When God Feels Far Away: Hope for Struggling Believers

“How is your walk with the Lord right now?” Nicky’s heart sank when her friend asked this question. It forced her to confront just how far she felt from God. She’d been praying for years for healing in her marriage, but things only seemed to be getting worse. Not wanting to worry her friend, she replied, “It’s OK. It’s sometimes hard to pray.” In truth, she felt so distant from God that she was convinced he could no longer hear her prayers. Where is a believer’s hope when God feels far away?

Feeling far from God can be one of the most painful experiences in the Christian life, and it often intensifies during seasons of suffering. For those wrestling with broken relationships, unwanted desires, or sexual sin, this sense of distance can feel especially heavy.

Given Scripture’s clear teaching that God is near, we might ask: How can something feel so true when the Bible tells us it isn’t?

Isn’t this similar to feeling like we’re driving under the speed limit as a speed camera flashes and a fine arrives in the mail days later? Or saying, “I feel like my brother is in the room with me,” when he’s actually thousands of miles away? Our feelings can be powerful and convincing—even when they don’t reflect reality.

If we believe that God is near, it might be tempting to dismiss our feelings of distance from him as irrelevant. But surprisingly, Scripture doesn’t do that. Instead, God’s Word repeatedly acknowledges this experience and even gives us language to express it.

The Psalms are full of cries like these:

Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1)

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (Psalm 13:1)

Scripture holds two truths together: believers can feel abandoned by God, and yet the Lord is truly near. So how do we understand this tension?

When God Feels Far Away: Feelings, Thoughts, and Reality

When God feels far away, what is happening inside us?

One way that the Lord has deepened my understanding of my feelings is to learn what they are and what they are not. How we feel is tied to our emotional and physical sensations. Emotions are often described with single words like “lonely” or “scared,” and they’re frequently accompanied by bodily responses like fatigue or a racing heart. Thoughts, however, are interpretations we make about those feelings and our external circumstances. They often take the form of sentences: “God must be disappointed in me” or “God is far from me.”

Because emotions exert a powerful influence on our thoughts, even untrue thoughts can seem true when they help us make sense of our emotional state. Thankfully, the converse is also true: thoughts that are true and grounded in reality can change how we’re feeling for the better.

When your feelings don’t align with Scripture, remember this: God does not shame you for them. He acknowledges them in his Word and invites you to keep reading, keep praying, keep listening.

Is God Ever Far Away?

Let’s consider three common situations in which God may feel distant.

1. Is God far away when I am suffering?

Scripture repeatedly affirms that the Lord is near to his suffering people. Job cries out in anguish, and God eventually speaks to him personally. Joseph is forgotten in prison, Ruth faces devastating loss, Hannah weeps in barrenness, Elijah despairs in isolation—yet in each case, God is present and at work. As we read these stories with the benefit of hindsight, we are reminded that the Lord never abandons his people in suffering. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), and so we can be sure that he will not abandon us.

Short, memorizable passages that speak of God’s nearness in suffering include Joshua 1:5, Psalm 34:17–18, Psalm 46:1, Isaiah 41:10, and Matthew 28:20.

2. Is God far away if I am not in Christ?

Scripture tells us that God is near even to those who are spiritually dead in sin (Eph. 2:1–7). He sees every heart, hears cries for help, and calls people to turn to him. Throughout the Bible, God pursues the rebellious to warn, confront, and offer salvation to them.

However, Scripture also urges us to “seek the LORD while he may be found” (Isa. 55:6). God’s nearness in this sense is not indefinite. He delays judgment so that many might be saved (2 Pet. 3:9).

If you are not in Christ and feel spiritually distant from God, that awareness itself is a merciful invitation to call on him while he is near. Giving your life to Christ will enable God to draw even nearer to you—he will dwell inside you by his Spirit and make you a member of his own body. As you respond to this call, tell a Christian leader or friend; you aren’t meant to do this alone.

3. Is God far away if I am in Christ but disobeying him?

One of the most beautiful truths of the gospel is that believers are held securely by Jesus. “No one will snatch them out of my hand,” he says (John 10:28).

For those in Christ, sin affects our fellowship with God, but not our union with him. When we disobey God, we do grieve the Spirit, but we do not push him out. Instead, the Spirit convicts us, calls us to confess our sin, and helps us to believe that God receives our confession with open arms, washes us with his forgiveness, and joyfully clothes us in the righteousness of Christ (Luke 15:11–32, 1 John 1:9).

This is especially important for those struggling with sexual sin because shame fuels the belief that our failures push God away. But the gospel says the opposite: God does not withdraw from his children or punish them with distance. Jesus has already borne the full punishment for sin. If you are in Christ, you are safe, loved, and held close (Rom. 8:38–39).

If you have disobeyed the Lord and, even after confessing your sin, you struggle to believe that he is near, consider telling someone! Ask for prayer to believe that he is near to you—seek to recognize evidence of his care, protection, and provision for you.

Why Does God Allow Us to Feel His Distance?

If God is always near, why does he allow us to feel otherwise—especially during suffering?

We must acknowledge that God has not revealed all his reasons. But Scripture highlights at least two themes worth considering.

God’s Holiness

From Genesis to Revelation, we see evidence that God’s intention is to dwell amid his people. We also know that the Lord has set a longing for this in the hearts of his people. Yet for now, his face is hidden. All people can see his work and his creation, and believers have spiritual communion with him by his Spirit, but we do not yet get to experience the glory of his immediate presence.

Scripture teaches that sin is fundamentally incompatible with God’s holiness. We read many examples of fear and physical overwhelm accompanying encounters with angels and visions of the Lord (e.g. Dan. 10:7–9, Isa. 6:1-6, Matt. 28:2–4). Our fallen bodies and minds as they currently are could not yet endure the full weight of God’s glory, were we to stand before him.

As we wonder about these things, we will have unanswered questions and longings that require us to trust in the Lord. We can be sure that the reasons for our current separation from the direct presence of the Lord are good and ordained by him, and we can take comfort that one day this distance will come to an end. In the meantime, we wait—and we wait actively: in constant fellowship with the Lord and with one another.

Our Growth

In the Gospels, Jesus sometimes withdrew from his disciples, allowing their faith to be tested (Matt. 14:23–33; 17:14–20). Jesus wants his disciples to believe his words, trust in him, and exercise their faith through their actions—even when they can’t see him. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,” he says (John 20:29).

When God feels far away, be encouraged and persevere: the Lord is still at work, exercising your faith in him and using even this to strengthen you and bring you to maturity!

Did Jesus Ever Feel Far from God?

Jesus’s Incarnation

“Though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:6–7).

When Jesus was incarnated, he came to earth and took on flesh (John 6:38; 16:28), leaving the glory of heaven behind (John 17:5). During his earthly ministry, Scripture tells us that Jesus, who was rich, became poor for us and suffered in many ways (2 Cor. 8:9, Heb. 5:7–8). Even though Jesus was still truly God while he was on earth, he often withdrew to pray and commune with the Father, sometimes for many hours (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12; Matt. 26:36–42). Jesus’ devotion to seeking the Father through prayer during his time on earth, and during seasons of intense suffering, should encourage us to seek God wholeheartedly when we feel far from him, trusting his promise that those who earnestly seek him will find him (Deut. 4:29; 6:5; Jer. 29:13; Matt. 7:7).

Jesus’s Spiritual Anguish at the Cross

On the cross, Jesus cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps. 22:1). In that moment, as Jesus bore the full punishment for all his people’s sins, he experienced unique spiritual anguish under the Father’s wrath, which one theologian has described as separation from “the presence of his graciousness.”^[1]

When God feels far away, remember that Jesus sympathizes even with this feeling, as he does with all our suffering, weaknesses, and temptations (Heb. 4:15). Through his death, Jesus has ensured that you will never experience condemnation and spiritual separation from God if you are his—the most fearful consequence of our sin has been taken from us. This is a reason to worship, rejoice, and celebrate the spiritual safety we now have! Jesus has snatched us from death and brought us into the warmth of his embrace.

Hope When God Feels Far Away

If feeling distant from God is an ongoing struggle for you, I would encourage you to share this with a Christian friend. Inviting members of your spiritual family to draw close to you might help you to experience God’s nearness in tangible ways as he comforts you through his body, the church. You might also find out that you are not alone in this feeling, and even that can be a comfort!

In your private times with the Lord, try exploring your sense of distance from God. Ask yourself:

• What emotions am I feeling?
• What thoughts am I having about myself, my circumstances, and God?
• What truths from Scripture speak into those emotions and thoughts?

In prayer:

• Ask for God’s help to trust his Word over your feelings.
• Ask the Spirit to reveal any unconfessed sin that might be affecting your fellowship with him and others.

Practical steps:

• Keep reminding yourself that the Lord is near—through memorizing Scripture, creating visible and tangible reminders of his care, and by seeking to embody Christ to others through acts of love and encouragement.
• Meditate on Revelation 21–22 to remind yourself that the Lord will return and will dwell with his resurrected people, bringing an end to all pain and longing.

He is actually not far from each one of us, for “in him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:27–28)

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^[1] Michael Reeves, “Ask Ligonier with Michael Reeves,” accessed February 16, 2025.