WHY Does God Seem Distant?

Selected Scriptures

Connect:

• Share how you have seen God in the Highs and Lows of your week.

Prayer:

Pray that God would lead your discussion time and bring fresh insight, conviction, and hope through your time together.

Review:

This message series looks at 3 of the critical and core questions that we ask of God about the life and world we have. We will look at those questions from a grounded Biblical perspective and discuss how we can approach these questions with a sense of honor, acknowledging God as God, as well as sincerity seeking to understand what we can this side of Heaven. This week we looked at the question of “Why does God seem distant?”

The Grand Tour of the message: Thinking back on what you heard this Sunday…

o What did you learn about God?

o What did you learn about people?

o What did you learn about yourself?

o What do you want to commit to putting into practice?

Reflection:

Personal Experience:

• Read the poem “Footprints” aloud and discuss the following questions:

  • Why do we so quickly assume God left us in the hard times?

  • What is it about the hard times that make it difficult to rest in God?

  • Read Psalm 131 together: Discuss the difference between the reflection of the Psalmist here and the question “Why did You leave me?”. God does not change, so what did change for the Psalmist here?

• Reflective Discussion (Remember to look at the context of the verses as you are reading!):

  • It is truly scary to feel isolated. Reflect on each of the following Scriptures together; How do these Scriptures help us to seek God when it feels like we are in the dark?

    • Ps 22:1-3, 19-31

    • Ps 66:16-20

    • Is 41:8-14, Is 40:31

    • Ps 13:1-6, Ps 139:23, 24, James 4:4-8

    • Mark 9:21-27

    • Rom 5:3-5

    • 2 Cor 5:7,

  • Scripture tells us that God often speaks in a “still, small Voice”. Read the following Scriptures and reflect on how we find rest in God in the midst of the noise of distractions, troubles, temptations…:

    • 1 Kings 19:1-18

    • Is 30:15

    • Matt 6:25-34

    • Phil 4:4-9

    • Col 3:1-10

    • John 15:1-8

  • Pastor Ben offered 5 reasons for suffering in the world as we all experience it. How does this help us in wrestling with the choice to wait faithfully in times where we feel God is silent?

    • Taking responsibility for our own thoughts and emotions (Rom 12:1,2, 2 Cor 10:3-5, Phil 4:8)

    • Choosing to trust that God is near as He promised (Ps 23, Jer 29:13, James 4:8, Ps 63:1-8, , Matt 7:7)

Application: 

Will we choose to place our trust in God’s promise and wait faithfully for Him in an attitude of worship and surrender… even in specific situations where our feelings are burned out?

Prayer:

Finish the evening by praying the Lord’s Prayer together, directing our attention to His nature, activity and sovereignty in, through and over our lives.

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