Walking With Christ

Understanding Object Permanence

I want to start with a simple concept:  object permanence.  It’s something we develop as infants—the understanding that an object still exists even when we can’t see it.  If you hide a toy from a baby, they think it’s gone forever.  But as we grow, we learn that just because something isn’t in front of us doesn’t mean it has disappeared.

Now, imagine if this concept applied to emotions.  Most people can recall the feeling of love and affection even when it’s not actively being shown.  If someone says, “I love you” today, that feeling lingers into tomorrow and beyond.  But for some, it doesn’t work that way.  If love isn’t constantly reinforced, it seems to disappear, like it was never there in the first place.  That’s emotional object permanence—or, in this case, the lack of it.  I recently discovered that this is something that I’ve lived with for my whole life.  It never bothered me until recently when someone asked me to recall a time when someone did show affection.  I couldn’t.

And here’s where this gets even more challenging—what happens when we experience this with God?  When we don’t feel His presence, do we assume He’s not there?  Do we think His love is absent just because it’s not constantly being reinforced in ways we recognize?  I’ve personally struggled with this.  I know what it’s like to believe in God, to trust in His Word, and yet, when I don’t feel Him moving in my life, I wrestle with doubt.  The reality is, this isn’t just my struggle—this is a deeply human issue.  It’s the same struggle we see throughout Scripture.

Forgetting God’s Presence:  A Pattern in Scripture

Think about Israel in the wilderness.  They had just seen God split the Red Sea.  They had walked through on dry land, watched Pharaoh’s army be swallowed up behind them, and yet, just days later, they were grumbling.  Where’s our food?  Where’s our water?  Maybe slavery in Egypt wasn’t so bad after all.  It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?  And yet, how many times do we experience God moving in our lives—answering prayers, providing in unexpected ways—only to turn around and doubt Him the moment things get difficult?

In Exodus 16:2-3, the Israelites complain about food, completely forgetting the miracles they had just witnessed.  Later, in Deuteronomy 8:11-14, they are warned not to forget the Lord when times are good, because human nature tends to forget God’s faithfulness when we’re no longer in desperate need.

Then there’s Peter.  We love Peter because he’s so much like us—bold, passionate, and, at times, deeply flawed.  When Jesus called him to walk on water in Matthew 14:28-31, he actually did it.  He stepped out of the boat and walked toward Jesus.  But then something happened.  He stopped focusing on Christ and started looking at the wind and the waves.  The moment he shifted his attention away from his Savior, his faith faltered, and he began to sink.  Isn’t that us?  As long as we feel God’s presence, we’re confident.  But when distractions, troubles, and silence set in, we panic.

And what about David?  A man after God’s own heart, yet even he cried out in desperation:  “How long, O Lord?  Will you forget me forever?  How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?”(Psalm 13:1-2)(ESV).  If David—someone who wrote psalms of worship and praise—could feel abandoned, then we shouldn’t be surprised when we wrestle with the same doubts.

The Spiritual Object Permanence Problem

Just as some struggle with emotional object permanence, many of us wrestle with spiritual object permanence—the ability to trust that God is still present even when we don’t feel Him.  But the truth is, God’s faithfulness is not dependent on our emotions.

We see this clearly in 2 Timothy 2:13:  “If we are faithless, He remains faithful—for He cannot deny Himself.”(ESV)  God is unchanging.  Our emotions are not.  So how do we anchor ourselves in His presence, even when we don’t feel it?

Keeping Faith Alive When Feelings Fade

1. Intentional Reminders
   1. Faith, like any relationship, needs reinforcement.  In Deuteronomy 6:6-9, God commands His people to write His words on their hearts, talk about them daily, and even post them on their doorframes.  Why?  Because we forget.  If we want to stay connected to God, we need daily reminders—Scripture, prayer, worship, and reflection.
2. Recording God’s Faithfulness
   1. David wrote Psalm 103:2:  “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”(ESV)  Why?  Because our hearts are prone to forget what our minds know.  Keeping a record—whether in a journal, notes, or even just verbal testimonies—helps anchor us in the reality of God’s past faithfulness.
3. Trusting God Even When We Don’t Feel Him
   1. In Isaiah 41:10, God says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God.”(ESV)  It doesn’t say, “Only trust Me when you feel My presence.”  It says, “I am with you.”  Period.  That truth stands whether we feel it or not.

How Do We Keep God’s Love Real?

So what do we do with all of this?  The challenge is simple:  what steps are we taking to keep God’s love present in our lives?

• Are we reflecting on His past faithfulness?
• Are we surrounding ourselves with His Word daily?
• Are we anchoring ourselves in truth, even when we don’t feel it?

We have to actively choose to trust what we know over what we feel.

The Ultimate Proof of God’s Love

Romans 8:38-39 reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Not trouble, not hardship, not even our own forgetfulness.  Even when we forget, God does not.

Faith isn’t about always feeling close to God—it’s about trusting that He is close, even when we don’t feel it.  Just like object permanence allows us to trust that unseen things still exist, spiritual object permanence calls us to trust that God’s love and presence are always with us—whether we feel them or not.

Lord,
Help us to trust You beyond our emotions.  Strengthen our faith so that when we cannot feel You, we still know You are near.  Let us remember Your love, even when it is not actively reinforced.  May our trust in You be built not on our fleeting emotions, but on the firm foundation of Your unchanging presence.
In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.