If you can’t feel God’s presence it is nothing to worry about. The feeling of God’s presence is not what we seek, instead, we seek the person of Jesus Christ and His presence will visit us physically from time to time.
But it is important to mention that if we are not taking the time to pray and to read His word then of course, we are not going to feel His presence. We can’t expect God to give us a feeling of His person when we aren’t valuing Him enough to spend time with Him. [Related article: How to Spend Time with God (Even When You Don’t Want to)]
But if however, we pray and seek God daily we shouldn’t get discouraged or hesitant if we don’t feel Him. If we do this we will struggle with our walk with God until we realize that we seek Him to know Him, not feel Him.
What we have to realize is that God is pleased by faith. The Bible makes it clear that “without faith, it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
And most of the time faith it is in direct opposition to our senses and feelings. This is why the Bible defines faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
Notice that wording…faith is the evidence of things NOT SEEN. That means the senses have nothing to do with faith.
We do what we do to obey Him and know Him more intimately, and if we end up feeling His presence in the process, praise God! But it is not something we live by.
So what are some reasons why you are not feeling God’s presence when you are spending time to seek Him, daily?
To be honest, I have no idea and I’m pretty sure no one else knows either. If you meet someone who claims to know, their reasoning is most likely unbiblical because the Bible never tells us that we are supposed to feel God, instead it tells us to live by faith.
There are seasons when every time I pray I can feel God tangibly, and then there are times when I may not feel God for months. There may be no change in my prayer life, but I simply just don’t feel God.
But here’s the cool part: what does that change? Absolutely nothing! God still promised to be with me always (Hebrews 13:5) and He has already told me that His Spirit will dwell on the inside of me (1 Corinthians 13:16). So no matter what I may feel, He is with me. How comforting is that!
So in short, if you are consistently spending time with God on a daily basis and you are not feeling His presence there is nothing for you to worry about! Just keep seeking Him and continue to live by faith.
But if you are going through life and not consistently spending time with God then you are not going to feel His presence at all because you are not valuing Him as you should. (Related article: 7 Tips to Develop and Maintian a Consistent Prayer Life)
What do you do when you don’t feel God’s presence? (3 Simple Tips)
Now that I’ve covered the why behind not feeling God’s presence and what that really means for us, I want to cover the practical side.
You may be able to partially answer that question if you already read the first half of this article, but I did not cover this as thoroughly as I wanted to. Hints the four tips below.
Stand on God’s word and not your feelings
The first tip is to separate your feelings from God’s word and realize they are not always aligned, and then choose to stand on God’s word.
The Bible consistently gives us promises that Jesus will always be with us (Hebrews 13:5) , and that His Spirit lives on the inside of us (1 Corinthians 13:16), and that the Holy Spirit helps us when we pray (Romans 8:26-27).
If we believe these promises and choose to stand on them then lack of feelings will cease to be a concern.
Understand that feelings is not a promise of Jesus being present
The second tip is that feeling God’s presence is not a promise of Jesus or His Spirit being present with us. This is very important that we understand this.
We receive a promise that God is with us and hears us through His word. We don’t have this promise through our feelings.
Feelings may give us an assurance of what we are promised, but it cannot be the promise itself. In fact, God never promised that we would feel Him being present, He only promised that He would be.
Continue to seek God through prayer and His word
The third tip is to simply continue to seek God through prayer and His word, and don’t let the lack of feeling God get in the way of the promises that God made to you and me.
We must remember that we are called to live by faith not feelings. (Related article: The Faith of the Centurion & How to Have it).
If we choose to continue to pray and read His word in spite of what we may feel, or the lack thereof, that is called faith. Because we are choosing to believe and act on God’s word and not get discouraged by our feelings.
