God says we will find Him when we seek Him with all of our heart. Now, if we are going to believe scripture, then we must believe that this, too, is true.
So if you are feeling distanced from God, could it be that your heart is divided among other things?
When I think back over my life, all the major significances that have taken place played the sole purpose of removing idols in my life--removing anything that held the affections of my heart other than Christ Himself. As these idols broke down, I truly began (and only began, as I'm still learning) to understand an intimate relationship with Him. Not only did I see that He was indeed close, but I actually began to feel His closeness as well.
God broke a high school relationship that He would become my first Love.
My first year of college, He moved me to a West Texas town 4 1/2 hours away from my family, my friends, and my home church--simply that He might become my Rock.
He threw me into a frenzy over my education--"what to do with my life"--so that I'd see that He is my life.
Even in Israel's history, we see God's deepest frustrations take place when His chosen people turned to idols, which is by definition, idolatry against their God, and the very source of defying His covenant.
Our relationship with God is explained in the most sacred ways a relationship can ever be respresented on earth--the relationship between a Husband and a Wife--the Marriage covenant.
A husband and wife are distanced from one another when they begin to turn to other lovers for affection--committing adultery against their spouse. Their heart is divided. It only makes sense that a God called our Husband, would desire every idol to be stripped from our lives--that we may have an undivided heart towards Him.
If you are feeling distanced from God, perhaps it is because you are distanced from Him.
Believe me, if you are His, then He's never left you. He's always been by your side.
Even now, he seeks to break you of your idols--the things that bar your heart from being taken captive by your Groom. These idols must go. As they begin to crumble away, you will see His face again. He will take the throne upon your heart, and become your Rock, firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
"They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord." -Ezekiel 11:18-21
"Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name." -Psalm 86:11
"We must look upon the world, with all its delights and all its attractions, with suspicion and reserve. We who love our Lord and whose affections are set on Heavenly things voluntarily and gladly lay aside the things that charm and ravish the world, that our hearts may be ravished with the things of Heaven; that our whole being may be poured forth in constant and unreserved devotion in the service of the Lord who died to save us." -Amy Carmichael
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