{"id":6556,"date":"2015-06-02T02:14:11","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T02:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6556"},"modified":"2015-06-02T02:14:11","modified_gmt":"2015-06-02T02:14:11","slug":"the-god-who-hides-himself-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6556","title":{"rendered":"The God who hides Himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior!<\/em> Isaiah 45:15<\/p>\n

Have you ever felt as if God was absent from your life? I\u2019m not talking about before<\/em> you received Jesus as Lord of your life; I\u2019m talking about since<\/em> you\u2019ve given your life to Him.<\/p>\n

Let me share something that may\u00a0help you\u2014you\u2019re not alone in this feeling. Sometimes the Living God withdraws\u2014not His presence<\/em> from your life\u2014but the experience<\/em> of His presence.<\/p>\n

Why would He do such a thing to one of His children who so desperately longs for a touch from Him? Very possibly,\u00a0one reason\u00a0He does this is\u00a0because we insist on “feeling” or “sensing”\u00a0Him before\u00a0<\/em>we are willing to\u00a0trust Him; we\u00a0are determined\u00a0to experience<\/em> Him before we\u00a0step out on the water by faith.<\/p>\n

You might exclaim, But He <\/em>told<\/em><\/strong> us He would provide all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus <\/em>(see Philippians 4:19), and I <\/em>need <\/em><\/strong>Him to give me a touch, a feeling, an experience!<\/em><\/p>\n

Your need, however, is not<\/em> to feel or experience right now or God would have provided that for you. Your need at this crucial time in your life is to trust, believe, and obey without any sense of God\u2019s presence at all. And as you choose to trust Him despite<\/em> what seems to be the lack of a touch; as you choose to believe Him without<\/em> any feeling of His presence; and as you take a step of obedience without<\/em> any evident \u201cAtta boy\u201d from Heaven, you are\u2014without a doubt\u2014being watched, upheld, and supported by the Most High Himself.<\/p>\n

God hides Himself from you at times to\u00a0prompt you to lean on Him by faith alone\u2014and to grow in your faith. If you’re going through a season in which\u00a0He\u00a0seems to be\u00a0hidden from you, He is, nonetheless, very<\/em> present in your life. He has not<\/em> abandoned you, nor will He\u2014ever.<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n

…He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] <\/em>Hebrews 13:5b, AMP<\/p>\n

…for we walk by faith, not by sight.<\/em>\u00a0 2 Corinthians 5:7<\/p>\n

Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”<\/em> \u00a0John 20:29<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior! Isaiah 45:15 Have you ever felt as if God was absent from your life? I\u2019m not talking about before you received Jesus as Lord of your life; I\u2019m talking about since you\u2019ve given your life to Him. Let me share something that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[164,165,163,161,162],"class_list":["post-6556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-god-who-hides","tag-blessed-are-they-who-do-not-see-and-yet-believe","tag-i-will-not-fail-or-forsake-you","tag-not-by-sight","tag-the-god-who-hides","tag-we-walk-by-faith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6557,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6556\/revisions\/6557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}