We have covered two topics that came out of the question I ask several weeks ago, “Why do or do you not accept Jesus as your Savior?” The first topic we covered was, God is unrealistic and contradictory. We tackled this topic by exploring astronomy and the evidence that the universe has for being created, and not just randomly occurring. We also looked at the Bible and the contradictory passages; seeing that, in reality, the passages are not contradictory, but rather we just don’t understand the literary style in which they were written.
Then last week we talked about the question, why do bad things happen? And we focused on the heart of the issue, us. Too often we looked to God and blame him for the bad things, but in reality, bad things happen because of the evil that we create for ourselves, and in turn, create in other people’s lives. And if we would actually follow God, that evil would decrease.
This week we’re going to now focus on the last topic that was brought up: God doesn’t seem to be there.
Now, I’m going to give you the reason why, we don’t feel the presence of God from two Christians. And then, I want to share with you the reason you might not be experiencing the presence of God.
In the Screwtape letters that we listened to a few weeks ago, C.S. Lewis used Screwtape to answer the statement, God doesn't’ seem to be there, this way: “Now it may surprise you to learn that in his efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, he relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of his special favorites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else. the reason is this. to us a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the enemy demands of men is quite a different thing. one must face the fact that all the talk about his love for men, and his service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. he really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of himself — creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like his own, not because he has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to his. We want cattle who can finally become food; he wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, he wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; he is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which our father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the enemy wants a world full of beings united to him but still distinct. and that is where the troughs come in. You must have often wondered why the enemy does not make more use of his power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree he chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the irresistible and the indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of his scheme for- bids him to use. Merely to override a human will (as his felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For his ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve. He is prepared to do a little over-riding at the beginning. he will set them off with communications of his presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. But he never allows this state of affairs to last long. sooner or later he withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. he leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs — to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature he wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better. He cannot “tempt” to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away his hand; and if only the will to walk is really there he is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys (Screwtape Letters, Letter 8).”
In C.S. Lewis’ explanation, there are times when we can’t feel God’s presence, because God himself has taken it away from us, so that we would continue to rely on him. That means that even though I might not feel the presence of God, God wants me to still trust that he is there. Which in turn strengthens my relationship with him, which pleases God all the more.
The second answer, I want to share with you, is from the book Why does God Allow Evil, written by Clay Jones, Pastor Jeff’s brother. In his book, Professor Jones writes, “If God wants us to be significantly free (know the king of freedom we possess now), then God can’t make His presence too apparent; He can’t make His presence too “saturated.” His presence in the world is not smothering, like an overbearing parent. He is not an ever-present “helicopter God” (philosophers call this epistemic distance or divine hiddenness). This is sos because if God’s existence were at every moment absolutely unmistakable, then many people would abstain from desires that they might otherwise indulge…In other words, if Christianity were unmistakably true, then people would have less free will and they would be compelled to feign loyalty (page 111-112).”
That means that God would be like a cop that hung around all the time. When people drive down the road and see a police car, they automatically slow down, so as to not get pulled over. We don’t do bad things when we could get in trouble. Not because we don’t want to do those bad things, but rather, because we don’t want the punishment. So God does not make his presence fully realized to us. Because if he idd, they there’s a good possibility that we would follow him just so we wouldn’t get in trouble, not because we truly wanted to.
Now those are two theological reasons why we don’t experience the presence of God. But do you know the real reason we don’t experience him? It’s because most of us, don’t really want the presence of God in our lives. To be in the presence of God means to hurt, like you never have hurt before. Because it means loving people that hate and hurt you. It means being put into positions where you will experience the pain that we inflict on God. It means that your life might experience a call to literally die for God. And in the suffering know who God is, because his presence is found not in the ease of life, but in the pain. And not just the fleeting pain of a moment, but the pain of looking past our our struggles and into the lives of the struggles of the people around us.
What we want when we talk about experiencing God’s presences, is an emotional high from singing some songs. Or we want the loud voice and big movements of God. But in reality, the greatest experience of God, is when all around us is pain, and we have given fully into the work of God, and it’s there that we find him. Because that is where he is, that is where he calls us into; moving beyond what we need and speaking God’s word into the pain and suffering of others.
Why did the prophet Daniel experience God? Because he went into the lions den. Why did the prophet Jeremiah experience God? Because he saw the destruction of Jerusalem. Why did Peter experience God? Because he was beaten for speaking about Jesus. We may get hints of the presence of God, but to really experience him, means to move beyond ourselves, immersing ourselves in his word, and his work.
But we don’t want that, because that is hard. It takes time, effort, and giving up what we want for what he wants. And so, if we’re not ready to move beyond ourselves, then we’re not ready to experience the presence of God, and we’ll always say, “God doesn’t seem to be there.” And the reason is because we’re too focused on ourselves to see him.
See the Psalmist got it write when he wrote, “7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you (Psalm 139:7-12).”
God is not there, not because he really isn’t there. No, it’s because we’re not really wanting it. We’re not willing to give up ourselves to him, and therefore not willing to experiencing his presence, even though it is all around us.
So how do we get to that point? How do we get to the point of Moses at the burning bush? We dive into God’s Word. We have God change our minds from what we believe, to what he says. We stop focusing on ourselves and begin to focus on him. And we start to love, like he loves, and not like we are right now. That means we have to forgive the unforgivable, and be taken into places where the pain will be deeper than we have ever experienced before.
My question to you tonight is simple, do you really want the presence of God. If the answer is yes, be prepared to lose everything you think you know, for a greater understanding of yourself and the world around you. If the answer is no, then I will say one simple thing to you: you’ll never know yourself or this world in the way you were created to and that means you’ll always be searching for something more.
What is you answer?
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