Grappling with God Q&A #4 - Is God Even There?

In this message from the Grappling with God series, Pastor Caleb explores some of the congregation’s most vulnerable questions about faith, doubt, and the felt absence of God. Drawing from passages like Psalm 88, Psalm 23, John 15, and Galatians 2, the sermon examines the tension between God’s transcendence and nearness, and challenges the assumption that a “personal relationship with God” always means emotionally sensing God’s presence. Through reflections on figures like Augustine, St. John of the Cross, Mother Teresa, and Teresa of Ávila, the message reframes spiritual dryness and silence not as failure, but as a normal part of maturing faith.

The sermon also highlights how Scripture gives language for seasons of grief, confusion, and unanswered prayer. Psalm 88 becomes a central example of biblical faith that cries out to God even when hope feels absent. Rather than offering shallow certainty, the message invites listeners to abide with God in the darkness, to carry belief and unbelief honestly, and to rediscover hope by looking both inward at the deeper chambers of the heart and outward at God’s work in creation, community, and the cross of Christ.