1. Your need for control.
You love it when life goes according to your plan. He longs for organization. You long for order. You tell yourself that life should work the way you want it to. When things make sense, when you can find or receive answers, or when you are in complete control of what is happening and around you—everything is fine.
Faith, for you, looks like the surrender of everything you have built your life on and tried to live together. Instead of seeing the truth—that giving God control allows you to freedomyou feel like you’re going to lose. What you fail to see is that if you allow God to take over, you are allowing His plan to be fulfilled, to find true happiness, and to lose the constant stress and anxiety you suffer from as you try hard to control what you cannot do.
2. Your fear of the unknown.
You lose a deep relationship with God because you are afraid of what you cannot see, know, or understand. Instead of asking questions or searching for answers, instead of digging deeper, or praying, or learning more by faith to find what you want, you push God away.
You take God’s truth for granted just because you fear what you don’t know—but if you don’t seek, you’ll never find it.
3. Your love for all material things.
You put everything before God: your money, your clothes, your house, your phone, your car, your electronics. The list is endless. What really prevents you from building a healthy and deep relationship with your Father is that you value everything above Him, leaving no room for anything deep or important in your heart or life.
4. Your focus is on infinity.
God’s love lasts forever, yet he focuses on things that will not last—possessions, human relationships, emotions, things. Instead of putting your love and obedience in faith, instead of putting your heart on what comes after this life, you are too tied to what is right in front of you, which fades as each moment passes.
5. Your need to look back instead of forward.
Your relationship with God is ending because you are too attached to the past. You’re always looking over your shoulder, beating yourself up about the past, thinking about what happened instead of what happened he can. You keep neglecting God’s truth—that each day is new to Him. And there is always, always hope.
6. Your negative self-esteem, or self-deprecating thoughts.
Your negative speech is what keeps you from God’s love. It’s not that he doesn’t like it, or doesn’t want it. It’s not that He keeps himself aloof, or absent. The truth is, you always speak with anger and malice in your heart. You tell yourself that you are not good enough, instead of living in His truth—that you are always more than enough in His eyes.
7. Your inability to trust what you know in your heart is true.
He knows that God’s word is real. You know His deep love for you, and how He will stay with you and be with you forever, no matter what happens. You have seen miracles and blessings around you. You are strengthened in Him. However, he is afraid to really trust.
The reason you can’t have a deep relationship with Him comes down to this simple fact—you doubt who knows it’s true.
8. Your desire for personal happiness, rather than God-given happiness.
You cannot deepen your relationship with the Father if you are too attached to selfish or worldly desires. This life is temporary, and when you put all your passion and energy into pursuing the things and people of this world, you will forever miss out on all that God has to offer—unconditional love, forgiveness, hope, and eternal life.
9. Your fear because of the possibility of change.
The truth is, you are afraid to have a deep relationship with God because you don’t want things to change. You don’t want this life to suddenly become difficult, or to have trials of faith. You don’t want to wake up and have to choose faith over ordinary life. You don’t want anything remotely difficult, when you are used to everyday ease. But faith is a challenge. Faith is a choice. Faith is passion and love and commitment to the good, and often invisible things of this world.
You are afraid to deepen your relationship with God because you are busy trying to figure it all out, but deep down you know that God is the answer. And you’re ready to stop searching.
