I would go as far as to say that the most important thing about you is what you think about when you think of God. Your conception of God determines how you perceive God and how you relate to Him. Of course, people who call themselves 'atheists' don't believe in God at all, and so they don't desire to relate to Him or have any yearning after Him. Yet there is a considerably sizeable group of people who do believe in God - yet they consider God to be distant. Are you a member of that group? They feel detached from God, or that God has detached Himself from them. They have this concept that God is like an absentee landlord - someone who owns the place, and collects His tax...death, judgement, responsibility...but He never really shows up. Some have a conception of God as the prime source of all things. Yes, they believe that He started life, He created life, He is the Originator and the Creator - but they have this idea that He just set the wheels in motion and now He nonchalantly observes everything from a distance. I don't know if you feel like that, but I fear that many believers do. God is there - they know that, and they believe that with all their hearts - but God is not real to them.
The reason why God seems distant at times is simply because we are not looking for Him. If you are not looking for God, you will not find God; but if you are looking for Him, you will find Him everywhere, because He is the God who wants to be seen, because He wants to be known. However, you must understand that He will only be found and known by seekers. Most people do not seek God, and most people who don't seek Him feel that He hides from them. You hear people say: 'There is no evidence of God at all!' - but they never see evidence of Him because they don't want Him. It is because they don't want Him, that they don't seek Him; and because they don't seek Him, they don't see Him; and because they don't see Him, they don't know Him. That is why God is hidden from them. Paul the apostle states this plainly in 2 Corinthians 4:3: 'If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost' - there it is!
But, though God is hidden from people by their unbelief, the Bible says He is obvious to those who look for Him. Are you looking for Him? Jeremiah 29:13 says: 'Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart' - 'You will find me'! God wants to be found - He wants to be known and that's why He wants to be found. Let me ask you: do you know God? I'm not just addressing people who do not know Christ as their personal Saviour, I'm addressing everyone: do you know God? I'm not asking if you know about Him, but do you know Him? Few people really know Him. Why? Because few people seek Him!
Find out more in the sermons: 'The God Who Wants To Be Seen And Known', and 'When God is Distant'...
