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: "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 God’s hands. You will be better off for doing this.