Where Is God When I Need Him

Where Is God When I Need Him?
Where is God when He feels so distant? How do you draw near to God? Do you pray more, read the Bible more, fast? Finding nearness to God is not complicated. The Bible tells us to rejoice in the Lord always! (Philippians 4:5-7). Just because we don’t recognize that He is near, doesn’t mean He is distant.

With a country divided, the Republican risk and morality being redefined, it’s time to gather round the camp fire, get back to basics, and spark the revival that this country so desperately needs.
This is the American Camp Fire revival with Cook Cameron.
Where is God when he feels so distant?
Well, this is such an important topic Jesus talks about it a lot in the Bible.
Uh, all of scripture talks about the goodness and the nearness of god.
God says that he wants to be with us.
In fact, the word immanuel at Christmas means god with us.
So where is god when we don’t feel like he’s near to us?
We spend 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 of dollars on books about how to draw near to god things things that we might be able to do to feel closer to god, maybe learning how to pray more or learning how to read the Bible more or or learning how to have spiritual fasts that help us draw near to god, maybe strike some yoga poses and meditate on some John 316 that you memorized.
Maybe that will draw me nearer to god. Oh, god. Come close to me. But you know what?
My friend Jay Yance helped me to to remember an important truth.
Finding nearness with god is is really not complicated.
In fact, the secret and the key to god’s nearness is right there in god’s word, he gives us the key to experiencing his nearness.
In the book of Philippians, chapter 4 verses 5 through 7, it says this rejoice in the lord always.
He says, I’ll say it again. Rejoice. And I’m thinking, why god? Why why am I gonna rejoice?
It’s it’s it’s It’s hard to rejoice when I don’t feel like you’re near to me.
And then he says, let your gentleness be seen to all men or your patience be seen to all men.
Why? And here here he says, the lord is near.
He doesn’t say, stand on your head and count to 3 and and and recite, uh, the first song and you’ll draw god close to you.
He says, no, the lord is near. The lord is near.
The Bible says that there is a brother who’s a friend who sticks closer than a brother, and that is the lord.
He says I’ll never leave you. I’ll never forsake you.
If we’ve come to him by faith, if you have been adopted into his family by faith, then the lord is near.
And the problem that I think we have is not that we’re not doing enough to make god come close to us.
It’s that we’re not believing what he’s already told us about his location. He is near.
Just because we don’t recognize his nearness or acknowledge his nearness doesn’t mean that he’s not near.
If I were blind and you were standing in front of me and I didn’t acknowledge or recognize your nearness, that doesn’t mean you’re not near.
It just means I’m not recognizing it.
This is a really, really wonderful truth that’s gonna bring you great comfort tonight if you get a hold of this.
Jesus talked about things when he was here on the earth that that were reminders of god’s nearness to us.
Jesus talked about everyday things, that you and I come in contact with that can remind us of the closeness of god.
Jesus talks about foxes. He talks about holes in the ground.
He talks about treasure, about leaves falling, about birds falling, about the ground, about crops, about business, even about manure piles, he talks about bright lights and soldiers and government.
He talks about the everyday things that you and I encounter.
And he uses them to remind us of the faithfulness of god to you and his nearness to us.
I wanna show you something that I I grabbed in my my garden today.
Just scrounged around and and and got a few things. Here’s one of them. Uh, look at this.
What is this? This is a this is a this is a a a brown leaf dried out, left over from the fall.
It’s not decomposed yet.
What does god have to do with this leaf What is what is what does he have to say to us about this?
Well, before this leaf was dried out, this leaf used to be a bright, beautiful color.
On on one of my trees. And before that, it was a bright green color.
And And this this leaf came right out of this little point at the top of the stem.
A little bud was here, and out of that bud came this beautiful green leaf, and that green leaf then turned into a bright vibrant color in the fall, and then it turned brown And then it’s gonna decompose over the winter and become nutrients and conditioning for the soil that’ll grow my strawberries and my tomatoes for my sandwiches and my spaghetti sauce.
God is faithful in the seasons.
God is good to us through all the different seasons and in through the common everyday things in life.
God’s involved in in in all of these things.
And and he wants us to he wants us to know that. I’m gonna show you something else here.
Color is not just restricted to the autumn and to the fall. Look at this.
I got this in in in my backyard. We’re in the middle of winter. I got this too.
Look at this. This beautiful color, god is faithful to us in the seasons.
Inside these, this flower and this fruit, there’s moisture.
And and and it’s it’s got this gorgeous color to sort of wow us and to remind us of the creative genius of god and to to give us things that blow our mind with with how delicious they are and how beautiful they are.
In fact, my daughter, Olivia, is in Hawaii right now, and she sent pictures on her her her her Instagram of the forest and of the the waves and of the flowers and of the the sounds of the birds and the waterfalls.
And she’s just blown away by god’s nature, his creation.
He’s faithful to us through all the different seasons.
These are the things that that that god’s involved in.
These are the things that god wants us to to to think about. They remind us of his beauty.
They remind us of his faithfulness. And and he doesn’t have to do these things.
He he doesn’t have to do that. And then look at this. What’s this?
This is dirt. This is dirt from the guy from the garden.
What does god have to say about dirt? Well, Think about it.
Jesus used dirt to build a a whole structure for you and I to learn about what it means to be a good church and to determine whether or not we have a good church.
He talked about different types of soil Right? I’ve got leaves and sand and different things inside of this soil.
And Jesus used this to say that there’s certain kinds of of soil that has stuff in it that where things don’t grow very well.
And then there’s other kind of soil where where things will produce a great big crop.
And use that to help you and I determine whether or not we have a church that is that is really receiving the words of god and acting on them, whether those those words are taking root into our hearts and producing a harvest.
See, Jesus uses leaves to tell us whether or not a tree is worth keeping or whether it’s good for nothing and should be thrown into the fire.
He uses dirt to to help you determine whether or not you’ve got a good church.
That’s producing good fruit.
He gives us everyday things every day to remind us of his goodness, his faithfulness, and his nearness And and we need to remind ourselves.
We need to talk to ourselves about this.
Instead of assuming that god is distant, Take him at his word.
My god says my bible says that the lord is near I’m just gonna believe him.
I’m gonna take him at his word.
We walk by faith, not by sight.
And I’m gonna have faith that god is near me because he said so.
I can take god at his word. Because he’s faithful, and so can you.
And we need to talk about these things with our kids because our kids are looking around and they’re wondering based on their circumstances, if god is, uh, on a coffee break right now, everything seems to be upside down and out of control, but you know what?
God’s not sleeping. God’s not taken by surprise.
He’s working all things together for good for those who love him. Remember, he is near.
And covenant keepers win covenant breakers lose.
And that’s why we’re together tonight.
We are returning to the covenants that have been made in ancient times and in and more recent history in our country, God, we wanna honor you.
God, we want to obey you.
God, you are near to us, and we thank you that you’re near to us.
Please forgive us for not believing your word.
Please forgive us, lord, for walking by by sight, and being freaked out by what we see rather than just closing our eyes and seeing your nearness through the eyes of faith by simply believing what you’ve said.
You are near. And thank you for, lord, for for these things that remind us of your beauty and your goodness and your faithfulness to us, help us to talk to our kids about these things, lord, because their view of you is being shaped by how We as parents and grandparents view your nearness.
Thank you for Thank you for being with us through the rest of this night.
Thank you for So what do you think?
Is is god near to you right now? What are you basing your answer on?
Base it on god’s word. His word is true. It he is faithful.
You can always believe it. He never lies and he always keeps his promises.
If you trust him with all of your heart, he is your father in heaven, and he is near and he’ll never leave you.
Thanks for joining us again tonight for the American Camp Fire Revival. God bless you.
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If you’d like to learn more and join the movement, visit kirkcameron.com.