October 27

bringing praise to their lips. Peace, peace to those far and near,” says the LORD, “and I will heal them.” — Isa 57:19 BSB

"Far off!" What does that mean? It means that the soul, in its experience, feels separated and at an infinite distance from God. This inward sense of being "far off" is one of the most painful feelings a quickened soul can experience. The ungodly, who are truly far off, know nothing of this spiritual distance from God, for they have never been brought near to Him in the first place. They have never felt the "cords of love, the bands of a man" drawing them to the throne of the Most High. They have never longed for the sweet manifestations of God's mercy and love. Instead, they live in the things that separate them from their Maker, with no awareness of the distance between themselves and God.

However, those who feel far off are people who have seen something of the beauty of the Lord, who have felt the evil of sin, who know God’s purity and their own impurity. They have experienced the condemnation and bondage of a holy law. A spiritual awareness of God's holiness and their own sinfulness has driven them from their self-righteousness and presumptuous standing, making them feel far from Him. They don’t dare to approach Him and feel they cannot, mourning over their sin and unable to draw near because the Lord does not smile upon them.

A person must first know this sense of distance before they can be brought near. How can we understand nearness to God if we have never known what it is to be far from Him? How can we know what it means to be brought “from the ends of the earth” by the manifestation of God’s mercy unless we have first been driven there by a sense of His wrath against sin? To see the Lord and yet feel unable to draw near to Him, to glimpse His atoning blood but feel it distant from us, to view His righteousness and His lovely Person but feel as though He is out of our reach—this is what it means to be "far off" from God. I believe that many of God’s people know this feeling. There isn’t much nearness today; not much being dandled upon the knees, not many smiles from the Lord, not many love visits or tokens of His affection. There is a lot of talk about them, and many people claim to experience them, but I fear much of it is false. The real people of God, the true-hearted family, are often "far off upon the sea," for we live in a dark and cloudy day.