How to Trust God When You Can’t Feel His Presence

What the Bible says about God feeling far away, His silence, and trusting Him when you cannot see what He is doing

There is a difference between believing God is there and feeling like God is near. I know that difference because I have lived it.

There have been moments in my life when the presence of God felt undeniable, when I knew with everything in me that He was speaking, leading, and moving. But there have also been seasons when I prayed and heard nothing. I looked for Him and could not see what He was doing. I asked Him where He was, and heaven seemed painfully quiet.

Maybe you know that feeling too. Maybe you have been praying for healing and nothing seems to be changing. Maybe you have been asking God for direction and still have no answer. Maybe you open your Bible, pray, worship, and do everything you know to do, yet God still feels far away.

And eventually the questions begin:

God, where are You?

Why can’t I feel Your presence?

Are You listening to me?

Have I done something wrong?

Why are You silent when I need You most?

If that is where you are today, I want to tell you something I had to learn through some of the darkest moments of my life:

“I don’t feel God” is not the same thing as “God isn’t here.”

Our awareness of God’s presence can change. His presence does not.

When I Couldn’t Feel God Before My Diagnosis

Several months before I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, I knew something was seriously wrong with my body. I did not know that I was dying. I did not understand how sick I had become or how close I was to death. I only knew that something was terribly wrong.

I did not have medical insurance at the time, so I was desperately trying to figure everything out myself. I was navigating different functional medicine doctors, researching, looking for answers, trying to understand my symptoms, and attempting to solve a problem I did not yet understand.

And I could not feel God anywhere.

Looking back now, I can see another part of the story that I could not recognize then.

I was not really seeking Him very much either.

I was in complete control of my life, or at least I was desperately trying to be. I was sitting in the driver’s seat, researching, planning, fixing, analyzing, and trying to find my own way through something far bigger than I could handle.

I kept wondering where God was, but looking back, I can see how often I had pushed Him to the side while I tried to remain in control.

And now I can see something else that is difficult for me to admit.

God had been nudging me long before my diagnosis. I just wasn’t listening.

About eighteen months before I was diagnosed, I began feeling strongly that I needed to see a doctor, a real doctor, specifically a GI specialist. I did not have medical insurance, and I knew it would be expensive. So I found reason after reason not to go.

I told myself I could figure it out on my own. I worried that a conventional doctor would simply want to give me medication. I did not want to see a male doctor. There was fear. There was shame. There was the financial burden.

There was always another reason to wait.

Eventually, about a year before my diagnosis, I did go to a doctor.

That doctor recommended a colonoscopy.

And I did not do it.

The procedure was going to cost me approximately $5,000 out of pocket. I knew what they were looking for with a colonoscopy, but in my mind, cancer could not possibly be what was wrong with me. I was a fitness trainer and a nutritionist. I ate healthy, organic foods. I exercised. So much of my life revolved around health.

Surely it could not be cancer.

So I chose not to have the colonoscopy.

Looking back, that decision is painful.

I can now see a series of small nudges that were leading me toward the very test that could have discovered what was happening inside my body much earlier. I will never know exactly what stage the cancer would have been in had I followed through with that colonoscopy. But I do know that I was being led toward an opportunity to find it earlier, and I chose not to take that next step.

That realization taught me something I never want to forget:

Sometimes we are asking God to speak while dismissing the ways He has already been leading us.

I was waiting for God to do something unmistakable while explaining away the smaller nudges.

And my choices had consequences.

I wish I had listened sooner. I wish I had gone sooner. I wish I had followed through with that colonoscopy.

But regret is not where God has left my story.

Even after my choices. Even after my resistance. Even after I tried to control something I could never control, God met me there.

He did not abandon me because I had chosen wrong.

He took a story that had reached Stage 4 cancer and began doing things with it that I never could have imagined. He has used it to change me, deepen my faith, reach other people, and ultimately bring glory back to Him.

I cannot go backward and make a different decision.

But I can listen differently today.

And that may be part of the question when God feels far away.

Before assuming God is not speaking, perhaps we should ask:

Has He already been nudging me toward something that I keep explaining away?

That does not mean everyone who cannot feel God has ignored Him. Scripture gives us examples of faithful people who desperately sought God and still experienced seasons when He seemed silent. And later in my own journey, I would experience that too.

But in this particular chapter of my story, I can see it now.

God was not as absent as I thought He was. I simply did not recognize His leading at the time.

Why Does God Feel Far Away Sometimes?

As my health continued deteriorating, my questions became much more desperate. For approximately two months before my diagnosis, I spent most of my days and nights lying in bed. I was in severe pain. My anxiety was through the roof. I could barely sleep. My body was declining, and although I did not yet know why, I knew something was seriously wrong.

Those were some of the loneliest nights of my life. I talked to God. I asked Him where He was. I asked why He was not helping me. Eventually, I became angry: “God, where are You? Why aren’t You saving me from this? What have I done?”

I felt like God was completely silent. And even now, I cannot give you a neat explanation for every one of those nights. I think that matters because sometimes we clean up our testimonies after the fact. Once we know how a particular chapter turned out, we can retell the painful middle as though we understood what God was doing the entire time. I didn’t. There were moments when I had absolutely no idea what God was doing. There are still things I do not completely understand. And Scripture does not require us to pretend otherwise.

David knew what it was like to seek God and wonder why He seemed hidden:

“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” — Psalm 13:1 (NIV)

Those words are in the Bible. God allowed the anguish of a man who felt forgotten to become part of His written Word. David’s question did not prove that God had forgotten him; it revealed how deeply David felt forgotten. There is an important difference. Feeling abandoned by God is not proof that you have been abandoned by God.

God is not frightened by our questions. You can love God and ask where He is. You can believe and still struggle. You can trust Him and still cry. I wrote more about that distinction in Does Having Fear Mean You Don’t Have Faith? What the Bible Really Says, because one of the most freeing things God has taught me is that experiencing fear does not automatically mean faith has disappeared. But when it feels like God Himself has gone quiet, that creates another kind of pain. So what do we do with it?

Not Feeling God’s Presence Does Not Mean He Has Left You

One of the greatest lessons this journey has taught me is that feelings are real, but they are not always reliable evidence of spiritual reality. If I feel afraid, the fear is real. If I feel alone, the loneliness is real. If I cannot sense God, that experience is real too. But my feelings do not determine whether God is present. God’s Word does.

Scripture says:

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” — Hebrews 13:5 (NIV)

That promise does not contain an exception for the days when you cannot feel Him. God does not say, “I will be with you as long as you can sense Me.” He promises to remain.

Jesus gave His followers the same assurance in Matthew 28:20 (NIV): “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Sometimes our emotions say, God is far away, while His Word says, I am still here. Faith sometimes means deciding which one will have greater authority. That does not mean suppressing your feelings. Bring them to God. Name them. Cry if you need to cry. Ask the questions. But do not make a feeling responsible for determining a truth God has already settled.

They Were Walking With Jesus and Didn’t Know It

One of the most beautiful pictures of this is found in Luke 24. Jesus had been crucified, and two of His followers were traveling toward a village called Emmaus, talking about everything that had happened. Their hopes appeared shattered. They were grieving and confused, trying to make sense of a story that looked nothing like what they expected.

Then Jesus came alongside them, but they did not recognize Him:

“As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.” — Luke 24:15–16 (NIV)

Think about that. 

They were walking with Jesus while being unable to recognize that Jesus was walking with them.

Their inability to perceive His presence did not make Him absent. Recognition did not create His presence; He had been there already.

I think about that story differently now because there have been times in my own journey when I could not recognize what God was doing until much later. There have been chapters when I could not see His hand until I was looking backward. Maybe you are living through one of those chapters right now. You cannot see Him. You cannot understand what He is doing. You cannot feel Him the way you once did. But what if your inability to recognize God’s presence does not mean He has stopped walking beside you?

The Night Control Finally Became Surrender

Everything changed for me after I received my diagnosis. Doctors had told me there was no hope and nothing more they could do for me. I went home in a wheelchair to a medical bed in my bedroom, believing I was going home to die. I had goodbye conversations with my daughter and my husband. Those were the hardest conversations I have ever had. My body was so weak and the pain so severe that I could not even roll myself from my back onto my side. I had nothing left.

That night, I prayed one of the most honest prayers I have ever prayed: “God, I don’t know if You’re taking me home to heaven or leaving me here on earth. But if You’re taking me home, please do it quickly. And if You’re leaving me here, please heal me quickly, because I can’t keep suffering like this.”

There was no eloquent language. There was no pretending I was strong. There was surrender. For months, I had tried to figure everything out. I had tried to stay in the driver’s seat. Now I had reached a place where I finally understood that I could not save myself. I told God, in essence: I can’t do this. You have to take over.

The following morning, my pastor came to my home to pray over me and anoint me with oil. As he placed his hand on my forehead, he later told me that he felt an intense tingling sensation move through his fingers, hand, and arm. And I experienced something I will never forget. I heard a voice within me so strong and commanding that, to me, it may as well have been audible: “You fight it. You fight it.”

Those were almost the last words I wanted to hear. Fight? I had nothing left with which to fight. I could not even roll over in bed by myself. I was exhausted. I was suffering. I believed I was dying. But I knew it was God. And my response was not, Okay, God. I will try harder. It was surrender: If You are telling me to fight, then You are going to have to do the fighting through me, because I have nothing left.

What happened next remains one of the most extraordinary parts of my testimony: I began improving. My digestive system had essentially shut down, and I had been unable to eat or drink normally. My body was incredibly weak, my organs were severely enlarged, and I was in excruciating pain. Yet over the days that followed, before there was a treatment I could point to as the explanation for the sudden change, I began getting stronger. I began moving again. I began eating again. The pain began easing. My body began changing.

I believe God intervened. That is part of my testimony, and I will never pretend otherwise. But my testimony is not a formula. It does not mean that if someone surrenders enough, God promises to heal their body in exactly the same way. It does not mean that someone who remains sick has failed to surrender or does not have enough faith. I cannot make a universal promise from something God did in my individual story.

What I can tell you is what happened to me and what God began teaching me through it: surrender was not giving up. Surrender was finally giving God the driver’s seat.

Does God’s Silence Mean You Have Done Something Wrong?

Not necessarily. This is important because my own story contains two very different experiences. Before my diagnosis, I can look backward and recognize ways I had pushed God aside while trying to control everything myself. But later in my journey, there were also times when I was seeking God. I was praying. I was trusting Him. I had surrendered my life to Him. And there were still moments when I could not feel Him or understand what He was doing.

So if God feels far away, examine your heart, but do not immediately condemn yourself. Ask Him honestly:

Father, is there something I am holding onto?

Am I trying to control something You are asking me to surrender?

Is there something distracting me from You?

Is there somewhere You are leading me that I have refused to follow?

Then allow Him to answer through Scripture, prayer, conviction, and wise biblical counsel. But if you are sincerely seeking Him and still cannot feel His presence, do not manufacture guilt simply because you cannot manufacture a feeling.

God’s silence is not proof of God’s absence. Sometimes you may be faithfully seeking Him and still walk through a season where He seems quiet. That is where faith becomes deeper than emotion.

What Should You Do When God Feels Silent?

One of the things I have learned during repeated hospital stays is that I do not have to manufacture an answer simply because silence makes me uncomfortable. There have been nights when I prayed for direction and could not sense God telling me what to do. Earlier in my life, my instinct might have been to take control: fix it, make a decision, or force something to happen.

Now, when I am seeking God about a major decision and do not have clarity, I have learned that sometimes the wisest thing I can do is be still rather than act from panic. That does not mean ignoring responsibilities, delaying necessary medical care, or refusing to make ordinary wise decisions until you receive a supernatural sign. It means I have learned not to confuse my discomfort with silence for an instruction to take control.

There is a difference between faithful action and frantic action. Sometimes faith moves, sometimes faith waits, and sometimes faith simply says: God, until You show me the next step, I am going to stay close to You right here.

RELATED READING: If waiting itself is where you are struggling, learn more in Waiting on God: What the Bible Teaches About Trusting Him in the Waiting Room.

7 Things to Do When You Can’t Feel God’s Presence

When God feels far away, you may not need another explanation as much as you need to know what to do today. These are practices I have learned to return to:

1. Tell God That You Cannot Feel Him

Do not perform for Him. If your prayer is, “God, I know You say You are here, but right now I cannot feel You,” then pray exactly that. Psalm 13 shows us that honest prayer is still prayer.

2. Ask Whether You Have Been Seeking God or Only Seeking an Answer

This question comes directly from my own story. There is a difference between seeking God and desperately seeking the solution we want Him to provide. Sometimes we become so consumed with fixing the problem, receiving the answer, changing the circumstances, or understanding the plan that God Himself becomes secondary. Ask yourself gently: 

Do I want God, or do I only want God to fix this?

3. Return to What God Has Already Said

When you cannot hear something new, stand on what He has already spoken through Scripture. He has said He will never leave you. He has said He is with you. He has revealed His character. You do not need a new revelation every morning to remain anchored in an old promise.

4. Resist the Urge to Force an Answer

Silence is uncomfortable, but discomfort is not always a command to move. If you are facing a major decision and have no clarity, pray, seek biblical wisdom, obtain appropriate professional guidance when needed, and refuse to let panic become your counselor.

5. Remember God’s Past Faithfulness

There are things I understand about God today because I have watched Him carry me through things I once thought would destroy me. Remembering does not solve the present problem, but it reminds your heart who is walking with you through it.

6. Let Other Believers Stand With You

There have been moments in my journey when other people prayed when I was exhausted. God did not design us to carry every battle alone. Let trusted believers pray with you, encourage you, remind you of Scripture, and help you discern when your own emotions are making it difficult to see clearly.

7. Keep Walking With God Even When You Feel Nothing

Open your Bible. Pray. Worship. Obey what you already know. Not because these actions earn God's presence, but because relationship is deeper than emotional sensation. Sometimes faithfulness feels powerful; sometimes faithfulness simply looks like showing up again tomorrow.

Don’t Chase a Feeling. Seek God.

There are days when worship feels powerful. You feel overwhelmed by God’s presence, Scripture seems to leap from the page, and prayer flows naturally. And then there are days when you open the same Bible and feel almost nothing.

Which day is God more present? Neither. God is equally God on both days.

If we are not careful, we can begin seeking the emotional experience we associate with God instead of seeking God Himself. Feelings can be beautiful gifts: peace, joy, conviction, awe, and an overwhelming sense of God's nearness can strengthen us tremendously. 

But faith cannot depend upon reproducing an emotional experience.

There are times when trusting God means opening your Bible when it feels quiet, praying when you do not feel anything dramatic, worshiping when your emotions have not caught up with your faith, and continuing to walk because God has already told you in His Word that He is with you.

RELATED READING: If prayer itself feels difficult, listen to the Fighting From Victory podcast episode How to Pray When You Don’t Know What to Say.

Sometimes the most sincere prayer you can offer is only a few words: “God, I’m here. Help me. I trust You. Show me the next step.” He does not need a performance. He wants you.

Sometimes You See What God Was Doing Only Later

There was another season during my cancer journey when life seemed to become one emergency after another. I went through surgery, then an infection, then another infection, followed by a complete blockage that led to another stent procedure. Month after month felt like chaos. I could not understand why these things kept happening. I certainly could not see how any of them could possibly be helping me. Where was God in all of this?

What I could not see at the time was that those complications had something in common: they repeatedly kept me off chemotherapy. Altogether, I was off chemotherapy for nearly four months. At the time, that seemed like another problem. Later, it became part of an opportunity I could not have foreseen.

That break ultimately opened the door for me to undergo a colon resection and have a 5.5-centimeter tumor that had been resistant to chemotherapy removed. Something I had experienced as relentless interruption became part of the path toward an opportunity I desperately needed.

There have been times when I could not see God’s hand until I was looking backward. 

That does not mean I now understand every painful thing that has happened to me. I don’t. And I do not believe we should tell suffering people that someday God will necessarily explain every detail. Our faith cannot depend upon eventually receiving an explanation. Sometimes God allows us to look backward and recognize what He was doing; sometimes we continue walking without knowing. Either way, He remains God.

RELATED READING: If your greatest struggle right now is understanding why God is allowing something rather than feeling His presence, explore that question deeper in How to Trust God When You Don’t Understand His Plan.

When You Cannot See God Working, Remember What He Has Already Said

When I cannot feel God, I need something more dependable than my feelings: I need truth.

Isaiah 43:2 (NIV) does not promise that God's people will never encounter deep waters or fire; God says:

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”

Psalm 23:4 (NIV) does not tell us there will be no dark valley. David's confidence inside the valley is:

“For you are with me.”

Hebrews tells us He will never leave or forsake us. Jesus tells His followers He will be with them always. Notice the pattern: the biblical promise is not always immediate escape from the difficult place. Again and again, it is God's presence within it.

Those promises give us something solid to stand on when our emotions are shifting beneath our feet. This is also why learning How to Trust God During Difficult Times: Hope from 1 Peter 1 cannot ultimately depend on whether circumstances are improving. Our hope is rooted in Jesus Christ, His resurrection, His character, and what He has already accomplished.

When you cannot feel God, return to what you know:

God is faithful.

God is present.

God hears you.

God loves you.

God has not lost control.

And God does not become less faithful because today you are struggling to perceive His faithfulness.

What If I Keep Praying and Still Don’t Feel God?

Keep coming to Him. Not because repeating the right prayer will force a particular emotional experience, but because relationship with God is bigger than emotion.

Tell Him the truth:

“Father, I cannot feel You right now.”

“I know Your Word says You are here, but I feel alone.”

“I don’t understand what You are doing.”

“I am angry.”

“I am tired.”

“I need You.”

Then stay close. Open His Word. Worship Him. Talk to trusted believers. Ask others to pray with you when you are too exhausted to find the words yourself. Remember what He has already done. And when you cannot see enough of the road to know where everything is going, take the next faithful step you do know to take.

Faith does not require pretending darkness is light. Sometimes faith simply says: It is dark here, but I know God is still with me.

God May Be Closer Than You Think

I keep coming back to those disciples walking toward Emmaus. Imagine being one of them: everything you thought God was doing seemed to have collapsed. Jesus was dead. Your expectations were shattered. You were walking down a road trying to make sense of a story you did not understand. And all the while, Jesus Himself was walking beside you.

What would they have said if someone had asked them, “Where is Jesus?” Their answer would have been based on what they could perceive. But their perception would have been incomplete. 

He was right there.

Maybe that is the encouragement you need today. Perhaps you are reading this from a hospital room. Maybe your marriage is hurting. Maybe you are grieving. Maybe you are waiting for an answer that has not come. Maybe you have been praying for months and wondering why God seems silent.

I cannot tell you why He has not answered the way you hoped. I cannot promise you when your circumstances will change. I cannot tell you that someday every painful piece will make sense. But I can point you back to what God has already promised: He is with you. Your inability to feel Him has not made Him disappear.

What My Cancer Journey Taught Me About God’s Presence

Before I was diagnosed, I thought I needed to figure everything out. I wanted the driver’s seat. Then my strength disappeared, my answers disappeared, and my control disappeared. Eventually, I reached a place where all I could do was hand my life to God and say: You have to take over.

Since then, I have experienced moments when God's presence seemed overwhelmingly clear and others when He seemed painfully quiet. But I no longer confuse those two experiences with whether He is actually there. “I don’t feel God” is one thing; “God isn’t here” is something entirely different.

I do not believe there has ever been a moment when God wasn't there. There have been moments when I could not recognize what He was doing, moments when I could not understand Him, and moments when I could not feel Him. But He was still God. He was still present. He was still working. And sometimes I only discovered that when I looked backward.

That is part of what Fighting From Victory has come to mean to me: we do not base our confidence solely on what we can see, feel, or understand in a particular moment. Our confidence rests in what Jesus has already accomplished. The empty tomb is still empty on the days when heaven feels silent. Jesus is still victorious on the days when you cannot feel victory. And God is still present in the dark.

A Prayer for When God Feels Far Away

Father, I know Your Word says You are with me, even when I cannot feel Your presence. Right now, I need that truth more than I need a feeling. Help me surrender the things I keep trying to control. Quiet the fear that tells me Your silence means You have left me. Give me wisdom to move when You lead me and patience to be still when You ask me to wait. When I cannot see Your hand, help me trust Your heart. Remind me that You are walking beside me even when I do not recognize You. I surrender this season, my questions, my future, and myself to You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Frequently Asked Questions About Feeling Far From God

Why can’t I feel God’s presence?

There is not one biblical explanation for every season when God feels distant. Sometimes distraction, self-reliance, unconfessed sin, exhaustion, grief, suffering, or overwhelming circumstances may affect our awareness of God. At other times, faithful believers sincerely seek Him and still experience seasons when He seems silent. Not feeling God's presence does not automatically mean He has left you.

Is God still with me when I can’t feel Him?

Yes. God's presence is based on His promise rather than our emotions. Hebrews 13:5 tells believers that God will never leave or forsake them, and Jesus promised in Matthew 28:20 to be with His followers always. Feelings can change from one day to another, but God's character and faithfulness do not.

Why does God feel silent when I need Him most?

The Bible contains many examples of faithful people who experienced God's apparent silence, including David and Job. Scripture does not promise that we will always understand why God seems silent. His silence, however, should not automatically be interpreted as abandonment. Psalm 13 shows that we can bring even the feeling of being forgotten directly to God.

Does God’s silence mean I have done something wrong?

Not necessarily. It is healthy to ask God to search your heart and reveal anything that needs to change, but experiencing God's apparent silence is not proof that you have sinned or failed spiritually. Faithful believers in Scripture experienced seasons when God seemed distant even as they continued seeking Him.

What should I do when God feels far away?

Continue seeking God through Scripture, honest prayer, worship, Christian community, and faithful obedience. Tell Him exactly how you feel rather than pretending. Return to promises about God's character and presence, and resist making fear-driven decisions simply to escape uncertainty.

How can I trust God when I can’t see what He is doing?

Trusting God when you cannot see what He is doing begins with remembering who He is. You may not understand His plan, timing, or methods, but you can anchor yourself in His faithfulness, love, wisdom, and presence. Sometimes you may eventually recognize how God was working behind the scenes. Other times you may not receive the explanation you want. Biblical trust ultimately rests in who God is rather than in our ability to understand everything He does.

What does the Bible say about God feeling far away?

The Bible speaks honestly about the experience of God seeming distant. Psalm 13 records David asking how long God would hide His face. Psalm 22 begins with a cry of apparent abandonment. At the same time, Hebrews 13:5, Isaiah 43:2, Matthew 28:20, and many other passages affirm God's continuing presence. The biblical response is not to pretend the feeling does not exist, but to bring it honestly to God while standing on what He has promised.

When You Can’t Feel God, Keep Walking With Him

Maybe today you feel nothing: no overwhelming peace, no clear answer, no unmistakable direction. Maybe God feels farther away than He ever has before. Keep seeking Him.

You do not need to manufacture an emotional experience to prove that your faith is real. You do not need to pretend you understand what God is doing. And you do not need to see the entire road before you take another step with Him. The disciples on the road to Emmaus could not recognize Jesus, but He was already walking beside them.

I have learned the same truth through my own journey. Sometimes I could feel God; sometimes I couldn't. Sometimes I understood what He was doing; often I didn't. Sometimes I could see His hand immediately; other times, I could only recognize it months later. But His presence was never dependent upon my perception.

So if God feels silent today, tell Him. If you are angry, tell Him. If you are confused, tell Him. If you are exhausted from trying to control everything, hand Him the driver’s seat. And if all you can pray is: “God, I can’t feel You, but I know You’re here,” let that be your prayer.

Because faith is not always seeing the light. Sometimes faith is standing in the darkness and trusting the One who promised never to leave you there alone.