4 Steps to Finding God

 Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  Romans 10:13

How do you find God?  Now, here’s a second question.  If you have a child who gets lost, what do you do?  You look for that child.  Right?  Neighbors and friends mobilize until that child is found.  But are the two issues of finding God and finding a lost child the same?

Has God gotten lost and needs to be found?  Or, rather, is it that we have gotten lost and need to be found by Him?  The prophet Isaiah wrote, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6).

Paul indicted the world and said, “There is…no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).

God isn’t lost; we are!  We are the ones who by our choices and our actions have wandered far from a loving Father.  We are the ones who need to come home.  OK, we admit that we need to find God.  But how do we do it?

Frankly, the issue isn’t as difficult as many think it is.  The fact is, most people aren’t looking very hard.  Too often we search for Him about like a thief looks for a policeman.  Yet there are times when people are diligent in their search for God; they are just looking on the wrong place.  Religion has been described as man’s search for God.  It’s a reflection of our hearts and natures which cry out for union with our Creator and Maker.  It’s the inevitable outcome of looking at life realistically and saying, “There must be more to life and death than just earning a living, growing old, and then dying.”

Long ago, Jeremiah as God’s spokesman wrote, “This is what the LORD says…’I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart'” (Jeremiah 29:10-13).  Those words which were spoken to God’s children in exile also apply to the person who wants to find God today.

The Bible clearly tells you how you can find God.  Here it is:

Step #1: Look for God in the right place.  The Bible tells you clearly how you can connect with God.  Start by reading the third chapter of John in the New Testament.

Step #2: Acknowledge the fact that you have lost your way.  This is probably the most difficult part, because we hate to admit that we are lost.  This was the whole point in God’s sending His Son.  Jesus said that He had come “to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10).  He also described Himself as the Good Shepherd Who “lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).  The Gospel is that a loving God sent His Son to find us and bring us back into fellowship with the Father.

Step #3: Ask God to accept you as you are and receive you as His child.  Remember the words of Jeremiah, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”? (Jeremiah 29:13).  God said if you would seek Him, He would be found.  In other words, He will find and save you.

Step #4: Take it by faith.  Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37).  You can find God, and when you do, you will never again be lost.  It’s just that simple. Take His hand and walk with Him and He’ll show you the way back.

Resource reading: John 3:1-21

https://www.guidelines.org/devotional/4-steps-to-finding-god/