Re-Discovering Your Awe For God
Yesterday on my personal blog, I wrote a short post that asked the question, “What do you do when you feel distant from God?” You can read it here if you’d like. The premise was simple: when we feel far away from God, we try to fix it in the same ways we fix everything else in our lives (our cars, our health, etc.). We revert to a step-by-step approach where we pray more, or do more or better quiet times, etc.
The problem is that this doesn’t work. To feel closer to God, we have to rediscover or awe of Him. We have to draw near to Him and find joy in who He is.
Again, you can read the text here.
A good friend of mine responded with a comment that really got my attention. I think she did a great job of articulating what many people feel. Here’s what she said:
so then…how do we rediscover our awe? i feel like so often i long for those early days of being a believer and that new fire. but so much refining has happened since then. you can’t go back. but how do you go forward to where you were in the past? sorry, rambling. and probably doesn’t make ANY sense. but this is something i’ve really been struggling with lately.
So that’s the question: How do we re-discover the awe?
Here’s the thing: I’ve struggled with this a TON over the years. And my hunch is that many of you struggle with it, and many of our students struggle with it. And while I don’t offer an exhaustive solution, here are a few response my friend’s question challenged me to come up with.
Expect To Be Awed
I know it sounds overly simplistic, but our expectations are key to re-discovering our awe of God. If we want to find God, but don’t go throughout our day (and our days) looking for Him, we’ll miss Him. After all, He isn’t distant from us. He’s unchanging. When God feels far away, the distance originates with us.
Ask And You Shall Receive
We forget what prayer is and what it isn’t. At its core, prayer is conversation. Ask God to help you engage with him in fresh ways. Ask him to open your eyes to Him and His character. Then, (as I just said) act in expectation of him honoring your prayer.
Use Your Head To Feed Your Heart
Scripture is the main way God gave us to know Him and His ways. Our knowledge of God and His character feeds our love for Him. Engaging with God through the Bible is one of the main ways we re-discover our awe for Him. But, you might need to . . .
Change Your Style
I’m not sure how many people have been taught that there are different purposes for Bible Study. Maybe the most common way people read the Bible is studying it seeking to mine a truth from a passage and apply it in their lives. But, there is another way of using the Bible to find God: contemplative and meditative. For instance: This is a short post from Kara Powell on a practice called Lectio Divina. It’s a great practice for changing up your style.
Competition Kills
We are flawed and sinful. Even when we direct our affections toward God, we miss the mark. One of the biggest ways this happens is when we don’t carve out space to encounter God. Space where our attention doesn’t have to compete with the noise (both literal and figurative) of the world. In our Pause Bible Study, we define the concept of “hitting pause” for students as “Seeking God in solitude and silence through prayer and Bible study.” This is great advice for us (and for our students) to apply as we seek God.
Take A Different Way Home
Our personalities and preferences in many ways dictate how we interact with God. What is your default way of encountering God? Are you a head person, drawn to engaging God through knowledge, such as scripture meditation, reading the works of others, or reading creeds or catechisms? Are you a heart person, connecting with God most easily through an emotional connection such as prayer, or song, or journaling? Are you a hands person? Do you connect with God by serving, or being outside, or painting?
Figure out which one of these you default to. Then try engaging with God through a different means. Why? We get in spiritual ruts. Sometimes shaking it up really helps.
Fight The Good Fight
Most of all, don’t give up. Keep plugging away. That may seem counter-intuitive to something as organic as re-discovering your awe for God, but we are imperfect. Sin will always lead us to take our eye of the ball. Keep going, keep trying, and God will honor your efforts.
The problem of needing to re-discover the wonder we have for God, the joy we have in our salvation, is a common one. These are just a few thoughts on how to break through the fog we put up between God and ourselves.
What are your thoughts? What has worked for you?
Andy Blanks is the co-founder of youthministry360. Andy has worked in youth ministry for 13 years, leading small groups and developing Bible study resources for several organizations. Andy is a volunteer youth leader with his church’s youth group, leading small groups, and speaking and teaching whenever he gets the chance.
