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Episode 11: When God Feels Far Away
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Transcript
Introduction to Root Like Faith
00:00:02
Speaker
Hi, I'm Ruth Schwank and I'm so thrilled you're listening in with us at Root Like Faith. It is our deepest desire to encourage and equip men and women to be rooted in God's Word, transformed by the love of Jesus, and moved by His mission in the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is more important.
Understanding the Wall in Spiritual Growth
00:00:21
Speaker
Well, on today's episode of Root Like Faith, we'll be reviewing the stages of growth that we talked about last week and beginning to introduce the idea of the wall. And I know we mentioned this last week and I said we're going to really get into it this week. And that's the season when we hit that wall. It's the season where God feels distant. So we're going to explore what God is doing specifically when he feels far away. So let's get started.
00:00:50
Speaker
All
Stages of Spiritual Growth Explained
00:00:51
Speaker
right. Well, last week we talked about the different stages of growth and be sure to start there. If you have not listened to last week's episode, it's, I feel like, honey, do you agree with me really important that you listened to last week's episode? Absolutely. Not that you can't get anything from this episode.
00:01:08
Speaker
But we talked about the different stages of growth. And let me just briefly go over those before we kind of get into this whole idea of what we do or what God is doing, I should say, when he seems far away and when we hit the wall. You'll understand that as we go as we talk about these stages of growth and especially once you listen to the last episode. So the first stage of growth that we talked about was the converted life.
00:01:34
Speaker
And that's when we accept Jesus into our life. The second stage is the learning life. That's when we start following Christ. We can't get enough. We cannot get enough of reading the Bible, of going to Bible study, whatever it is. We can't get enough of Him.
00:01:49
Speaker
The third stage is the active life. And that's when we kind of transition into all we're learning, we start serving. And we can't serve enough either, I would say. And then we have what is called the wall, where we find ourselves hitting the wall. And this is when we can experience burnout, or maybe we have a crisis in our life, maybe somebody passes away, or we have a health diagnosis,
00:02:15
Speaker
divorce, whatever it is, this is when we can hit the wall. And I think this is when we start to feel like God is far away. And we kind of wonder, Lord, where are you? Are you even active in my life anymore? And so that's where we're going to kind of plant ourselves today.
00:02:34
Speaker
Yeah, just really quickly, I think it's important. We pointed this out in the last episode, but the stages are progressive. And so they're all necessary. You can't skip one or sort of jump to number three without going through number two. And so they are progressive and they're all necessary.
00:02:50
Speaker
But the other thing to really keep in mind, I think that's important is that they're not linear. And so it's not like you just sort of finish one and check that off and then go on to the next one. Right. And so oftentimes there's great overlap. We spend more time in maybe one stage versus another. And we can go back to different stages over the course of our lifetime. And so they're progressive, but they're also not linear.
Complexity of Overlapping Stages
00:03:12
Speaker
And so really what God is up to as we go through these different stages is He's changing us differently. And so we're growing in Christ's likeness and holiness.
00:03:20
Speaker
or maturity. And God is really encouraging us to grow. He's a father that loves us. He wants life for us. And so it's a good process, a good journey. It's a lifelong relationship that God
Protestant Churches and Growth Challenges
00:03:32
Speaker
has us in.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah, well, and I think it's important. I mentioned last week that I feel like it's so important to understand this because how many people hit the wall and they don't realize that that's where they're at and they don't know what to do. And so I think you mentioned last week that what happens when we hit the wall
00:03:52
Speaker
is that we then, instead of progressing through the next stages, learning how to kind of navigate through that season of burnout or loss, disappointment, uncertainty. Instead of learning how to navigate through that time and let God really grow us and change us, we kind of cycle back through and we just keep hitting the wall or we're just stuck
Navigating Burnout and Spiritual Loss
00:04:13
Speaker
at the wall. There are some authors that would say that the American church as a whole is stuck in the first three cycles.
00:04:19
Speaker
And so as you think about the, and primarily who they're talking about is most evangelical Protestant churches are stuck in stages one, two, and three. And so maybe if you come from a different than Eastern Orthodox background or Catholic background, this idea of the spiritual journey or the interior life might be more familiar to you. And so some authors would say that, yeah, the vast majority of Protestant churches, we maybe don't have a good understanding
00:04:43
Speaker
of the process, the journey, and the different stages. So we get stuck in stages one, two, and three. We hit that wall. We get burned out. We don't know what to do. I'm never teaching kids again. I don't know what to do, and so I'm just going to quit or cycle back. I need another Bible study.
00:04:57
Speaker
Yeah, and I think about just pastoral ministry over the last 20 plus years and how many people have, you know, eventually they just, they might leave or maybe they're going through a hard time or they kind of feel like they're floundering a little bit and then they're just gone. You know, I wonder how many of those people are really just hitting the wall.
00:05:16
Speaker
Absolutely. And it is sobering to think about because again, the vast majority of Christians, like we just don't know what to do in that season. And there are fewer guides as we progress in the spiritual life. There's fewer people that have chosen to enter into that season, that stage of the wall, the dark night of the soul, and have come out of it by God's grace and with the help of other people in their life.
00:05:39
Speaker
And so it's sobering to think about a lot of Christians who enter into that season, and now church feels different to them. They feel burned out, they feel disconnected, and there are fewer voices that are able to kind of speak into their life and to help navigate them through that difficult and dark season so that they come out into that next stage of the inner life.
00:06:01
Speaker
or the inward life and then back to the outward life where we're now loving in a new, deeper way.
The Normalcy of Feeling God Distant
00:06:06
Speaker
And so there are, I can think of so many people that have entered into that season and have... They don't know what to do. They don't know what to do. And so as we're talking about this, I think that again, it's why it's so important for us to understand what God is up to in each of these stages.
00:06:21
Speaker
that each of these stages are really important and they're normal. And so as somebody hits the wall or enters into the dark night of the soul, like nothing's wrong with you. It's not because you lack faith. This is a part of the journey and God is doing something very unique in this season. And I think what you said in the last episode, this has to be a choice. That when we hit the wall, we make a choice. Not everybody enters into the dark night of the soul or enters into this
00:06:47
Speaker
season of wrestling with who God is and what God wants to teach us. And so there comes a choice that we have to make. We can't just cycle back to stages one, two, and three. We have to enter into what God wants to do in us. And it's really a season maybe most marked by surrender.
00:07:04
Speaker
We have this choice to surrender to who God is, what he's up to, and recognize that God is so much bigger than we probably realize in some of the answers that we had before, not making sense. And so we're surrendering to who God is, how he's revealed himself in his word and going, okay, God, I might not feel you right now, but I trust you and I trust your word. And so I'm going to surrender to what you're doing in this season, whether it lasts for a month or whether it lasts for two years or three years.
00:07:29
Speaker
Right. And I think, you know, so I'm thinking about the listener who's listening right now, who feels like God is far away, is distant, and maybe they're at the wall right now. And I think that it's important to just state here that we all have times in our life where God feels distant.
00:07:50
Speaker
We all are going to come to this wall at some point and I feel I I mentioned last week that I would that I wanted you to share Nothing like putting you on the spot, but that I wanted you to share your experience your personal experience with this because again I think it's important to people for people to know that they are not alone
00:08:09
Speaker
Yeah, and again, you're right. We all experience there's times where God does feel distant and that doesn't necessarily mean you're in the dark night of the soul. There's times just in any given week or any given day we don't necessarily feel God's presence.
Pastoral Experiences of Burnout and Renewal
00:08:21
Speaker
But in that unique season when we hit the wall, it's usually marked by some time of uncertainty, maybe a health crisis or the loss of a loved one or maybe a midlife type issue. I mean, there's all sorts of reasons why people hit
00:08:35
Speaker
the wall. And at that moment or in that season, they have a choice now. I'm either going to move forward and navigate this season by God's grace with the help of other people or I'm not. And I hit that season right around the time I was diagnosed or actually shortly after I was diagnosed. I didn't know it at the time. I didn't necessarily have language to wrap around what it was that I was feeling or experiencing. But
00:08:59
Speaker
As most of our listeners know, I was diagnosed with a type of blood cancer in January of 2018. We were in the middle of planting a church. We were in the middle of writing a book. I was in the middle of doing my doctoral studies, and we had all sorts of things going on. And I've always had a pretty good motor, like I love to go and to do, and I'm a dreamer.
00:09:19
Speaker
And so we were pressing on with all of those things, even in the midst of my cancer diagnosis. I remember writing part of that book while I was in the hospital for my first stem cell transplant. And so rest does not always come easy for me. And yet as we came out of that and by God's grace, we saw the cancer go into remission. I think it was probably six months after that where you and I, as we would go for walks,
00:09:42
Speaker
And we would talk, we began to really go, gosh, what does the future look like for us in terms of the church that we're leading? And I was really beginning to wrestle at that time with, I didn't know it, but I was really wrestling with burnout. I was exhausted. I was wiped out. I mean, every phone call, every text message.
00:10:01
Speaker
was a major drain on me because I just didn't have anything left to give. I felt emotionally spent, physically spent, spiritually spent. Here you are a pastor. Here I'm a pastor, which is a bad combination. I want people to know that this can happen to anyone.
00:10:21
Speaker
I won't share all of those details, but I got counsel to basically go see a Christian counselor, a Christian psychologist in the area. And I remember sitting with him in his office on that first day, and I was just kind of sharing with him what we'd been through over the last two years. And he's like, yeah, I mean, who wouldn't be burned out? Who wouldn't be exhausted? And he, of course, had a very good understanding of what we're talking about today. And I remember him telling me, if you don't do something different, you're not going to make it.
00:10:48
Speaker
I mean, he understood where I was at, what was going on in my soul, and he said, you've got to be a good steward of your soul. This is an opportunity for you to model what it looks like to take care of your soul. And of course, he's talking about this lifelong journey, this season of hitting the wall of the dark night of the soul.
00:11:04
Speaker
And there's a lot more I could share about that. I think in the year and a half after that, not only did I go through counseling with him, I went out to Colorado and spent time at Restoring the Soul, which is a ministry designed
00:11:20
Speaker
for people who are in different seasons or circumstances. And it was a week of intensive counseling and direction that was incredibly transformational for me. And God really used that, again, to, I think, restore my soul, to help me navigate through this season of the dark night and the journey inward.
00:11:42
Speaker
And those things have been incredibly important for me that there are other people that have been a part of that journey that still are. But that is very real. That has been very real for me in my own life, or this has been very real for me as we talk about these different stages in particular, we talk about the wall, the dark night of the soul. It's been very, very real for me over the last two, three years.
00:12:03
Speaker
And by God's grace, it's like, oh, I'm learning to breathe again. I have life again and I can love again in a new way, in a deeper way. And so that's just a bit of my story through some of these stages over the last couple of years. And I wanted you to share that because I feel like that is just a real life example of how helpful it is to understand these stages because you didn't understand these stages at that time, I don't think, correct? Had you read about these stages before?
00:12:32
Speaker
I had read about, it's interesting because somebody had given me the critical journey almost 15 years ago, and I remember it was a friend of mine who's in pastoral ministry, and I remember reading it and going, what is he talking about? And so as I've been journeying over the last year or so, I actually pulled that book off of my shelf and began reading again, and it was like, oh.
00:12:53
Speaker
I get it. I get it. This is what he was going through. And I wasn't there yet. Like, I hadn't experienced that yet. We had talked about this in my discipleship cohort, a part of my doctoral studies. And even then, you know, I understood it in a cognitive way, I understood it mentally, but I hadn't yet experienced it. And I didn't understand fully what it meant to go through some of those stages in particular,
00:13:17
Speaker
what it looked like to go through the wall, the dark night of the soul and come out on the other end. I just didn't know anybody necessarily that had that kind of language or that experience in the ways that we've been talking
Sharing Experiences to Foster Connection
00:13:30
Speaker
about. And so it has been so incredible. It's been very new to me, even after 20 years of pastoral ministry and how God has placed certain people in my life.
00:13:38
Speaker
to really help me walk through this season. Well, it helps you put words to where you're at, you know, and helps you move forward, which is why we want to talk about this on the podcast. So that shows, you know, I wanted him to share that so that you could see as the listener that if you're in them, if God feels far away right now, if he feels distant, you are not alone. This is very normal.
00:14:02
Speaker
This is a part of the spiritual journey. And so when you hit that wall, today we're just talking about specifically what to do when God feels distant.
Practical Advice for Spiritual Distances
00:14:15
Speaker
Next week we are going to talk more about journeying. Oh, that's a really hard, can you say that word? How do you journeying? I'm not gonna try, not right now. Not right now. Journeying, journeying.
00:14:25
Speaker
journeying inward. Okay, there we go. Got it. But next week, we're going to talk more about, you know, what God is doing as we journey inward. And today, specifically, we want to talk about what you can do practically when God feels distant.
00:14:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's really important for us to, first of all, just understand there's a great example in the Bible of Jesus. Some commentators have described Jesus, his example for us in Luke chapter 22, and so maybe we can read
00:15:01
Speaker
that particular passage, is just a biblical example of Jesus walking through the dark night of the soul. And so Luke chapter 22, starting in verse 39, going through verse 46.
00:15:16
Speaker
Well, listen, I like, I was always the one to raise my hand and like, I just like reading out loud. So, okay. Um, Luke 22 verses 39 through 46. Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of olives and his disciples followed him.
00:15:39
Speaker
Oh, honey, I can't read it. You're going to have to make that a little smaller or something. Wow. You know, Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives and his disciples followed him on reaching that place. He said to them, pray that you will not fall into temptation and withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them. He knelt down and he prayed.
00:15:59
Speaker
Verse 42 says, Father, if you are willing, take the cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. Of course, Jesus here is talking about going to the cross. He understands what is ahead of him, what's on the horizon. And he says, Father, if you're willing, take this cup from me.
00:16:15
Speaker
yet not my will, but yours be done." An angel from heaven approached him and strengthened him. This is interesting. This is only the second time an angel has ever come and ministered to Jesus. It's the first time we see that is at the beginning in the temptation in the desert in Matthew 4 where Jesus comes out of that temptation and he's strengthened by an angelic messenger or messenger from God.
00:16:36
Speaker
And here's the second time towards the end of his public ministry. But verse 44 says, and being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly. And so the more he was in anguish, the more he prayed and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. I mean, Jesus had reached sort of the limit of human suffering. When he rose from prayer and he went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.
00:16:59
Speaker
Why are you sleeping? Ask them. Get up and pray that you will not fall into temptation. Now, there's so much we could say about this passage. But again, this is what some commentators have described as Jesus' dark night of the soul. He's alone. Those who are closest to Him don't even know how to minister to Him. They actually let Him down in His time of need.
00:17:20
Speaker
Um, his friends aren't there to encourage him, support him, pray for him. They fall asleep on the job, if you will. And he's incredible. He's an incredible anguish. Um, it's just he and the father and he knows what's coming. And it's in that context and that environment that Jesus is still able to say, not my will be done, but your will be done.
00:17:39
Speaker
And so there's so many parallels. When we look at what Jesus went through and what we go through, obviously it's not perfect in terms of the parallels, but many commentators have used that as a biblical example of the dark night of the souls. Even Jesus walked through a very difficult time where his father seemed distant. There was great darkness around him. He didn't understand. He was asking for the father to take the cup away from him, and yet at the end of the day, he was still choosing.
00:18:06
Speaker
out of obedience to the Father and love for us to drink that cup by going to the cross. Yeah, so I mean, what do we do? I mean, that's the question. I mean, what do we do when we find ourselves like you found yourself, like we just read about Jesus, when we're in the middle of the dark night of the soul, when God feels far away, when he seems distant, when we've hit the wall,
00:18:33
Speaker
what can we do or what should we do practically? I mean, where do we go from there? Yeah, I think, I mean, a couple things before we hit those practical sort of takeaways or things we can specifically do, because this season in particular is a season where, again, God seems really, really distant. He seems far. We don't understand what he's doing. And so just maybe really quickly, it's helpful to remember
00:18:56
Speaker
that when we hit the wall, when we enter into the dark night of the soul, what God is doing is he's oftentimes dealing with our brokenness. He's dealing with our sin. He's dealing with our wounds. He's in this season many times dealing with false images that we have about him.
00:19:13
Speaker
And so there are all sorts of things that God is up to. He's dealing with our disordered loves. Again, the things that we look to, our addiction to entertainment, our addiction to stuff, consumerism, all of that stuff gets poked at and disrupted. And we begin to realize, I have loved other things and these are lesser things than God.
00:19:34
Speaker
And these are things that could never satisfy me. They can't fulfill me in the same way that my relationship with God the Father can through the Son and the power of the Spirit. And so God is really up to helping us see our disordered love, dealing with our brokenness, some of those false images that we have of Him. He's also really detaching us from our flesh and He's attaching us to Himself so that we might, you know, again, be rooted in who He is and the love and the life that He has for us.
00:20:00
Speaker
And so it's really, really important for us that we just understand that that perceived absence of God, it's perceived because it's not real. God isn't really distant from us. He's with us. He's for us. He's promised in his word to never forsake us. It's perceived absence of God. We just can't feel his presence. Those are two very different things. Well, I think we've mentioned before, too, that when God feels distant, it's usually not him, it's us. Well, it isn't him, it's us. And that's what you're saying.
00:20:28
Speaker
Yes. Yes. And so I think as we talk about then some specific things that we can do, because again, I think everybody at some point we experience that and it's healthy.
The Dark Night of the Soul
00:20:39
Speaker
It's how God grows us. It's a part of us now beginning to journey inward, which we're going to talk about in the next episode so that we can move outward again in a more Christ like way and give our life away and love to other people freely. And so I think some things that we can do that are helpful in this season
00:20:57
Speaker
And again, this is so, the dark night of the soul, it's hard to talk about it because everybody's experience is so different. And some people are in this stage or in this, you know, in these circumstances for six months, some people are in this season for, for years. And so it's difficult to say, if you just do A, B and C, you're going to come out of it and be fine. It's not that easy. It's not like God's not that predictable. It's going to take three months and you'll be, no, it's not like that at all.
00:21:26
Speaker
But I think that there are some things that are helpful for us to do and to remember as we enter into that season or if you're listening and you feel like you're in that place. And so one of the things that I would just say really practically is just is number one is to make a choice to go onward. And what I mean by that is that you just keep doing what you've been doing.
00:21:45
Speaker
And I know that sounds so simple. I mean, there were times, there were many times over, you know, that course that I was describing where it's like even reading my Bible was difficult. And even praying was difficult. I couldn't find the words or the words seemed so shallow. They just seemed like sort of a bubble that, you know, floated up in the air and sort of evaporated or broke. And so I think that as we enter into the dark night of the solos, we're in that season.
00:22:07
Speaker
where God does feel distant, it's good to remember to keep doing what we've always done. We keep reading our Bible, we keep praying, we keep going to church, we keep worshiping. We just keep doing what we know is the right thing to do, whether we feel it or not. Because the tendency, I mean, this is just what happens. If God feels far away, most of the time we aren't seeking after Him. You know, we kind of just give up. You know, we stop going to church. We stop reading our Bible.
00:22:35
Speaker
Well, I think it's really easy. I think this season is really, it's a very dangerous, it's a necessary season, but I would also say it's a very dangerous season. I know lots of people who've entered into this and they've gone off the rails. They haven't gone onward. They've gone onward, but they've stepped outside of God's word and they have drifted spiritually. They drift from the church. And so it can be a very, very dangerous season because it is a season of uncertainty.
00:23:03
Speaker
and surrender and your perceptions about God sometimes get blown out of the water. And so people have a real tendency in this stage to really go off the rails theologically, biblically. And so it is a time of searching and a time of hunger, wanting the real thing. We're so tired of maybe the ways that an experience with God has been manipulated or we can tell the difference between that. And we just are so hungry for the real thing. We just want God's presence.
00:23:33
Speaker
And so it can be a really, really good season, but it can be a dangerous season. Now, the second thing I would say is just remember the truth about God, no matter how you feel about God. And that really does tie into the first thing. But I think just remembering the things that are true about God are true because that's what God's word says, not because of how I feel.
00:23:50
Speaker
And so we come back, you know, for example, Psalm 139 was a favorite passage. Can I read this one now? Because since I obviously didn't get to read the last one, I tried. It's okay, honey. Okay. Psalm 139 seven through 10 says, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
00:24:13
Speaker
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast.
00:24:23
Speaker
I love that passage because again, this is the confidence that we have that God is with us. He is for us. He is present with us, whether we perceive it or not. And so again, we keep coming back to what God's word says in this season, even when it's a season where we can't feel God's presence. So Hebrews 13 verse five is another example of that. I will never leave you nor forsake you. And so it's that reminder of what is true, no matter whether I feel it or not.
00:24:49
Speaker
Right. He's teaching us to walk by faith and not by feeling. Yeah, absolutely. And so I think that's such a critical, critical part of this journey is really clinging to God's Word, having a new understanding of the truth of God's Word and the promises of God, whether we feel it or not. And God is, like you said, asking us to walk by faith and not by feeling. Now, the third thing I think is really important is that this is a great season of just examining our own soul.
00:25:15
Speaker
and allowing the Holy Spirit to search us. In other traditions, the stages of spiritual growth are talked about as the first stage is purgative. And what they mean by that is that in the first stage, there's this purging of sin. And so I think that as we think about the dark night of the soul, it's an incredible opportunity
00:25:36
Speaker
for us to be open to God's truth and His love. And what He's doing, as we said before, is He's really detaching us from lesser loves. He's exposing to us or revealing to us disordered loves, things that we look to that are not Him, that can't give us what He offers us. And so it's an opportunity for us to do what the psalmist did. David in Psalm 51 or Psalm 139, search me and know me.
00:26:00
Speaker
you'll see if there's anything offensive in me. And so this can be a great season of repentance, of new faith in God, of purging our lives of sin, of lesser loves that we've looked to. And so I would say this is a great season to look introspectively at your own soul. Yeah, and I think we mentioned in the last episode and we'd say here that this is where it's also important to seek counsel and accountability to help you through this. That's a critical part.
00:26:29
Speaker
I remember sitting in the backyard with a gentleman in the area who's been a spiritual friend, spiritual companion to me, and we were sitting in the backyard, and I was actually doing this. I was just saying that I was beginning to share with him, just in some very real ways, stuff that I was struggling with. And I remember hearing this rustling in the bushes, and I looked over, and his neighbor was out in the backyard. And I could see the top of his neighbor's head, and I could see his gardening hat.
00:26:59
Speaker
He already has a prayer garden in the back and so we go and we sit back there and we talk and pray and read scripture. Oh, honey. And I was in the middle of sharing, you know, some things. Your deepest, darkest secrets and the neighbor was listening. And I remember getting in my car going,
00:27:14
Speaker
Oh, what did I say? What if that person goes to our church? Did I really say that? And I had to conclude, yes, I really did say that. Those things really are coming from my heart. And so this season, I think in particular, there's an opportunity, again, to draw close to God. And I would say that the last thing, again, the last for the episode, there's so many other things we could talk about.
00:27:35
Speaker
is that we just need to remember to persevere, keep doing what we've been doing, but do more of that. Keep reading the scriptures, keep praying, keep seeking godly counsel, keep repenting of sin. And we keep persevering because this again is a season where we're learning that any fruit that we bear in our life comes from abiding in Christ, right? Jesus says in John chapter 15, you can do nothing apart from me.
00:27:59
Speaker
And I think that that's one of the most challenging things. That was one of the most challenging things for me in this season was just realizing that I can't do anything apart from God's grace. I can't go in on a Sunday morning and fake it. I can't preach a sermon and make people respond in a certain way. Everything that God wants to do in my life or through my life is an outpouring of His grace.
00:28:20
Speaker
And so you come to a very, I think a humbled place where you begin to realize, God, this is, you know, I can't rush this. I can't get through this. And so all I can do is just keep persevering, keep trusting you, keep walking with you. And when you are ready, you're going to convince me of some things. You're going to do some things in my life, but that's all from you. I can't make those things happen. So it's really in many ways a season of waiting.
00:28:44
Speaker
and being patient and persevering for God to do what he needs to do in our own soul so that we can now enter into those other stages that we've talked about. And that's what's interesting to me is that we can, like we said, you make the choice to go onward and go through this and really let God change you. And there's so many people who turn away from God in this time when the reality is that the only place we'll ever find peace is by abiding in Christ.
Finding Peace through Abiding in Christ
00:29:14
Speaker
And so we can't give up on that. We have to go onward and really work through this time. Well, this has been so good. Honey, I was thinking of the listener again who is listening, who feels like God is far away, who feels like God is distant. And I'm wondering if you would close us out by praying for that person in particular today. I'd love to.
00:29:41
Speaker
I would love to. Father, we just come before you today and we love you. We trust you. We know that you are with us and you are for us. You've given us the gift of your son, Jesus, who lived a life that we couldn't live and he died the death that we deserve. And you raised him victorious over sin, Satan, and death. And by our faith in him, you wash us clean. You give us new life. You give us the hope of everlasting life and you've poured out your spirit.
00:30:04
Speaker
in our hearts and you've promised to never leave us or forsake us. And so I pray for the listener today that it doesn't feel your presence. They sense that you are distant. God, would you by your grace draw near to them today? Would you show them just how dearly loved, how deeply loved they are? Would they look to the cross and be reminded of how deep and wide your love
00:30:26
Speaker
really is and we just ask that you would pour out your spirit on them, that they would experience a fresh feeling of your spirit, that they would know you in new ways, in deeper ways, that you would guard them, you would protect them from the enemy, that they would turn to you and not from you. And so we just lift up our listeners today and we just say collectively as a part of this Root Like Faith family, we love you, we trust you, we want more of you and continue to grow each of us no matter what stage we're in,
00:30:53
Speaker
continue to grow us and to transform us into the likeness of your son, Jesus. And it's his name, his good and powerful name that we pray today. Amen. Amen. Well, friend, we are so grateful you have joined us.
Community Engagement and Podcast Sharing
00:31:06
Speaker
If we haven't met yet, we want to get to know you. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Patrick W. Schwank and at Ruth Schwank or on Facebook. Send us a DM because there's some of you that have already done that and we love it.
00:31:21
Speaker
Don't forget that everything we talked about will be at rootlikefaith.com forward slash podcast. We welcome you into our family here at Root Like Faith. Would you do us a big favor and leave us a review or rating and share this podcast with your friends? It just takes a second. It's a tremendous help to us as we spread the word about Root Like Faith and make sure that you tag us on social media so we can repost it.
00:31:47
Speaker
We're so grateful for your help in getting the word out. All right, friend. Well, we will chat soon and we hope you have the best week.