Nearness to God

I don't think we can measure our nearness to God by our feelings.  Honestly, our feelings are idiots sometimes!  And by that I mean that our feelings aren't always right because of many reasons.  With that in mind though, I think there are things we can do to feel closer to God.  I don't know what that is for you though, so you'll have to give it some thought.  For some people it can be music - God created music and gave us the ability to enjoy it, and some people really connect with God by listening to, singing or playing music.  Others it is nature - a walk in the woods or watching birds and thinking about the beauty of God's creation.  And there are many other things that we can do that make us feel closer to God. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, the truth is we aren't any closer to God at that point, we just feel that way.  One thing that I do personally when I feel distant from God is I spend extra time in prayer and reading my Bible - and while I do that I ask God to show Himself to me and to teach me in that time what I need to hear.  It often doesn't happen in a moment, but over time I start to draw back near to God.  The other thing I do is set aside time to pray - quiet time all by myself - and I just spend time thanking God.  I thank Him for everything that comes to mind.  Thanks for fingers and toes and snow and a lawn to mow and beautiful spiders and the chance to serve my son by changing his diapers.  Sounds weird, but I think we often times take a lot of our lives for granted, even the bad things in life, and they are all opportunities to praise God. 

A pastor I know got brain cancer, but used it to praise God.  Sounds strange, but when you see that kind of love for God in others, it draws you nearer to God as well. When I write my prayers down it is a huge blessing to me later.  I'll come back to those prayers months and years later and be amazed at how God responded to my prayers.  Sometimes they are answered, and other times I see God's wisdom in not giving me what I was praying for.  And of course, some of the prayers are unanswered as far as I know, but even those weren't wasted, God knows what's going on even if I don't.