{"id":49,"date":"2016-09-16T11:51:58","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T11:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=49"},"modified":"2016-09-16T11:51:58","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T11:51:58","slug":"5-reasons-hard-us-find-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/09\/5-reasons-hard-us-find-god.html","title":{"rendered":"5 Reasons Why It’s Hard for Us to Find God"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"www.unsplash.com\"
www.unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you’ve ever felt like God is distant or hidden, or maybe your pursuit of God is one big game of hide-and-seek (and God is a really good hider), here are five common reasons why it’s hard for us to find God:<\/p>\n

1. We live too fast.<\/b> Psalm 46:10 says, \u201cBe still and know that I am God.\u201d<\/em> Stillness is the very opposite of how our culture is designed to operate. We create more technology so that we can work faster, do more, not miss out on anything. When the God of the universe chose to speak to the prophet Elijah, he did so through a still small voice, a gentle whisper. For most of us, me included, I think God speaks to us constantly, we\u2019re just moving too fast to hear Him.<\/p>\n

2. We live too self-focused.<\/b> Matthew 6:33 says, \u00a0“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.\u201d<\/em> For us, that means that we say we love God and that He\u2019s our first priority, but in reality He\u2019s not. The reason many of us seek God is not because we\u2019re concerned with His Kingdom, but ours. Many folks seek God merely because we want him to give us stuff, help us do good on our test, protect us, keep us safe, bless us with money. That\u2019s not seeking God\u2019s kingdom first. That\u2019s asking God to bless our kingdom. It doesn\u2019t work like that.<\/p>\n

3. We live too sinfully.<\/b> Ancient Israel had this problem, and God spelled it out for them in black and white. They complained because it seemed like God had gone silent, he had abandoned them. Here was God\u2019s answer: “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,\u00a0nor his ear too dull to hear.\u00a0But your iniquities have separated\u00a0you from your God;\u00a0your sins have hidden his face from you,\u00a0so that he will not hear.”<\/em> Isaiah 59:1-2\u00a0Sin separates us from God. One of the biggest reasons we feel separated from God is because of unconfessed and unrepentant sin in our lives.<\/p>\n

4. We live too lazily.<\/b> Some of us are like my kids. Please make me feel better about my parenting and let me know that your kids have done this. If you\u2019re a parent you know that for young kids, just getting everyone dressed and out the door to go anywhere is a big chore. It\u2019s an accomplishment. The one thing that frustrates me to no end is when my wife\u00a0and I tell our older two to get their shoes on so we can go. Without fail, one of them will be on the couch, and they\u2019re watching tv or playing their iPod, and they\u2019ll call out to mom, \u201cMom, I can\u2019t find my shoes!\u201d\u00a0They haven\u2019t gotten up, they haven\u2019t moved, but they\u2019ve already decided they can\u2019t find their shoes. Am I the only person to live through this?\u00a0Here\u2019s the point: How many of us have showed up to church one time, you tried praying for three days, and then you declared, \u201cI can\u2019t find God!\u201d<\/p>\n

What does Jeremiah say? “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,\u201d declares the Lord.”\u00a0<\/em>Jeremiah 29:13-14 \u00a0God promises that we will find Him when we seek him, but many of us don\u2019t want to put the effort in. We\u2019re too lazy. Remember, the God we\u2019re talking about is the Creator of Heaven and Earth. He is all-powerful. He is all-knowing. He is not our servant, supposed to come at our beck and call. Let\u2019s not forget the Master and who\u2019s the servant in this relationship. Some of us get lazy and treat God like a servant and then we get mad when he doesn\u2019t come the first time we call.<\/p>\n

5. We neglect the Holy Spirit. <\/b>Right before Jesus left this earth, he told his disciples as plain as day, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever\u2014the Spirit of truth.”<\/em> John 14:16-17<\/p>\n

God the Father is too marvelous, too holy, too majestic for us. He warns humans in the Old Testament that want to see him, that if they saw him, they would die.\u00a0God the Son, Jesus Christ, lived on this earth for 33 years, died, was buried, and was resurrected on the third day. For the billions of us who didn\u2019t live back in first century Palestine, we missed out on seeing God in the flesh.\u00a0But we have God the Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus himself said that the Holy Spirit is the primary way that God will communicate and relate to believers after Jesus ascended back into heaven. We live in the age of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

So does it surprise anyone that if you grew up like I did in a denomination and a religious tradition that neglected the person and work of the Holy Spirit, that you might have problems connecting with God?\u00a0You put all those reasons together, and I\u2019m guilty of all five, then it shouldn\u2019t surprise us at all that we feel like God is hidden from us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’ve ever felt like God is distant or hidden, or maybe your pursuit of God is one big game of hide-and-seek (and God is a really good hider), here are five common reasons why it’s hard for us to find God: 1. We live too fast. Psalm 46:10 says, \u201cBe still and know that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27,30,29,28],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-steps","tag-god","tag-hidden","tag-hide","tag-holy-spirit"],"yoast_head":"\n5 Reasons Why It's Hard for Us to Find God - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here are five common reasons why it can be difficult for us to find God.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/09\/5-reasons-hard-us-find-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Reasons Why It's Hard for Us to Find God - 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Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. 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