Must We "Feel" God's Presence for God to be Near?

I'm reading a very impacting book by Larry Crabb - SHATTERED DREAMS: GOD'S UNEXPECTED PATHWAY TO JOY. I don't agree with all of it, but I get the basic premise: Nothing in this life provides for us that which a relationship with Jesus gives. We are designed for that. Everything we think we need in life; those things/people/situations without which we believe life is not worth living will all fall short of filling that which knowing God through Jesus provides.

In this book, Larry Crabb makes this radical statement: "When (God) said, 'I will never leave or forsake you,' apparently (God) didn't mean, 'and you'll always sense that I'm there.'" (Page 157.) Think about that. In our culture we are conditioned to measure life in terms of how we feel. If I feel good, then life is good. If I feel bad, then life stinks. We ourselves become both the lens through which to see life and the barometer by which to measure life. (We're a very ego-centric bunch, when you think about it!) So, God's closeness, God's activity, and God's love all then are assessed by how we feel. If we feel close to God, then God is close. If we don't feel God's presence, then God is somehow absent.

Crabb suggests that this is not the biblical view of God. In multiple instances people did not feel God near. There are too many to mention, so let's just go straight to the top. Jesus did not feel God near while dying at Calvary. (See Matthew 27:46.) Did that mean that God in fact was not present and not doing something? If so, all Jesus-followers need to find something else to which to give our primary allegiance, because our salvation and new life in Jesus would then be a lie.

I would suggest that experiencing "nearness" to God is more a function of our surrender and obedience than it is a function of how we feel. Something for 21st Century western Jesus-followers to consider...I'll see you around the next bend in the river.