How Close Is God?

Closer than you think.

He is just a prayer away.
 INTRODUCTION
Sometimes Christians do not feel the presence of
God in their lives.
I guess we all sometimes feel that God is far away
from us in Heaven.
When we fail to recognize His presence, we slip into
sinful activity.
God is busy watching over His whole creation.
We conclude that we are on our own and that He is
not accessible.
 INTRODUCTION
It is a tragedy that God is considered so
inaccessible.
To many, He is far away, locked in an inner office;
with an alert guard of "clergymen", forms and
format to protect Him from the "ordinary" caller.
He is harder to get access to than the president (or
so we feel).
This idea is wholly foreign to the truth.
 INTRODUCTION
Jesus said, Matthew 6:6- "But you, when you pray,
go into your room, and when you have shut your
door, pray to your Father who is in the secret
place; and your Father who sees in secret will
reward you openly."
Prayer is a Christian's privilege; made real and
earnest-- meaningful-- because a Christian (and
only a Christian) truly appreciates such
characteristics of God as the following.
 GOD IS NEAR
God is in that place of prayer waiting for us.
Jesus is saying that God is already there, in that
secret place, the prayer room waiting to hear from
us.
We can feel the presence of God when we pray, not
from any supernatural divine signal, but from the
assurance of Scripture.
The Word tells us that God is never far from us.
 GOD IS NEAR
Acts 17:27,28 - ""so that they should seek the Lord,
in the hope that they might grope for Him and find
Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in
Him we live and move and have our being, as also
some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also
His offspring.'"
Psalms 119:151- "You are near, O LORD, And all Your
commandments are truth."
Psalms 145:18- "The LORD is near to all who call
upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth."
 GOD HEARS
This passage teaches that God will listen to our
prayers.
"your Father who sees in secret..."
There is far more depth to this statement than just
physically seeing us as we pray.
It implies that God is there to hear what we say, and
that we can be assured that He hears our prayers.
God listens to the prays of His people.
 GOD HEARS
Hebrews 4:13- "And there is no creature hidden from His
sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to
whom we must give account."
1 John 5:14-15 "Now this is the confidence that we have in
Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know
that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him."
He wants us to approach Him in prayer.
Hebrews 4:15- "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot
sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points
tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come
boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need."
 GOD CARES
God wants us to go to Him in prayer because he
truly cares about us.
That should be evident from Him sending Jesus to
die for us.
Romans 5:8- "But God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us."
John 3:16
 GOD CARES
God's special care is over His children.
1 Peter 5:7- "casting all your care upon Him, for He
cares for you."
Matthew 6:30- ""Now if God so clothes the grass of the
field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the
oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little
faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, what shall we
eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?
For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your
heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."
2 Thessalonians 3:3- "But the Lord is faithful, who will
establish you and guard you from the evil one."
 GOD GIVES
Jesus says that we need only go into the "prayer closet"
and God will gladly give blessings.
Matthew 7:7-11
It's of importance to understand that the Greek
language refers to "ask, seek, and knock" as
imperatives. It literally means, "keep asking, keep
seeking, keep knocking."
This teaches a great lesson in our faith in relation to
God's desire to give us blessings. He wants us to
demonstrate our trust in His goodness and love by
continuing to "ask, see, and knock." In turn He will
show his faithfulness by answering our prays. This is in
accordance with His will and with what God knows is
best for us.
 GOD GIVES
We can have the assurance that God wants to give us
blessing and answer our prayers.
1 John 5:14-15- "Now this is the confidence that we
have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His
will, He hears us. {15} And if we know that He hears us,
whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions
that we have asked of Him."
He will always answer our prayers.
It may not be the answer that we are looking for, but it
will be an answer.
James 4:3- "You ask and do not receive, because you
ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures."
 CONCLUSION
Sometimes we feel that we do not want to burden
God with our problems because our problems are
so small in view of all the problems of the world.
But did you know that God WANTS to hear from
you.
God wants a conversation from you.
Go to prayer in your secret place and tell God about
your day and your cares; and put it all in Gods
hands.
You will be better off for doing this.