How to Encounter God - a Practical GuideSample

We must seek the Lord with our soul if we are to find Him. In our modern world, one of the enemy’s tools to keep us from encountering God is to keep our souls distracted. We live lives of constant distraction, never fully present to any one thing, let alone God. I will go out on a limb and make this bold statement: If we live with our ears glued to the latest doom and gloom news or our eyes fixed on our social media feed, we will never encounter God. Even Jesus often had to retreat from the noise of the crowds to pray in solitude.

God’s whispers of entreaty are heard in the stillness of attentive souls. If we tune out the noise of the world and tune into His voice, we will find that our anxious souls will become quiet and peaceful. We will find the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Many years ago, I stopped reading newspapers or watching the news regularly (especially first thing in the morning). I realized that all I was doing was feeding my soul a steady diet of fear and anxiety that left me with no sustenance to positively influence my own life or the prevailing culture around me. Instead, I began feeding on the Word of God every morning, and I immediately saw the positive results in my inner weather and ability to be led by the Spirit. 

Practically, my soul was now seeking the Lord wholly instead of being distracted by the noise of the world. I immediately felt more of His Presence, evidenced by His shalom.

If we want to encounter God, we must push past the noise.

Points to pray/journal:

• What do I feed my soul?

Prayer:

Lord, teach me to seek You with my whole soul. Help me to identify and remove every distraction and instead be attentive to Your voice alone.