The Near Love: Unblocking Your Heart to the God Who Is Already Close

Why do so many believers feel spiritually lonely even while believing in God’s love? The Near Love explores the quiet tragedy of knowing divine love in theory but not experiencing it in daily life. Through the biblical story of King Saul—a man deeply loved by God yet gradually drifting into isolation—author Otun Stephen Gbenga traces how we build unseen walls of self-reliance, pride, people-pleasing, and selective obedience. This is not a book about earning God’s affection, but about learning to receive it. Blending pastoral insight, reflective exercises, and practical grace, Gbenga guides readers from diagnosis to pathway, from spiritual hindrance to heart-opening abiding. For anyone who has ever sung of God’s love while feeling its absence, this book offers a gentle, scriptural, and transformative companion for the journey home.