How Can We Know God?
We believe in the things we can touch and see. We can put our feet on the floor. We can feel water on our hands. We believe in those things, but God is even more real than the things we can see and touch.
And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.
It does sound crazy to say that you can know God personally, especially when we think of our human relationships. We know our parents, we know our spouse or the person we're dating, we know our children, or know our best friend.
It's hard to think that we would know God in the same way. We can't see God, we can't hug God, we can't do the things we're used to doing in our human relationship. But, there's another side of human beings. We are in our bodies and we have a mind. But, we also have souls and we have a spirit inside. Those important parts of us are often not used in our everyday life. We don't connect the spiritual and the physical.
Use quiet time to get to know God
I was an only child for 10 years until my sister was born. So when you're an only child and there are no other siblings, you use your imagination when you play. I had my stuffed animals and my Barbie dolls. And we played! I had many of those things. But, sometimes in our lives, not having “things” gives us an opportunity to broaden our creative minds. In the lonely times of my life, I’ve learned to get to know God in a different way. And getting to know Him taught me that I am truly not alone.
Prayer is talking to God
A friend asked me recently, "How do you pray, and when you pray, how do you know that God is listening? How do you know that God's hearing you?"
All I can say is, "Just try. I know it might feel weird. You're in your apartment or in your house or whatever. It might feel a bit different." You may be thinking, "What are you saying? You're telling me to open up my mouth and talk out loud to someone that I can't see?" I'm saying, "Yeah, I want you to try."
God reveals Himself through His Word
A great place to start with our faith and with trusting God is to try a little thing. That little thing might be to have that moment where you say, "All right, in whatever way I talk to God, I'm going to try that today. Or whatever way I think I can write something to God, I'm going to write it. Or I'm going to open up this Bible. I've heard a lot about it. I'm going to open it up, and I'm going to try just reading a little bit for myself."
That's a great place to start. Just try. Ask God to show you who He is.
Used with permission by Global Media Outreach from exploreGod.com. This article was first published as a video.
Pray this week:
God, please show me who you are. I do want to know you.
Amena says that God is more real than things we can see or touch. Do you agree or disagree and why? Do you agree that everyone has a soul or spirit? What does that mean to you?