When Christ Withdraws Himself

This week Brooke blogged about the grace of God being administered to us in and through our sufferings and trials. Jenn blogged on the grace of God that enables us to look to the future with hope and expectation.

Everyone who is born of the Spirit of God experiences grace--every moment of every day for the rest of their lives (and on into eternity!).

What about when God seems farther away than the farthest star in the sky? How about when the Scriptures seem boring and the last thing on the planet you want to do is to discipline yourself in prayer--where's the grace?

A child of God feels no greater unrest or fear than when they wake up to find Christ so far away they doubt whether they ever really knew Him at all! Intimate fellowship with Christ seems such a thing of the past, the Christian questions whether he truly had such a relationship with Christ or if he just imagined it all to fill some void in his life. I've been there.

Why would the Chief Shepherd distance Himself from His precious flock if He shows only love and grace toward it?

John Owen offers insight:

Whilst we are in this life, the Lord Christ is pleased, in his sovereign wisdom, sometimes to withdraw, and, as it were, to hide himself from us. Then do our minds fall into clouds and darkness; faith is at a loss; we cannot behold his glory; yea, we may seek him, but cannot find him.

...Why does the Lord Christ, at any time, thus hide himself in his glory from the faith of believers, that they cannot behold him?

...He does it to stir us up in an eminent manner to a diligent search and inquiry after him. Woeful sloth and negligence are apt to prevail in us in our meditation on heavenly things. Though our hearts wake in a valuation of Christ, his love, and his grace, yet we sleep as to the due exercise of faith and love towards him.

...Now, he knows that those with whom he has been graciously present, who have had views of his glory, although they have not valued the mercy and privilege of it as they ought, yet can they not bear a sense of his absence and his hiding himself from them. By this, therefore, will he awake them to a diligent inquiry after him.

...Christ commits himself to us, and we ought carefully to keep his presence...But whilst we are busy here and there, while our minds are overfilled with other things, he withdraws himself, we cannot find him. But even this rebuke is a sanctified ordinance for our recovery, and his return to us. *

Christ's temporary withdrawal from a believer is a means of grace, in that it draws us closer to Him by awakening our desire and love for Him. Let us draw comfort and encouragement from this. Should you find that Christ is far away, respond in the manner His distance is intended to produce: run to Him and find solace in His presence. You will find Him rejoicing over you.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Psalm 51:12a

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. James 4:8

*John Owen, The Glory of Christ, Christian Focus Publications (2004), pp. 194-196.