Meeting with God Every Day
An experience which
enriches and uplifts!
Is God present in everything, or only in those things that we would traditionally call 'holy'?
We expect to find God in church and in our private prayer. But have you ever wondered where he is the rest of the time? If we open our eyes, we can see him. If we open our ears, we can hear him. If we open our hearts, we can know “He is not far from any one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being”. The fact is we don’t really need to find God. Nor does he need to find us. He knows right where we are. If we’re honest, we know right where he is, too. We can Meet with God Every Day.
If God is someone we encounter on Sundays alone, then our understanding of God will be seriously deficient. Finding God in the everyday is not a luxury to be experienced as an occasional treat, but a necessity.
Without a sense of God’s presence, life becomes stale and lacking real purpose. This is the God who cares about our lives and loves, our work and our worries, our hopes and dreams, our successes and failures. This is the God who walks with us to the summit and is there to meet us in the depths.
But how can we find God in a busy world? How do we see his hand in our daily lives? How do we do it? Perhaps it can be as simple as depending on the Lord for small daily help, the whispered prayer: “Lord, help me find my car keys”. Nothing wrong with that prayer, and sometimes he does help us, but not always. Perhaps it’s seeing his majesty and creation in a simple sunset or a budding flower, child’s laugh or in a persons face. How can any of these things exist without him?
How is God there? God made this whole world and gave life to each and every one of us who lives in it. We have to start by knowing that we are of value to God. Since we are created in the image and likeness of God then we are of value. No matter what our station in life, we are of value to God and the Kingdom. Once we have realised that, then we can move to the next step. That step is to see that everyone else has been created in the image and likeness of God and is of value - again, no matter what their station in life, they are children of God the same as you.
About Me
Through this website I will try to share my views and experiences of Meeting God in the Everyday.
I am a wife, sister, friend and in the past I have been a nurse in the NHS, an Acupuncturist and since 2014 I've been an ordained minister in the Church of England. At the moment I am the vicar of four rural parishes in South Warwickshire.
Meeting with God Every Day
Click a picture
to open the window.
Blog
Podcast Archive
But how can we find God in a busy world?
How do we see his hand in our daily lives?
How do we do it?
Have you ever had a personal encounter with God? Do you know what it means or even that it’s possible in our everyday lives? God wants to bless and communicate with us, his people and we need to be ready. It’s especially important when we are feeling wrung out, depressed, confused or any other myriad of emotions. He’s there for us when we feel alone and nobody else understands. To have a personal encounter with God can be a comfort, a joy and on occasions life changing.
Encountering God isn’t spooky, super spiritual or made up by fanatics. Encounters are for everyday people like you and I and God uses these times to break through into our lives.
The bible speaks of encountering God in a number of places and not just in the Old Testament. Moses and the burning bush, and Paul (Saul) got knocked off his donkey on the way to Damascus. These were events that happened in Biblical times but he’s there for us today and can be found in the everyday. Paul, didn’t know the Lord and in fact he was a persecutor of believers prior to his encounter. God had a plan for Paul but he knew it would take a radical event to break through into his life. For many people, this will be how they meet God for the first time. But that’s not always the case. Your experience may have been a more gentle knowing and quiet recognition. God talks to us all in different ways.
If I’m honest God has always been in my life. I grew up attending Sunday school so I new most of the stories. To me, God has never been somebody who sits up in heaven and looks down over us. He’s always been there beside me. Someone to talk to, who listens - I don’t always get what I want but I’ve learned over the years that sometimes I get what I need instead. Although I grew up attending Sunday school we only went to church a dozen or so times a year but we did say our prayers before we went to bed. I must admit that as a child I preferred the God I heard about in the New Testament. The war, bloodshed and anger of the God in the Old Testament frightened me - it didn’t seem like it was the same person. So much so that I used to pray to ‘the God of goodness and love.’
So where am I going with this? Well, for me God is Everywhere Every Day.
-
He’s there in the supermarket when I walk past the Foodbank bin and drop a few items in.
-
He’s there when I pass the Goth in the street - the teenager who’s different or the homeless person sleeping in the shop doorway at night.
-
He’s there when I see the first daffodils pushing their way out of the ground, when I walk through the park or through the fields and see his wondrous creation.
Now I’m not saying I see him all the time. Sometimes I have to make a very conscious effort to see God in something, somewhere, in someone. Sometimes he feels quite absent and it’s at those times that I have to work harder to find him. The Daily Examin - the 5 step daily prayer by St. Ignatius is useful then. It helps me reflect on my day and see where God was.
An encounter with God is different for each of us because God knows our needs. It’s a deeply personal experience, relevant to us. What makes it wonderful, is the realisation that you matter to God. He reveals to you, that he knows your name and the details of your circumstances intimately.
Meeting God is an experience which enriches, lifts you up and builds your faith. It may be something as small as snowdrop buds emerging through frozen January soil or the extra nine minutes of added daylight picked up since the Winter Solstice. Although God is all around, it’s often when we are in the depths of despair and our situation seems hopeless that we appreciate it most. Humble yourself, open your eyes, pray and seek him above all else. He will not disappoint you. Jeremiah says “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
God is always there, waiting for us to seek him. The most amazing thing happens when we decide to search for God in the everyday. We sometimes find him in the strangest of places! I wonder what you will find when you commit to search for God in your everyday life. Open your heart and be intentional in seeking the Lord and Meet God in the Everyday.
​
​