Why Don't I Feel My Faith

Last sunday's in his church sermon, Pastor Jeff preached about the Power of the Cross, during which he shared that God is love and God desires to have a close relationship with us.

He commented on the observation that sometimes Christians complained or voiced out that they felt that God was far from them. He sought to give a reason and explained that God is constant and God would always desire to relate closely with us. He then questioned that if God never move from his posture of desiring a close relationship with Him, the conslusion is obvious that we did. He further suggested that these people already knew how to draw close to God and the solution to their problem was simple and that was to go back to read the bible and to pray.

While there is nothing theologically wrong about what he said, the manner and simplicity which he attempted to address the issue were not doing justice to the complexity and the wide spectrum of causes/reasons to why people do not experience God. It was at all helpful for those Christians who were genuinely struggling in their faith of experiencing God. The answer is definitely not satisfying for a thinking Christian who wish to make sense of his experience in life. My view is that Pastor Jeff should at least acknowledge that the issue is one that is complex and cannot be simplistically be answered.

For those who are questioning genuinely about their struggles and wanting to make sense of their experiences, I recommend that you read the book "Cries of the Heart" by Ravi Zechariah. In this book, Ravi discussed about his personal thoughts on some of the common existential struggles in the heart that we often experience as human. You can see the written reviews below.

http://www.amazon.com/Cries-Heart-Ravi-Zacharias/product-reviews/0849943876/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1