48. Feeling Disconnected From God Lately?

Want to know the deeper reasons why you may be feeling disconnected from God? And how to fix each one of them so you can not only connect with God again, but take your relationship to the next level! 

In this episode of Step Into Bold Faith, Whitney explains why Christian women might feel disconnected from God and offers practical, scripture-backed solutions to deepen their faith and relationship with Him.

If you have been asking questions like:

• What are the different reasons I may be feeling disconnected from God?
• How can I connect with God on a deeper level?
• What should I do when I spend time with God?
• How can I build a real relationship with God?
• How does spending time in God's Word help us feel more connected to Him?

Then this episode is for you!

Here's how you can continue to grow closer to God & walk with Jesus:

1. Join the Step Into Bold Faith Collective: Surround yourself with a community of devoted Christian women who are also choosing to follow Jesus wholeheartedly & live out God’s Word.

2. Follow Whitney on TikTok @stepintoboldfaith and send her a DM with any questions you have on your faith journey!

3. Subscribe to the Step Into Bold Faith YouTube channel to watch the video version of these audio episodes!

Transcript

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Have you ever felt like your relationship with God feels a little off? Like it's hard to hear his voice or feel his presence. And you want to be close with him, but something just is making it really hard. Maybe you've felt distracted, or maybe life's been really busy, or maybe you just don't feel as connected to him as you want to. And I just want to say that you are definitely not alone. And sometimes I feel that too, where I really want to be connected to God and I just feel like we aren't as connected as I want to be. And a lot of times there are specific things that are happening that are making us feel disconnected. So in today's episode, we're going to go through five reasons that you might be feeling disconnected from God and how to fix each and every one of them. Also, each of these is backed by the Bible, including a verse that matches it to really help us to understand where this is coming from in scripture too. So by the end of today's episode, you will gain clarity on what might be distancing your relationship with God, a deeper understanding of how to reconnect with him, practical ways to strengthen your faith in everyday life, and so much more. So let's get into today's episode. So welcome to Step into Bold Faith. I'm Whitney Gardner, and this podcast helps Christian women grow closer to God, understand his word, and learn what it means to live boldly for him in everyday life. So if you're someone who wants to build a real relationship with God, strengthen your faith, and walk closely with Jesus in a world that constantly pulls us in the opposite direction, you are in the right place. And today, again, we are diving into why you might be feeling disconnected to God and how to fix it. And I think a lot of us do experience this at some point in our journey. So maybe if you're not disconnected right now, this will help you in the future and this will be a good thing for you to reference again. So let's start talking about all of the different reasons and work on overcoming them. So reason number one is you're not fully surrendering to Jesus. So one of the biggest reasons you might be feeling disconnected from God is because you're calling, you're, you're living in what the Bible calls lukewarm faith. So you're not all 100% in and surrendering to Jesus. And I just want to say that there definitely is a difference with believing in God and fully devoting your life to God, right? There's a big distinction. And I definitely had this realization and moment. Like I decided I'm gonna follow Jesus, but it wasn't just I'm gonna follow Jesus, I'm gonna devote my life to Jesus, I'm gonna follow him wholeheartedly. I'm gonna follow and be obedient to what he's calling me to do, or at least do my best. It is really hard out here to be fully obedient to Jesus, let me tell you. And I just constantly have slip-ups. And this week has just been so many slip-ups. And I just am sorry to notice like the discernment as you grow closer to God, your discernment gets like higher and higher. And when you ignore him, you feel worse and worse about it. Like I'm like really struggling right now. So, anyways, I don't. So I also dough decided like I'm gonna fully surrender to him. I'm gonna fully devote my life to him. So that didn't just mean like I'm gonna start going to church. It meant I'm gonna serve at church and be in community of groups. It meant I'm not just reading my Bible. It's like I'm trying to understand this and do what it says. I'm not just changing my daily habits and routines. Like I'm making God first in my daily habits in my routines and starting my day with him and building my life around him instead of around what I want. And this is like the biggest reason a lot of times people do feel disconnected is because they're not fully surrendering to Jesus. They're just kind of like living lukewarm. Like maybe they go to church every once in a while, maybe they read their Bible every once in a while, maybe they are, you know, not surrounded by a godly community of Christian women, right? So there's like a lot of different reasons, but this is a big one because when you do fully start surrendering your life to him and obeying him and listening to his voice and being there and really growing that connection and deepening your faith in that way, he starts showing up for you so much more. And the relationship really grows so much. And so this was like such a big way that I realized I was growing my faith in my relationship with him was from me first taking that step to fully surrender my life and put him first and change all these habits, the mindset, the decisions, the even the way that I run my relationships, run my day, right? Changing all that. And again, I am not perfect. This is not something that I am doing fully 100%, like all day, every day. I definitely know I'm like really sinning sometimes, and we all are, right? That's the whole point of this whole thing is God uses imperfect people to really advance his kingdom and to make progress and to like share these honest things because that's just I'm just a normal person, just like you. Okay. So then in in in the Bible, it says, I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot. So because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Like Jesus hated lukewarm Christians in the Bible. This is in Revelation 3, 15, 16. And again, it really just shows us that God is not calling us to live halfway comfortable faith. He's calling us to be fully committed to him. And when we're in that in-between space, it can really create distance because you're not proving to him, you're not showing him with your actions, your words, your the way you're running your life that you are fully devoted. And again, it can cause a lot of disconnect. Okay, so reason number two is you're not fully engaging in God's word. So it's one thing to just read the Bible, it's another thing to actually understand it, to actually live it out, to actually let it affect your daily life, your daily decisions, your habits, your routines, all of these different things. And at the very beginning of my faith journey, I mean, truly, I was just reading the Bible. Like I was just reading it, not really getting a lot from it, but it was something I was spending time in because we're supposed to spend time in the Word, right? But it wasn't until I fully developed like this Bible highlighting system that I have and really dug deep into each and every line, being like, you know, what is God trying to tell me right here? Like, how can I see his character more clearly? Like, how is this story relating to my life right now? How can I use this to to speak to me in my life? How can I use this to help somebody? Again, when we're not in the word all the time, when it's something that's an every once-in-a-while thing, it's gonna be really hard to get there because you're not in practicing enough. Like as I spend more time in the word, the more the word gets to me and like impacts me in my life. And it's just so crazy, but it's so true. And so for the scripture passage of this one, Hebrews 4 12, for the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. And again, I just love reading my Bible now. It is so, so helpful. I just love it so much. And this is a big part of what we work on inside the step into bold faith collective. I forgot to say that on reason number one too, but in reason number one, we also really work on this inside the step into bold faith collective, is truly moving from lukewarm faith into being a devoted Christian, being a godly woman, walking with Jesus wholeheartedly every day, making him the center of our lives, right? And then same for for reason number two. This is also something we're really working on together, is truly learning how to understand the Bible and how it actually applies to our daily life. And if you don't know what the Step into Bold Faith Collective is, it's a community online for Christian women who want to really become bold in their faith, who want to live fully for God, who are tired of being a lukewarm Christian. So if that's you, make sure to check out the link in the show notes to learn more at the end of this episode. But I'm gonna be like kind of sprinkling in some info about it as we go through. So, reason number three is you're not prioritizing time with God. So again, if you're feeling disconnected from God, it might be because you're not prioritizing time with him. And I totally get it. Like I'm a mom of two, like I have a lot going on. You know, there's a lot of responsibilities, a lot of daily things that we have to handle. But any relationship requires our time and our effort and our energy, and our relationship with God is no different. And in James 4, 8, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. I have felt this so, so much. Like the closer I get to God, and like the more that I want our relationship to grow, the more that I say, like, I want to hear your voice, I want to be connected to you, like I'm ready for the next step. Like, give me more, you know, like of your presence, like your voice of all the things. Like he draws more and more to me, especially in moments of prayer, especially moments of being in the quiet, in being in certain spaces where I can really feel his presence and feel his energy. That's really where he shows up for me the most because there's not a bunch of other distractions or things going on. And in the morning, this is so, so crucial. Something you could do is start giving God the first 15 minutes of your day. So if you really want to prioritize time with him, five minutes of prayer, five minutes of worship, and five minutes in the word in the morning, give God the first 15 minutes of your day, and it's literally so helpful. I am telling you, it's going to change your life. Just 15 minutes of doing these three things. This is what I do every day. And it is so, so helpful. And I didn't really realize that I was structuring it this way before a church sermon that I watched like last week or two weeks ago that I went to. And this is what they said. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is totally what I do. Like I pray, I spend time in the Word. A lot of times for me, it was like journaling, but now I've kind of transferred it to worshiping him and really making it all about him. And like sometimes I'll be in prayer and I'm even just like singing like worship songs to him and things like that. And so again, this is also something we really support each other on inside the Step Into Bold Faith Collective is building consistent, realistic habits with God, good daily decisions and routines and things that we should be doing every day to deepen our faith to become on fire for the Lord. Reason number four is you're letting the world influence you more than God. So this is such a huge one because we are constantly surrounded by the world with like social media, our family and friends, opinions, trends, distractions, you know, people trying to sell us stuff, like all this, all of these, all of these things, right? And if we're not careful, these voices, these opinions, these things can become louder than the voice that we have with God. In Romans 12, 2, do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So do not conform to the pattern of this world. Do not follow what everyone else is doing. Right now, a big thing that I'm working on with God is he wants me to be different than all these other influencers online. He wants me to be different than all these other podcasters. He wants me to take a totally different approach, a totally different direction, right? He does not want me to be conforming to these other people because we each have our own unique talents and ways that we serve the kingdom and the ways that we show up. And so it's really important that we're all like really thinking about things and processing them and trying to be very much like individual in this world and also being transformed by the renewing of our mind. And how are we renewed in our mind? Through prayer, through reading the Bible, through showing up to church, through being surrounded by the right community, right? And really spending time and building that relationship with God. And this is something that I'm really working on and I'm really having to check myself a lot is like, what am I consuming? What am I listening to? What am I letting overtake the conversations I'm having with God about how to run things or how to live my life, right? Am I listening to something else more than that? Like, when am I getting messy? When am I getting confused? And again, the more we fill ourselves with God rather than fill ourselves with the world, the closer and more connected we're gonna be to God. And again, this is something we really work on inside the step in a bold faith collective is how to actually live differently and how to stay grounded in God's truth over the worldly distractions, even when it's really hard, because it is really hard. And then the last one, we're already on reason number five. The reason that you're disconnected from God is that you're trying to do your faith journey alone, that you don't have the right support, that you don't have the right community, that you don't have the right accountability, that you don't have the right resources, right? Because truly trying to build and grow your faith alone is so hard. Like I could not imagine not having the like three or four different communities that I'm a part of as a Christian woman myself. Like I have my groups at church, I have another friend group where we meet for like dinners and stuff. I have the Step in a Bold Faith Collective, I have like individual friendships with a lot of different Christian women, right? Like I have a lot of different communities, and that is so important because each one brings something unique into my life. And not all one community is going to be serving all the purposes for you. These communities all serve different purposes for me, and I'm a part of them all for a different reason, and God wants me to be in there for a different reason. And so if you're feeling stuck or disconnected, faith really was never meant to be a solo journey, even though it is like us deepening our faith, our relationship with God, doing these things. Like God designed us to be in community. Proverbs 27, 17, as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. We need encouragement. We need accountability, we need other women walking on the same path. I've seen it firsthand, how much faster and how much deeper you can go in your faith journey when you're surrounded by the right people, when you're surrounded by Christian mentorship, when you're surrounded by women that you can actually talk about, like, hey, what are you reading in the Bible? Like, how are you able to like understand this or how is this impacting your life? Right. And having those open, honest conversations about like the Lord told me this, or I I'm feeling this way on my on my spiritual path, or you know, I'm confused how to do this. And and just speaking openly, like in Christian terms, even is so helpful when you're surrounded by the right people to not be uncomfortable. And so you can like get over that roadblock and you can just get to the next level because you're already past that like uncomfortableness. Like you know, everyone's already on the same page. They believe in God, they understand the importance of reading the Bible, they want a relationship with God too. They want to be, you know, godly women that represent the world the way that Jesus did and have a lot of those same opinions and interests as you, right? And so again, this is why the Stephen Bold Faith Collective exists to create that kind of environment, to create this kind of space online. Because especially online, there's so many just not godly things online, right? And so it's like if I'm gonna be spending all this time online, if I'm gonna be showing up and you know, giving these resources to people and having, you know, other people join these communities, it might as well be for something that has a greater purpose to serve God, right? So again, if you've been feeling disconnected from God lately, I just want to remind you that God is not going anywhere. He is here, he is ready to join you. And sometimes we just need to realign and figure out which of these five reasons why we are feeling disconnected on our end. And I'm gonna run through them one more time just to recap. So, reason number one is you're not fully surrendering to Jesus. Reason number two is you're not engaging with God's word. Reason number three is you're not prioritizing time with God. Reason number four is you're letting the world influence you more than God. Reason number five is you're trying to do this alone, and that was it. So again, if this episode resonated with you, if you've been feeling that desire to grow closer to God, I personally want to invite you into the step into bold faith collective. This is a space for Christian women who are ready to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, who want to become bold in their faith, who want to leave a lukewarm faith behind, who are really ready to light that fire and become the godly woman they're supposed to be. And inside, we're having real conversations about these things. We're growing in scripture, we're encouraging each other, we're learning to live fully for God together. And so if you've been trying to do this alone, or maybe you only have one community, two communities, we all need another community, especially online. You can learn more and join us now through the link in the show notes. And I would absolutely love to walk this journey with you. So now that we've reached the end of this episode, let's pray. God, thank you so much for each and every woman listening to this right now, Lord. I just pray that they got what they needed from this Lord, that they were able to uncover the spiritual block, that they were able to realize the reason that they've felt disconnected from you, Lord, and just to help them move through that and feel more connected to you, Lord. And please meet them where they're at and help them along their journey to become devoted Christian women who are on fire for you, who love you, who serve you, who are just able to fulfill such a need in this world and serve with such great ability because you are their source of strength, you are their source of wisdom, you are the guidance that they've been looking for in their lives, Lord. And I just pray that they got what they needed and they have the clarity and they're ready to move forward and really step into bold faith. So thank you so much, Lord. We appreciate you, we value you, we worship you, we love you. In Jesus' name, amen. So until next time, thank you so much for coming along the journey with me. And let's keep stepping into bold faith together. Bye.