How To Pray When God Feels Distant

This is the Truth Network. Encouraging Prayer. God offers an open invitation for His people to talk with Him at any time about anything. On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the bestselling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James. He's going to pray about something I know I struggle with at times, is how to pray when God feels distant. And that's a really tough one, James.

Yeah, yeah. But it's such a good one to talk about. I think you could put it either way, when God feels distant or when God seems distant. And I think those words are important because He isn't distant. We know that from the promises of Jesus that, you know, He's with us always to the very end of the age.

Promise of God's word that He'll never leave us nor forsake us. But sometimes we don't feel that. Sometimes it doesn't seem that way.

Sometimes our circumstances can be so overwhelming that our emotions are on overload. And it's, you know, our ability to really tune in to God is, I think, you know, hampered in those moments. There's a great line I was thinking about from the Lord of the Rings, where one of the characters, Yomer or Ilmer, I'm not sure how you pronounce his name, but who is one of the soldiers of the Rohan says, Do not trust to hope it has forsaken these lands.

Do not trust to hope it has forsaken these lands. And sometimes we can feel that way. It's like, gosh, you know, even God isn't with me. And I think when we have those moments, it's even more important that we pray.

And so there are three things that I think could be helpful in this. And the first is that we pray with faith. And that seems like an ironic thing, you know, but the very act of praying itself at that point becomes a step of faith.

And it's actually at times like that, and this is something that Charles Spurgeon wrote about, you know, he struggled with depression. And he called it the prophet in rough cloth, who comes and speaks to him, comes and speaks truth to him. And at one point, he's writing about the armor of God. And he's writing about prayer.

And he says that sometimes when it's at its most blunt, it cuts the best. And, you know, you think about that in terms of basically getting through to God. Sometimes we've had those prayers that, you know, in some sense, they seemed just almost on the border of disrespectful, because they were so honest. But then all of a sudden, you find God meeting you in that place.

Does that make sense to you? Oh, absolutely. You know, I can remember two or three conversations I had with God, where I literally used the terms, you know, like, okay, God, the gloves are off. And it was at that time that he would open my mind, because it's fascinating to me that when I'm in that place, there are so many voices going on that what I'm listening to so much, unfortunately, is the enemy's voice. And that's part of why I feel so distant. But I love what you just described, because I know that's real.

Yeah, it's interesting where you put gloves are off. It makes me think of an old poem by James Weldon Johnson, and basically says, young man, young man, your arms too short to box with God. So the first thing, you know, just praying, again, just deciding, no, I'm going to pray, you know, not until I have done, I'm going to pray. And it's not anger at God, it's anger or willfulness against the circumstances that you're facing, that you know are wrong, you know. And maybe we don't know why God has allowed certain things, but it's like, no, I, you know, I'm going to stand, I'm going to stand in my faith, and I'm going to pray, even though I don't understand all of this, I'm still going to stand, I'm still going to fight the battle. And so that brings us to the second thing, and that is pray his word. Because there is so much power in praying God's word, his spirit, we've talked about this often, moves through his word unlike any other place. And so, you know, praying something like Psalm 10, you know, I love you, O Lord, my strength, just as a statement of faith in a time like that. We're praying, you know, God is an ever-present help in trouble, our refuge, you know, praying some of the great Psalms like that, taking our stand on powerful verses of Scripture and turning them into prayer.

Man, that helps, doesn't it? Oh, absolutely. And it's so beautiful in talking about the full armor of God, because it says take up the sword of spirit, which is the word of God, but it's saying that in the context of prayer, right? So that sword is just what you just described, is when you're using those Scriptures to pray, you're using the sword of the spirit to cut through that place, as Virgin put it, to make an impact, to cut deep, to get back to where you need to get to.

Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, if you go to Ephesians 6, you know, this is about praying in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests, with this in mind, be alert, always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. So again, you know, that's the whole truth of the armor of God. And that brings us to the last point, and that is when we're in this place, it's so important to pray with friends. Because sometimes, you know, our faith may be small, our faith may be aggressively attacked by the evil one, and we may be weakened, but if we can have others pray with us, and for us, just knowing. You know, for example, you know, our listeners may not know this, but Robbie is one of my dear prayer partners, and I can share with him things that, you know, I can share with very few people. And just knowing that is such a comfort, because I know that my brother is remembering me. And so, Robbie, could you pray for any of our listeners?

Oh yeah, what a great time to do that. Lord, this is so needed. Lord, we thank you for this encouragement. We thank you that we know you're there, that we can pray in faith, and that we can pray your Word.

And when we pray with others, we're literally going into a chord, that whole idea of the Acts church. And I'm so grateful that you've got this encouragement for us. Lord, help us to use this practically in our lives when we need you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray. This is the Truth Network.