How Can I get More Connected With God?

Let’s have a spiritual conversation… of those reading, how many of you would love to be more connected with God? Or would like to hear God’s voice more; feel that connection, feel that communion, know that He’s there, to feel His presence and know that He is real? I mean who doesn’t want to be more connected with God? (I mean, unless you don’t believe in God – this Blog might not be the one for you, but feel free to read anyway if you want!)

IT IS A BIG QUESTION, ISN’T IT?

How do we actually feel that connection with God?

I think the root of why we don’t feel that maybe isn’t what we think… Some of us have this underlying assumption that God doesn’t want to connect with me. Maybe it is because of feeling like you are not good enough, maybe it is a feeling of I’m not worthy enough to connect. All of that is wrong and not true. It is a lie. God is always available and always desired to connect with you because He is our Heavenly Father. And what father doesn’t want to connect with his children; God wants to connect with us. So the issue when we don’t feel connected, it’s not on His end. That’s not a stretch for anybody, We have got to admit, we KNOW it is ON OUR END.

Here’s where I think the root issue is… we are too distracted to hear His voice where we could hear His voice and we are too focused on other things. We’re so busy: going, going, and going. We are so focused on what we think we are supposed to do, what we want to do, or accomplishing. There are so many things to distract us from the everyday ordinary opportunities to connect with God. The good news is that if you want to connect with God, you’re as close to God as you want to be (I forgot who said this… it has been said for a long time).

Throwing down some truth: YOU’RE AS CLOSE TO GOD AS YOU WANT TO BE.

What’s the gap? Is it those distractions that keep us from focusing on that relationship, that opportunity to connect? I am going to give your four very practical things to increase your connection with God:

Slow Down

The pace of our life is so frantic and there’s so many things going on. And in many places going slow is a derogatory term. We say that the movie was way too slow, or as a boss that the worker is going too slow, production is slow… the message of our culture is fastest is better. Speed is better and slow is bad. So like so much speed and slow is a derogatory term. Like the service is slow and the movie was slow. Like the message of our culture is fastest. Better. Speed is better, slow is bad. I might be really fired up about this because I’m reading this book: The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. Read it if you dare. I’m not even all the way through the book and it’s fired me up. The whole idea is that you have got to slow down, if you are going too fast you’re not going to be able to hear God.

One of the things he shares in his book that I love is God is low and love is a speed. It has a pace… SLOW. If somebody in your life needs you to show you, can you show up and be like yeah, yeah, yeah… and super fast about meeting their needs in that moment. Do they feel loved in that moment? NO.

Let’s just imagine, theoretically if my wife and children are running late, going out the door and I’m wanting to get there on time and they are not ready… are they feeling love for me at that moment? I’ll let you use your imagination, but basically they are not. It is a big fat no. Because LOVE has a pace and Love is SLOW… Love is not in a hurry.

What if you just slowed down a little bit…?

Create Space

Create space to actually connect with God. Put it into your schedule. I always say, if it isn’t on the calendar or scheduled, it probably isn’t going to happen. You’re going to need to margin intentional space where you are not scheduled edge to edge.

Think about the page of a book, you know the white space that surrounds the words on the page. If we were pages, most people wouldn’t have that margin or extra space… no space.

And that’s how we live our lives. When you don’t have margin, you don’t have space for the things that matter. I am not saying that you can’t have a lot to do. I am not saying you can’t live on purpose with urgency. YOU SHOULD. But I am saying when you have got so much to do that you have to hurry into the next thing and the next thing… just keep performing. That is a dangerous place, so create space.

That space could be a sabbath day. It could be a morning routine where you journal or you meditate or you pray… either way, create that space. I know if you have read previous blogs or watched my vlogs, you know how it is not just about creating space; it is about creating rhythms. There are daily (this is where I put in my morning routine, personally), weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly rhythms that all create that we can use to create the space to hear.

“I just got back from a week at the beach and let me tell you something. God speaks more by the ocean. That’s just my humble opinion and personal experience and it is one of the places I create space to hear His voice.”

Get Quiet

There’s two kinds of noise that we need to remove if we are going to get quiet. the first one is external noise… a phone, we all have them… they are a huge place for external noise. Did you know the average person touches their iPhone 2,670 something times a day. Let’s be honest some of you cannot seem to put your phone down and others of you cannot even sit in silence. As soon as you start to feel like there is nothing else to do, you look for your phone, Netflix, or a conversation with someone like you.

You have got to be able to get quiet and to remove that external noise. Turn it off, seclude yourself, get away and get quiet. Go to the woods, get out in the morning before everyone else is awake. Find that place!

That is going to sound easy in comparison to the second noise you have to remove, which is the internal noise. That takes a little bit more time, practice and effort because you got a whole lot of head trash going on up in there. A whole lot going on in there.

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 46:10, “Be STILL and know that I am God.” When I get still, when I get quiet; I’m reminding myself He’s God and I’m not. That’s what meditation is to me. I get quiet and I just breathe.I remind myself to stop moving, stop dong, stop producing for 5, 10, sometimes 30 minutes because God’s got it all under control.

Read the BIBLE

The B-I-B-L-E… yes, that is the book for me because I love Jesus. And I believe in the Word of God, Heabres says is powerful and active. It is living and is able to divide between soul and spirit. Like the Word of God is living and active and needs to be released into your life.

John 1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The Word of God is power, the word of God is Jesus in print. It is alive and so many Christians, they don’t read it. They get a verse of the day or they hear it on Sunday mornings or another service or maybe a Bible study. But they don’t read it.

If you want to connect with God, the simplicity of sitting down with your Bible is so easy. Now I have my hardcopy, but I also like using my phone Bible a lot. I mark it up, it saves notes and all the kinds of things I need it to do. It can also read the Bible to you (you can cheat!). So create the space to read your Bible.

When you do that, Romans 12:2 goes into effect, be not conformed to the pattern of this world, but ye transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you can test and approve what God’s Will is. It’s good, it’s pleasing this perfect will. That’s what the Bible will do for you.

And there you have it, 4 simple things you can do today. Pick one to do this week and feel free to comment below! How are you going to connect with God today?

It is time to go out there and give your greatness to the world because somebody needs what’s on the inside of you. The “you” that is connected to God and able to bring more love into this world! So go out there and give your greatness away! Love you all and have a great day!!