Truly, you are a God who hides himself. Isaiah 45:15
God sometimes hides Himself from the people He loves. This is always distressing to a true believer. Our love for the Lord is shot through with a great deal of selfishness, and yet it is true that we love Him and are distressed when we cannot find Him.
It is important to know, when you cannot feel the presence of God, that this is a common Christian experience. Job said, “Oh, that I knew where I might find him” (Job 23:3). David said, “My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, ‘Where is your God?’” (Psa. 42:3).
When God hides his face, one of two things will happen: Either we begin to long for Him, or we rest content without His presence. Notice, when Solomon’s bride comes to the door and finds that he is gone, she does not say, “Well, he is gone, too bad for him!” No! She loves him, and so she seeks him, and she cannot rest until she finds him.
The proof that a person loves God is that he cannot be happy unless he is near Him. The person without the Spirit knows nothing of this. He may say he believes in God. He may ask God for help. But the person without the Spirit does not love God.
That’s why Paul says, “No one seeks for God” (Rom. 3:11). We are naturally content on our own. We feel that we can handle life. We do not need God, and we do not want God, because we do not love God. If God is to figure in our lives at all, it must be on our terms.
Tell God that you cannot be content without Him, and it will not be long before He turns His face toward you.
