Finding God in the Moment

In my years of serving the Lord in pastoral ministry I've had many people come to me after a service and share their experience. Interestingly enough the experience of each individual is as different as the nose on their face from the other people who shared in the same service.

Some people experienced God's tangible presence touching them. Others heard God speaking to them encouragement. Others heard God correcting or convicting them. Others experienced God in the time of prayer or the message rather than during the music of worship. Still others didn't sense God at all; to them the music was dead or boring, the prayer time was drawn out and lifeless, and the message was just long, dry, boring, and we're just counting the minutes until this windbag will put us out of our misery and end this service.

Funny thing is, this varied experience with God is not isolated to a "church service". People have a similarly varied experience with God at Bible studies, Cell Group meetings, during devotions, at home, at work, at a picnic.

How is it that a group of people can share an event/moment and walk away with a completely different perspective or experience?

The answer has less to do with externals and everything to do with internal issues.

Many of us go through life riding on the waves of emotions and allowing them to dictate and direct our attitudes and choices. Many of us go through life never exercising the spiritual and mental discipline of guarding our hearts and thoughts.

For a while now I struggled because I would attend a religious service where they would be playing older worship music. I found myself having a bad attitude that they would choose such archaic expressions of celebration and cling to such old forms of faith that weren't effective or modern and then as a musician I also found myself being critical of the music itself and the quality of musicianship.

I noticed as I looked around and saw others worshiping and experiencing God wonderfully and powerfully that I was not. There were others who I could see were like me, untouched by the Lords presence and not experiencing God in the service. Why? It had to do with my attitude. It had to do with my heart and soul. It had nothing to do with the choice of songs, the style, or musicianship. I was the one in the wrong state of heart and mind and I was the one being robbed along with anyone else I poisoned with my bad attitude and thoughts.

Something changed in me. I was listening to a guy share about the older generation and what they've been through and lost, what they valued and how all those things are pretty much gone. I realized that, yes, there are issues of idolatry and religiosity to address for us to move forward in reaching today's people, but these people do love God and want to meet with God and are doing that in the way that makes sense to them and that appeals to their preferences.

My attitude changed toward those people and their style of worship and all of a sudden I was experiencing the God who had always been there, I was just to caught up with me/self to find Him, to focused on me/self to see Him.

What are we looking for and expecting when we go to a church service, when we're at work or at home? Often we're getting out of the experience exactly what we're putting into it. We're finding exactly what we're seeking. We may not want to hear it, but God's word is true... we find what we seek, according to our faith/expectation it is done to us.

So, lay aside the fact the singer was flat, the chairs aren't all filled, the song is old, the song is new, the message is 45minutes instead of 30, it's a sunny day, it's a rainy day, or any other number of issues we could come up with as reasons that we are not experiencing God.

The bottom line is: God is always with us. He is always at work in our lives and the world around us.

It really doesn't matter who is doing what or what is going on. The question is what am I looking for? If I'm looking for God in the moment I will find Him. It's a guaranteed promise, but if I'm looking for something else I'll find it instead.

We may honestly not be getting anything out of the moment (music, message, or otherwise), but I've come to a place where I think it has less to do with the who or what and everything to do with ME.

This has helped me be more sensitive to the Lord on a daily basis. It has helped me find God in the moment. Not just at church, but everywhere. It's helped me be less critical and attitudinal toward others and more appreciative, accepting, and as a result more open to experiences with God.

It's not... Lord, ARE you here? Instead it's... Lord, WHAT are you doing/saying here? No matter where I'm at and no matter what is going on, God is there doing or saying something.

We need to make it our prayer and ambition to find God in every moment trusting in the promise that "If you seek you will find".