LOVE OF GOD
In Psalm 77 Asaph is lamenting that the great closeness he had with God has vanished.  He says--
  Will the Lord reject forever?
  And will He neer be favorable again?
  Has His lovingkindness ceased forever?
  Has His promise come to an end forever?
This is the experience of many of us, from Job to our own day.  Once we were aware of God's presence, close to us.  But now that presence seems to have gone.  We are tempted to say or feel God has changed, or that He has abandoned us in our trouble.

  How can we respond to times like these?

  In Revelation 2.4 the Lord says the church at Ephesus has--left your first love.
  Do you remember your first experience with God?  It might have been coming to God as a child through baptism or a Sunday School class.  It might have been praying for the first time knowing who you prayed to; it might have been reading your first Bible or the first time you entered a church.

  The apostle Paul once said the church is His body--the fulness of Him who fills all in all, Ephesians 1.23.  This means that if God is all in all, He does not leave us.  We can't use our hand to brush away air; so God, like the air, has not left us.  As He is always present, we can return to our first love, Jesus Christ.  John says--our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, 1 John 1.3.

  Now that we know that, what is it like to have fellowship with God?

  The innermost being of God is love.  And just as a man would propose marriage--his undying love--to a young girl, so God in the beginning of our life with Him proposed love to us.  Now as it is the desire and opportunity of the girl to express back her love for the young man, God then gives us the opportunity to express our love for Him.  He appears to recede for us to give Him the love He has given us.

  We return to our first love by taking the times in which we feel abandoned by God to love Him back.

  We might remember Jesus said--Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you, not as the world gives do I give to you, John 14.27.  If we have HIs peace in us and we have the Spirit of God all around us, we have the consolation of His presence even if we don't feel it at the moment.
  We can speak to our soul.  David said--
  Why are you downcast, O my soul?
  And why have you become disturbed within me?
  Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him
  For the help of His presence, Psalm 42.5

  We can learn to trust Him, as trust is loving God.  The Puritan Joseph Sibbes wrote--This trusting in God is the way to quiet our souls and to stay the same in every estate.  The reason is because God has sanctified this holy grace to this end.  
  The Bible mentions several times in which God came to someone, gave them a blessing and then provided them with the opportunity to love God back through trust or faith.  The first time is the most famous.  Our whole world knows the story of Adam and Eve.  God came to Adam, blessed him with Eve and blessed them both with the garden.  Then God steps back.  Adam and Eve now have the opportunity to trust in what God said about the two trees.  They fail to give God love through trust in His word, so paradise is lost.

  But now look at Abraham.  He failed like Adam but God came to him again.  In Genesis God tells Abraham he will have a son, even though Sarah is barren and old.  She tells Abraham to provide a son through Hagar rather than through God's blessing, Gen. 16.2.
  Later, God gives Abraham the opportunity to trust in God through Isaac., Gen. 22.  He had to trust in God entirely concerning not just Isaac but God's promise that Abraham would be the father of many nations.  If Abraham slays Isaac, this could not happen.  However, this time Abraham believes and trusts the Lord to provide the lamb.

  In the NT we read the same thing; Jesus approaches with blessing, then He gives someone the opportunity to love Him back.  Luke says that 10 lepers come to Jesus for healing.  He provides that healing.  Nine walk away without expressing any love for Jesus, but one comes back.  Although he is not a Jew, Jesus rewards him with--Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well, Luke 17.19. 

  God has blessed us, so we speak love to God through our trust in what He has said.

  In all of this, we see the dynamic of love with our God.  He loves us in order that we should love Him in return.  As the Gershwin song says--our love is here to stay.
  Instead of thinking that God has abandoned us or that we are depressed or downcast, we should think of these times as the opportunity to give back to God the love He has given us.
  For He has visited us, Luke 1.68.