Retreat into His Presence

Look up “seeking God” in the bible and you’ll get a list of infinite verses that don’t really clear any questions up on what it means to seek his face. These verses are important and will tell you time after time that you should intentionally seek out God for clarity, for peace, for building up your relationship with him, etc. But what does it actually mean to seek the face of God?

The thing is, it looks different for everyone, so the “how” is really up to you. I can give you example after example of how I and everyone around me practically seek the Lord and it still wouldn’t give you much clarity on how you, yourself, can find the face of God. No matter what it may look like for you, seeking the Lord is one of the most important things you will do in your life. It’s a retreat from this world, it’s a way to reset your mind and your heart, it’s how you build your relationship with God, and it’s the most beautiful part of this life.
 
I wish I could give you a formula for how to seek God so that here and now you could start building this relationship and never stop, but I do urge you to start learning if you don’t already know. -- I am one who easily gets caught up in her own thoughts. I’m prone to overthinking, to spiraling into doubts and fears, to letting everyone else’s voice overpower my own and to get sucked into questioning the things I should be unwavering in. Because of this, the most crucial lesson I’ve learned in life is how I personally can connect with God.

For someone who often gets caught talking to herself, praying out loud makes me ridiculously uncomfortable and praying in my head leads to distraction and infinite re-directs. If I sit in silence, I fall asleep or let my mind wander. If I’m in a public space, I get caught people watching. The key to finding your sweet spot with God is knowing yourself. Maybe it takes trial and error, maybe it takes intensive introspection. But the important thing is to find out how you connect to yourself and how you connect to others in order to learn how to connect to God.
 
My number one love language is snail mail. I’m sentimental, and I’m all about words of affirmation, so the combination of those two things has led me to keeping every single birthday card, thank you note, letter, etc. that my friends and family have written me over the years. Because this is my favorite way to connect and love people, this is how I’ve learned to connect and love myself and the Lord as well. My bookshelf is filled with journal after journal of me writing out my thoughts, fears, and prayers to God. Every doubt, every petition, every question and every praise are hand-written as a personal letter between me and him. And the best part of it all is that he responds! Flip through any one of my journals and you’ll find the capital letters marking when I’ve heard the Lord responding to my prayers and petitions over the years.

In the chaos that surrounds my life, I have found peace in the pages of my journal and through that, in the presence of the Savior. I know that I can retreat into his presence, simply by putting pen to paper. The word falls away and my heart is quieted by knowing that I can turn to him in any and every circumstance. As David said in Psalm 34:4 – “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”

Author | Emma Whitmer