What to Do When You Feel Far From God

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So often over the years, I have found myself in a place of distance from God. Sometimes it’s due to not having guidance or mentorship, but usually it’s of my own doing. There have been so many times when I have not prioritized my spiritual health. It’s not that I didn’t want to know God or grow closer to Him; I have always desired that, but desiring something doesn’t mean you’re making space for it. Many people desire to have a certain physical appearance, yet they don’t prioritize going to the gym or eating well.

This happens with God, too. We want to have a deep relationship with Him, and we know we need it, but often we either don’t prioritize spending time with Him, don’t feel close to Him when we do, or we don’t know how to draw near to him. I call this a spiritual rut—a place where you feel like you’ve fallen off the side of the road, far away from God, and are struggling to find your way back. Many people experience this, but how do we move out of it? Finding the key to this question starts with understanding exactly what your spiritual rut is.

What is a spiritual rut, and when do we find ourselves in them?

I love the story in John 5 of Jesus healing the crippled man at the Pool of Bethesda. There is so much we can learn from this passage. I find this is true about most everything in the Bible; we can apply every word written to numerous different situations and glean something new every time.

As I was preparing to write this post, I started studying John 5. I wanted a biblical example of someone who was in a spiritual rut (or, if I might be so bold, a spiritual snare) and how they escaped it. Now, at first glance, I wouldn’t look at the crippled man and think, “yeah, this guy is in a spiritual rut.” I say that because, when I read about him, I really think, “this guy’s life is horrible all around. He’s in a rut in general.” I don’t immediately look at it as something spiritual, because his ailment is so obviously physical.

Yet, the more I studied, the more I came to realize that he is just as much in a spiritual rut as he is a physical one. In all honesty, I think every rut can wind up being spiritual if we’re not careful. How easy is it to blame God when something is going wrong in life? How easy is it to put prayer, bible study, and even church on the back burner when our time gets taken up by unexpected events? If we aren’t careful, our difficult moments in life can morph into spiritual ruts.

The man at the Pool of Bethesda is no exception. This man was Jewish, and likely raised to believe in God and know His word. What he knew of God may have been very legalistic, but he knew nonetheless. I wonder how many times, in his 38 years of being crippled, this man became angry with God? I wonder how long it took him to turn away from God, or how many times he came back and cried out for healing? He must not have lost all faith, as he so quickly chose to believe Jesus and have faith when he was told to get up and walk. Yet, he had to have been in the darkest of places all those years.

There is an important point to note here: being in a rut does not mean you have lost faith, or that you’re a “bad Christian.” It is simply a time of distance or disconnection from the Lord, and it does not have to define your entire spiritual journey. This walk is full of ups and downs, so we just have to learn how to celebrate the ups and cope with the downs.

There are so many times when we might find ourselves in a spiritual rut: when life gets busy and we stop prioritizing God, when we find ourselves in a bad situation and blame Him, when we haven’t been given a lot of guidance or mentoring and don’t know how to fully seek Him, when we have mountaintop moments in life and feel like we don’t need Him, and the list goes on and on. Whatever your personal reason for losing motivation, rest assured that you are not alone!

Is it normal to feel unmotivated in your spiritual walk?

Absolutely it is! I have been a Christian my entire life. I truly do not remember a time when I didn’t believe in God. That being said, there have been years (yes, entire years) when I have not once opened up my bible. I have gone through seasons when I felt so on fire for the Lord that I could barely contain it, and then others when could not summon an ounce of desire to spend time with Him. Sometimes this was a result of the circumstances in my life, sometimes it was me just not having my priorities straight, and other times it was because I just felt disconnected and couldn’t figure out how to regain closeness with Him.

You could be one of the most dedicated, long-standing believers out there and you will still have moments when you feel far from God. I can pretty much guarantee that if you went up to your pastor or mentor and asked them if they’ve ever been in a spiritual rut, the answer would be a resounding “YES!”. It is so normal to feel this way; the trick is to not let your rut, your lack of motivation, turn into spiritual laziness (here is a great blog post about this). This brings us to the real meat of this post: how do you get out of the rut? How do you prevent a lack of motivation from turning into pure laziness? How do you get back to the fire for God that we all want and need?

Three Reminders for Getting Out of a Spiritual Rut

Let’s revisit our friend at the Pool of Bethesda. Like I said before, John 5 shows us a great example of someone in a horrible rut—but it also shows us a way out.

1. Continue to show up, even when it feels like nothing is changing.

The crippled man was persistent, I’ll give him that. He dealt with his ailment for 38 years. Can you imagine that? I’m sure there are many people out there who know what it’s like to struggle with the same affliction for years on end.

Though it’s not clear exactly how much time he had spent by the pool, we can assume he had been there for a while. Time and time again, he failed to actually reach the pool in time to receive the healing he wanted, yet he continued to try. Or, at the very least, he didn’t give up and leave altogether. This is a powerful lesson. Imagine if he had not been persistent in showing up and wound up not being there when Jesus came. It was his persistence that ultimately got him healed. Deeper than that, it was really his faith. If he had no faith at all in the fact that he could be healed, he would not have continued to show up.

So, in times when you feel unmotivated, unseen, or as if nothing is changing for you, keep showing up. Keep going to church, to your small group, to your bible study. Keep praying, even when you think you’re getting no answers. Your faith and persistence will put you in the exact place you need to be for God to meet you.

Sometimes this is easier said than done, I know. How do you keep showing up when you have no desire or motivation to do that? This might be a controversial statement, but here’s what I think: sometimes spending time with God can feel like a chore, and that’s okay. When it starts to feel this way, it’s a sign that something in our hearts needs to change, and it gives us an opportunity to seek out what that change needs to be. What is going on that is taking the joy out of being with Him, and what can we do to fix it? One thing I will say on this is that the more time you spend with Him, the more you will desire it. It might feel like a chore right now, but if you are consistent, then eventually it will become something that you miss if you aren’t able to do it. So keep showing up, no matter what!

2. Have relationship with others who will encourage and uplift you.

The first thing the man at the Pool of Bethesda said to Jesus when he was asked if he wanted to get well was, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred” (John 5:7, NIV). He was alone in his struggle, and consequently failed every time he tried to reach the pool.

Walking with the Lord works the same way, especially when we are in a rut. We need others to help us into the pool. This is important even when we aren’t struggling in our walk. If you aren’t surrounded by others who are continuously pouring into you (and you pouring into them), it becomes so easy to fall away. We need accountability to keep us in line with what God calls us to.

The great thing about having others around you when you’re thriving spiritually is that they are there to carry you when you struggle. Friends, family, mentors, your spouse, and anyone else who is part of your spiritual life will be able to see when you are falling into a rut and help carry you back to the road, or the “pool,” so that you can continue to walk in the fullness of what God wants to give you. If only the man at the Pool of Bethesda had others around to support him, how different would his life have been? Maybe he never would have felt the need to lay by that pool in the first place; maybe he would have found fulfillment in relationship with others, and perhaps those relationships would have helped guide him to the hope of the Lord whenever he began to resent his ailment.

Spending time with others who are able to encourage you is a key component to not just getting out of a spiritual rut, but preventing yourself from falling into it in the first place.

3. Don’t allow rules or tradition restrain you.

The man at the pool was immediately confronted by the Jewish leaders after he was healed. Why? Because he was walking around carrying his mat, and that was illegal to do on the Sabbath. If the man, and even more so Jesus, had abided by this law, there would have been no miraculous healing. That man would still be lying in his rut, hoping he would one day make it into the pool.

Please know, I am not saying you should go around breaking the law! However, I do believe that sometimes we think that spending time with God or following Him has to look a certain way. We think there is a “correct” way to do it, and if we can’t do it perfectly, then we can’t do it at all. If you approach your walk with the Lord carrying a list of rules, you will fail every single time. But if you approach it with an open heart, and have faith to just walk it out whenever you’re able and called to–as the man at the pool did–then you will always find your way to Him.

I think one of the biggest “rules” I’ve had to let go of is the idea that spending time with God should be the first thing you do every day. Is it great to start your day with the Lord? Yes! But that doesn’t mean you have to read your bible for an hour right when you wake up. Maybe you just play worship music while you get ready, or have some prayer time in the shower. Or maybe, just maybe, you stay in complete silence and just give yourself time to wake up and get going, and then have time with God when you’re actually able to process it. I am not a morning person, so getting up to do this is hard for me. I get up with enough time to get ready and have breakfast before I need to start my day. Pushing myself to get up earlier than that just doesn’t work well for me. So I have time with God later in the day. In my opinion, this is better than trying to do it in the morning, failing, and then not doing it at all.

I have actually started to schedule time to spend in prayer and Bible study. It’s literally on my to do list each day with the time that I plan to do it. I was starting to feel like I was entering into a rut and not doing it at all, and I knew I needed to make sure that I kept that time a priority. Now it’s scheduled, and even though it isn’t the first thing I do, it does happen. That’s a win for me.

All of this to say, don’t let the “rules” of spending time with God get in the way of actually being with Him. Give Him what you have, and He will honor that.

Ten Practical Steps to Climb Out of the Rut

We’ve learned a lot from the man at the Pool of Bethesda. But these are big picture elements. What about the little, practical steps you can take to move out of a rut? What can you take away and implement right now? Here are ten actionable tips for getting out of a spiritual rut (that all fit in to the three big points above).

Start small. Don’t put expectations on yourself to spend hours per day reading the Bible or praying! If all you can do is 15 minutes, start with that and move up from there. God would much rather have 15 minutes from you than none at all. A great way to do this is to find a good devotional to do each day. If you need a good one to start with, I really like this one and this one!

Join a small group/Bible study. If you are struggling to find others who can walk alongside you, join a group! Find a Godly community to be a part of so you have access to others who can step in when you need encouragement.

Change your routine. Do something different! If you’ve always read your Bible in the morning, try doing it in the evening before bed. If you usually say your prayers out loud, try journaling them instead (I just use a blank notebook for this!). Sometimes the easiest way to get out of a rut is to get out of a routine.

Schedule time with God. I’ve already told you this is what I do, so I can attest that it works! If your biggest struggle is business and trouble prioritizing, put time with God on your calendar and treat it like you would an important work meeting. Don’t miss it!

Find new resources. Look for podcasts, blogs, books, commentaries, etc. that you haven’t used before. New perspective can work wonders, so take some time to research other resources you can use in your walk with God.

Use a prayer journal. Knowing how or what to pray is hard sometimes. If this is something you struggle with, I encourage you to find a guided prayer journal! A quick Google search will pull up tons, but you can find two great options here and here.

Talk to God all day. Praying does not have to be on your knees in a room by yourself with worship music playing. All it is, is having conversations with God. You can talk to Him the same way you would your best friend, so try it! Start talking to God in the car, at work, while you do your house chores—whenever you want. It doesn’t have to be out loud, either; God can still hear you even when it’s in your head.

Follow a Bible study guide. You can find these in books or online. If you’re a hardcopy kind of person, the Bible In a Year is a great plan that breaks the bible up into daily reading for the entire year! I also love everything from She Reads Truth. If you prefer something online, there are apps that have reading plans (I like to use the YouVersion Bible App), and they make it super easy to do your Bible study or devotional even when you’re on the go!

Go to church. This one might seem obvious, but it’s still worth mentioning. Get involved in your local church, and start attending regularly. Doing this will not only ensure you’re continuously being poured into, but it will give you opportunity to find community, serve the kingdom, and strengthen your biblical foundation.

Celebrate the wins. It’s easy to get caught up in all the ways you think you failed, so remember to celebrate your wins. God certainly does! Take time to recognize when you’ve made progress. Stop and savor the moments when you start to feel close to God again. It’s the little steps that will ultimately get you out of the rut, so celebrate them and keep moving forward.

I am praying for a rejuvenated spirit in everyone this week! I hope you can find a moment of encouragement even if you are in a rut right now, and if you have any other tips, please share in the comments!