How to Recognize When God Is Near You

• You know, so many people come to me, their hearts just aching with a single solitary question. They don’t always say it out loud, but you can see it in their eyes in the way their hands might tremble just a little. They’ll say, “I prayed, but I didn’t feel anything.” Or, “I read my Bible, but it felt like just words on a page.
• ” And that question, that deep haunting hunger is this. How do I know? How can I be sure that he is really here with me right now in this room, in this problem, in this pain? And oh darling, if that is your question today, I want you to listen to me. I want you to lean in and hear this with your spirit and not just your ears. Because we must start in the right place.
• We cannot build a house on the sand of our own emotions. We must build it on the solid, unshakable rock of his eternal word. You see, our feelings are like the weather. One day the sun is shining and you feel happy and warm and you can sing his praises with ease. The next day a storm cloud rolls in. A bad report from the doctor.
• A word of criticism, a financial worry and suddenly the sunshine is gone. The feelings vanish. And if our knowing, if our certainty of God’s presence is tied to that sunshine, then we will be lost every time the clouds appear. We will be like a ship without an anchor tossed about on a raging sea. But oh thank God he has given us an anchor.