Is God Far Away Or Closer Than We Think

Ever feel like God is farther than you can reach? I think we all go through seasons like that where we wonder where He is or If He can hear us. Sometimes the sounds of our doubt or the clanging of the world around us becomes so loud that we can no longer hear that still small voice in the wind. Is it really that God is far off from us or is it us who has moved positions? 
We know from scripture that God is unchanging... everlasting... omnipresent. He has no beginning and no end and scripture also promises believers that He will never leave us or forsake us. It doesn't always feel like this though, does it? I believe with all my heart that God's reasons for things are perfect. I have had times in my life when I felt so close to Him, like I was wrapped in His arms, and I have had times when I would yell out and hear nothing but my own echo. I think back on moments when I believe He was being silent for a reason, seasons where I desperately needed to learn to trust Him deeper with a surrendered heart or when I needed to press into faith without sight. 
When Thomas doubted that Jesus had risen from the dead, he said that he wouldn't believe until he touched Him and placed a in finger in His side. Jesus came and let Thomas place his hand on the wounds and then He said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
If that doesn't strike the heart with conviction, I don't know what will. I have been Thomas. I have told God, "I need to feel you!" The truth is, that God wants us to have a heart of faith and a heart a soul that longs for Him. 
I felt weak this morning... really weak. Physically and mentally weak. We can look at all we are facing and all of our problems and all of the suffering in this world and feel alone, lost, panicked, and abandoned. The enemy is so good at making us forget who God is and who we are in Him. This morning in my car, feeling so weak and overwhelmed, knowing that the enemy was breathing his stink and lies down the back of my neck, this scripture came blazing through to my heart like a sword in battle piercing through the smoke. James 4:8 "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." I instantly shifted my eyes to the heavens and began to weep and cried out, "I love you, I praise you, you are so worthy". Just like a little girl crawling up in her fathers lap after she fell and cut her knee. I cried and cried and then it came... that presence. The peace that surpasses all understanding, that voice in the wind. His promise stood.. I drew near to Him and He drew near to me. He's faithful, and that doesn't change just because life does. 
I have had God come to me like a roaring lion and I had had God speak to me through the rustling in the leaves. He's waiting for us. He is waiting for us to surrender it all to Him, with faith in our hearts, that no matter what we see or do not see with our eyes, to believe that He is exactly who HE said that He is.