How to Encounter God - a Practical GuideSample

To encounter God, we must seek Him diligently. Sometimes we read about the men and women in the Bible who had fantastic encounters with God, but what we don’t see is the months and years of faithful prayer, worship, and service, showing up day after day, without any outward results. This consistency and faithfulness is the backdrop of an authentic encounter with God.

Our flesh wants to see results after one fervent prayer or one sacrificial act of giving or service. Sometimes we might indeed see some results, but lasting intimacy with God (which is the most valuable reward) only comes with an insatiable hunger for more of God, backed up with consistent effort.

The best example of this from my life is my morning devotion time. I am not an early riser by any means, but first thing in the morning is the best time to seek God. It’s the time when the demands of the day have not yet invaded my mind, and the house is quiet. So, I make the sacrifice morning after morning. Some mornings it feels like God is nowhere to be found. Some mornings I can barely stay awake. Yet, as days turn to weeks, and weeks to months, and months to years, something has been happening that is hard to pinpoint. Somewhere between day one and today, God turned up and kept turning up. If I was faithful to show up, He was much more faithful to reveal Himself to me in increasing measure.

If we want to encounter God, we must push past our flesh. 

Points to pray/journal:

• Am I unrelenting in my pursuit of a relationship with God?

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, help me to seek You diligently. Help me to keep going when I don’t feel like it and when I don’t see results.