as Paul goes on.
“For in Him we live and move and exist,…” Acts 17:28
Wow! If only we could grasp this what a difference it would make in our lives! Truly we can grasp it but it takes time, effort, and the work of the Holy Spirit. A good place to begin is by asking God for a greater awareness of His presence every day. Just because we do not recognize God around us does not mean we can not and truly He desires even more than we do for us to know that He is there. We would also do well to remind ourselves of God’s nearness throughout the day. It is necessary to fight this lie of the devil, that God is far away from us in our trial, with the truth. Lies do not die easily but the truth is far stronger. During this weak time in your faith allow the truth and God to fight for you. If all you can do is repeat to yourself “He is not far!” do not worry. It is enough for now.
