Nearness of God

James 4:8 "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."

   Good morning and welcome. Have you ever felt you had to go it all alone or if you are a Christian that God is not close to you anymore. I know so many times I have heard someone say, "I just feel so far away from God." I know what that is like, I had a time in my life when I would have had to look hard to find God. But you know what? God has never left me, He was right there the whole time.

   In his book "The Pursuit of God" A.W. Tozer addressed this very thought. He wrote, the revelation of God to any man is not God coming from a distance upon a time to pay a brief and momentous visit to man's soul.

   The approach of God to the soul or of the soul to God isn't to be thought of in spatial terms at all. This is not a matter of physical distance, it is not a matter of miles but of relationship. To speak of being near to or far from God is to use language that we as humans can understand based on our relationships with each other. When we sing, "Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord," we are not singing of nearness of the place, but of the nearness of our relationship.

   We never have to shout across some great space to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts.