There are many times when we can feel like God is distant and far away from us. We wonder why church services suddenly feel cold and impersonal. We wonder why our prayer life and our devotional life seems dry and detached from the encounter with God we once experienced. And we can find ourselves asking the question "where is God? Did He leave? Where did He go?"
Sometimes, however, a better question to ask may be "Who moved?" Does God move away from us, or do we move away from God? Could it be that the reason that we lose intimacy with God has more to do with our failure to follow Jesus? Could it be that our intimacy with God as followers of Jesus is directly connected with our obedience to the teachings of Jesus and the Bible?
There is a story in the Bible where Jesus, in a conversation with His disciples, reveals for us a timeless truth when it comes to the link between obedience and intimacy:
"He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him." John 14:21-23
Jesus explained to His disciples that faithfulness to His teachings results in intimacy in our relationship with Him. As we follow Jesus and His teachings, God discloses Himself to us and dwells with us.
So, if your relationship with God is dry and distant, who moved? What is keeping God disclosing from disclosing Himself and dwelling with you?
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