What do you do...
When God feels distant?When God doesn't cooperate?
When God seems late?
We all face times when it feels like God is far away. Our prayers seem unanswered and our circumstances go from bad to worse. During these times, God doesn't just seem distant; he seems distracted. These are many of the reasons why people stop praying, stop believing prayer works, or even stop believing that God exists.
In these times people
tell us to pray more but it seems useless. So how do we keep our connection to
God through prayer while not becoming discouraged? In this series, we will the
lives of three men from the New Testament, each loved by God, but whose circumstances
seemed to tell a different story.
When God is Inattentive
Is God's silence a sign
of his absence? Or does it mean something else? In this message, we recount the
story of a man Jesus said was the greatest who ever lived. And yet, even this
man struggled with God's inattentiveness. How do we handle it when we ask God
for something but it seems he is being inattentive? How do we keep praying when
it seems that God has lost sight of our struggles and circumstances? The
message Jesus sends him in the middle of his doubt contains a secret
reassurance for us 2,000 years later.
Has there been a time
when God seemed inattentive when you prayed to him? Did it rattle your faith?
Is God actually
inattentive to our prayer or is there something else going on? When God is Uncooperative
We've all seen athletes point to heaven after touchdowns or home runs. And we've heard actors thank God during their acceptance speeches. How come other people seem to have so much success while we pray and seem to never get what we want? How do we keep going when God seems to be saying, "No"? Does a “no” from God mean that he doesn’t love us or that we have done something wrong? What is the point of praying if God always seemingly says “No?”
Imagine a God you could control. What would you like or dislike about him?
Is there value to prayer even if you don’t get the results you are asking for? What is the value?
When God is Late
Why didn't God
do something? Sometimes, despite our
most fervent prayers, God doesn't show up the way we want him to. The cancer
isn't cured. The company fails. The foreclosure goes through. In this message,
we will discover what to look for when it feels like God forgot to show up.
How might the idea that
God leverages your pain for his glory give you hope during a difficult
circumstance?