S6 EP6 | 3 Steps to Grow Closer to God when You’re Suffering
Carla knows first hand what it feels like to be far from God during periods of hardship.
But what she has discovered in her own life is that it is not God who leaves us, but us who isolate ourselves from God during our hard circumstances.
In this episode Carla shares the 3 steps she uses to grow close and stay close to God.
God has promised to never leave us. It is his very nature to keep promises friend.
Want to go deeper on this topic? Carla’s signature 1:1 coaching program - The 4 Pillars of Thriving - is now available!
Book a discovery call to find out more.
Step 1: Read the Bible Daily
Seek God wholeheartedly through daily Bible reading. Carla emphasizes the importance of not merely going through the motions but truly connecting with God's word.
Scripture: Jeremiah 29:13 - "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
Step 2: Meditate on God's Word
Meditate on specific scriptures that bring comfort and hope. Carla shares her practice of clinging to certain verses during difficult seasons and finding solace in the Word.
Scripture: John 15:4-5 - "Abide in me and I in you."
Step 3: Prayer Walks
Engage in prayer walks to invigorate mind, body, and soul. Carla highlights the transformative power of walking, talking, and connecting with God in nature.
Scripture: Romans 8:26 - "Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness..."
Affirming Truth - I will reach out to God, believing He will meet me there.
Key scriptures:
Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
John 15:4-5 "Abide in me and I in you."
Romans 8:26 "Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness..."
James 4:8 "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."
Connect With Carla:
Inquire about 1:1 coaching ---> carlaagreswellness@gmail.com
Join In His Image Wellness Collective ---> carlaargeswellness@gmail.com
Come hangout on IG with me @carlaarges
Check out the blog
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Carla: Hey friends, welcome to Affirming Truths. I'm your friend and host, Carla Arges. This show is a safe place to share our struggles, grow in faith, and root our identity in Christ. My hope is that you will leave each episode feeling encouraged in your journey. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode and it would mean the world to me if you would leave a review.
[00:00:30] Carla: I am so glad you're here. Let's get started. Hey friends, I cannot wait for today's episode. We are going to talk about three steps to grow closer to God when you're suffering and he feels far away. But before we dive into that, I just want to share something with you quickly. I have created a new signature coaching program that I am so proud of and [00:01:00] see God's fingerprints in all over the place.
[00:01:03] Carla: It is taking my four pillars of thriving with mental illness and trauma and really bringing it to you on a one to one level in a bootcamp fashion where we meet together. Regularly for six months and see your life transformed. If you are consistently struggling through anxiety or depression or overwhelm, if you feel like you just can't get out of bed, like you're going through the motion surviving, but not really living, if everything is feeling hard and you feel like you're not living really the joyful.
[00:01:47] Carla: Godly life that God planned for you, then I want you to consider booking a discovery call with me. You can do that in the show notes and just explore if this one on one coaching [00:02:00] experience is right for you. I'll see you soon. I am so proud of the work that I do as a Christian mental health coach, and I have seen transformations and I believe your life can be transformed as well as we partner together and invite God and the Holy Spirit in and look at how we can establish daily rhythms built around the four pillars of thriving and transform your life.
[00:02:27] Carla: So book a discovery call if you are interested in that. All right, let's get on to today's topic. I have myself in many times during my life, during those really hard seasons, those mental health struggles, those big losses and disappointments, I have felt that God has been far away from me. And in my coaching practice, I often hear too, from women that feel like God feels far away.
[00:02:57] Carla: God feels silent. [00:03:00] God feels like he's not around and he doesn't care. And I just want to encourage you today. The thought is not true. When God has promised to never leave us or forsake us, that is a promise you can bring to the bank. So, why then is it that we sometimes don't feel close to God? In my experience, it's not because God has left us, he never does.
[00:03:26] Carla: But it's because slowly, We have left him, we have gotten our eyes off him and on to our circumstance. So the three steps I'm going to share with you today are things that I constantly reflect on in my life, and they're not groundbreaking. I am not going to share with you anything new, but what I am going to offer you is an opportunity to reflect on these three points and ask yourself, am I doing this?
[00:03:57] Carla: Is God seeming far away from [00:04:00] me? Because I have moved far away from God, right? That is often what happens. And I get it when the days feel dark, when the seasons are hard, when you're in the wilderness, when you're in that valley and we're not seeing the blossoms, we're not seeing the wellsprings, we're not seeing hope.
[00:04:23] Carla: It can feel like God has deserted us. But friend, he leads us beside still waters, he invites us to rest in him. Now, he never said we wouldn't struggle, but he did say that in him, we would have the victory. He did say that he would never leave us or forsake us. So let's get into it. These are three steps that I've personally used to grow closer to God when I've been suffering, when he feels far away.
[00:04:55] Carla: And there's three steps that I currently use as [00:05:00] rhythms in my life. Right? Daily rhythms, because I got to tell you something. If you're not daily pouring into your relationship with God, it's like any other relationship. It's going to feel distant, right? When you and your girlfriend slowly start, start talking less and less.
[00:05:22] Carla: So how are you showing up? The first step to grow closer to God when you're suffering, when you feel far, is to one, read the Bible daily. It says in Jeremiah 29, 13, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Friends, this is not just reading the Bible to check it off a list. This is seeking God with your heart.
[00:05:50] Carla: Holy spirit come in this moment. Comfort my heart as I reach your word. Let me hear from you, God, as I dig into your [00:06:00] scripture, right? This is seeking God with your heart. Lord revealed to me who you are in your word today. Bring comfort and hope to my heart today. You need to read the Bible daily. I say this all the time, I know I'm a broken record and I'm going to keep being a broken record because this is so important.
[00:06:24] Carla: And guys, there are different ways you can go about reading the Bible. First, find a translation that works for you, but there are online Bibles. There are the journaling Bibles. There are so many different resources, biblical resources out there for you to use. Find one. Use it. Daily, make a date with God and show up for him.
[00:06:49] Carla: Second, you need to meditate on God's word. And I used to think like, what does that mean? Is it meditation, new agey? But no, it [00:07:00] says in John 15, four to five, abide in me and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.
[00:07:17] Carla: Whoever abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. I really see abiding in God much like meditating on his word. So you read the Bible. Amazing. What scripture is jumping out at you? What go to passage can you meditate on? I know that when I'm going through a difficult season, I will cling to one or two verses specifically, and I will meditate on them.
[00:07:52] Carla: I will post them everywhere. I will put reminders in my phone to read the scripture. I will Right? [00:08:00] That scripture. I will seek comfort and solace in that scripture. I will seek God's face in that scripture. I meditate on it. I don't just read my Bible in the morning and I'm done. I'm meditating on the scripture, on the word of God.
[00:08:16] Carla: It brings life to me when I'm suffering. It makes me feel seen by God when I'm suffering. It helps me to know He holds me when I'm suffering. Find those verses that speak into your life when you're suffering and meditate on them during that season and see how God, Oh, the God, our perfect peace brings you peace, right?
[00:08:41] Carla: Our counselor counsels, our heart, our comforter comforts us, meditate on the word of God. And the third one. That I have found really helpful to grow closer to [00:09:00] God is to go on a prayer walk. Now, I'm not just saying prayer. There's something that happens in my prayer walks when I'm out in God's creation, when I'm out in nature, when I'm moving my body, when I am contending before the throne of grace while I'm moving, that brings new life to my prayers.
[00:09:24] Carla: In Romans 8 26, it says, Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us in groanings to deep for words. I have found so much intercession. By the Holy Spirit on my behalf, when I'm out in a prayer walk, prayer walk, I have found so much inspiration for my prayers.
[00:09:51] Carla: When I'm out in God's creation, when I'm seeing other people around me, you know, sometimes that prayer walk means that [00:10:00] I see someone that God encourages my heart to pray for, it helps get my eyes off of me when I'm out on my prayer walk, I will see something that I can give God glory for. Thank you for that blue sky.
[00:10:14] Carla: Thank you for the sounds of birds chirping. Thank you for the fresh air in my lungs. When I'm on a prayer walk, it invigorates me, mind, body, soul. Get out and move and go for a walk with Jesus. Can I tell you, when my husband and I need to have a talk about something, we have the best conversations when we are on a walk.
[00:10:39] Carla: When I want to have some depth in a conversation to my teenager, whose attention it's hard to hold, we have the best conversations when we are on a walk. My girlfriends and I were often catch up by what going for a walk. There's something about walking [00:11:00] and talking that brings relationship, that brings depth, that brings intention, that brings focus.
[00:11:09] Carla: And so I want to encourage you, go on a prayer walk, no, no music, no podcasts, just you and God talking, just you and God sharing your heart, sharing your struggle, glorifying God for meeting you where it's at. Listen, like I said earlier, you cannot expect closeness in a relationship that you don't invest time in.
[00:11:41] Carla: And I have found women who are struggling, myself included, often go to isolation. When they're struggling, including isolating themselves from God, their Bible time goes off their prayers, you [00:12:00] know, seem harder to muster up their thoughts, travel to worst case scenarios and rumination. When we're struggling, we tend to isolate.
[00:12:10] Carla: And then we wonder why God feels far, because we've cut him out. Friend, invite him into your suffering. Invite him into your pain. He wants to heal you. He wants to restore you. He wants to comfort you. He wants to take you through the valley and over the mountain to the other side where he has goodness waiting for you, where he has.
[00:12:35] Carla: Purpose waiting for you. He will not waste your pain. He will not waste your suffering. He will help you rise through it. He will refine you through it. But don't isolate from him in it. Read your Bible. Meditate on God's word. And go for a walk with God and talk to Him, pray with Him. Your affirming [00:13:00] truth today is, I will reach out to God, believing He will meet me there.
[00:13:06] Carla: James 4, 8 says, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. God will not forsake you. God will not ignore you. God will not forget you. That is not in His nature. His nature is to draw close to you when you draw to him, his nature is to love you, to refine you, to sanctify you, to redeem you, to heal you, to make you whole.
[00:13:36] Carla: All right, friends drawn near to God. And he will draw near to you. I'll see you next time.
[00:13:49] Carla: Thanks for joining me today. I hope we're already friends on social media, but if we're not, come find me on Instagram at Carla Arges or at Affirming Truth. [00:14:00] Can't wait to see you back here next week. Bye, friends.