To very many who pray, God seems afar off. They do not know whether He hears or not. They do not hear His voice.
That is not the way to pray to God. What is the difference between praying to a god that has ears but hears not, and has eyes but sees not, and a mouth but speaks not, and praying to the true God, and not knowing whether He sees or hears or speaks? "Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: He has done whatever He has pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither do they speak through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusts in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord: He is their help and their shield." (Psalm 115:2-9)
God is not a long way off. "He is not far from everyone of us," (Acts 17:27) said the apostle, speaking to heathen men; For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring." (Acts 17:28)--Present Truth, March 29, 1894.