When God Feels Far Away预览

Day Four: Creating God Room in Your Life 

God room. Creating space in your decisions and actions where you’re leaving room for God to fill and do the things that only He can do. Faith is explained in the Bible as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). In a sense, creating God room is just a matter of living by faith where you’re trusting God more than yourself. 

God room intentionally looks for and expects His movement, His activity, and His timing when all your human effort is exhausted and abandoned. It’s understanding that you can do what God will have you do, but there’s a part of your life’s circumstances where if God does not move and act then it won’t happen. And so you make space—room—and wait for God to move and act.

Esther faced a difficult dilemma. Her people were being threatened with genocide, and she was uniquely able to do something about it by going to her husband, the king, and trying to get him to reverse his own decree.

We come to the dramatic moment in the story when we see Esther create God room, that space where God does the works that are far too big for any person to accomplish. It is in this place that God gives Esther the vision of how to proceed. In fact, one of the most fascinating things in all of Scripture happens here: God reveals to Esther the steps she must take in the daring plan to save her fellow Jews. This plan was impossible by human standards.

Esther’s actions implicitly demonstrate faith. Esther operates with a sense that God is behind the scenes in all that is happening. She moves at an even and concerted pace to allow plenty of room for God’s intervention. As the Jewish people fast and wait, Esther’s actions give room for God to uniquely act and breathe life into her plans. Her process affords God a place to show up and do whatever He will choose to deliver his people.

The key to creating God room is waiting—a concept that goes against the grain of our modern culture and our human nature. God, however, operates differently. Esther eagerly watches for Providence to come through for her and her people. Waiting expectantly keeps our eyes clearly focused on the horizon, looking and hoping for God to reveal Himself in whatever way He chooses.

What are some of the challenges you face that only God can handle? What change in perspective may happen if you focus more on God than on the circumstances themselves?