How To-2: "How to Find God"

How to Find God

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If you feel a yearning to connect with a Higher Power, yours is a journey of self-discovery. These steps will help you to find out more through research and experience.

Steps

1. It is not necessary to go to church or other place of worship to find God. You may choose to participate in a local worship center as this may be helpful to your search.
   
2. Look at your local library. You will find helpful books about many different faiths in the religion section. Religious bookstores may offer different titles than the public library, but library books are cost-free and can be returned after you are finished with them. The public library will also have videos that can aid you in your search for God.
   
3. Do not turn off your brain. Faith can be reasonable and rational. Faith is different from superstition. As a seeker, you will be looking for reasons for faith, for truth about spiritual matters and for evidence of a divine being. Be open-minded about the supernatural, without being gullible.
   
4. Do not start your search with prejudice. Examine documents that support faith in God before you read writings that are critical. Be cautious of people that mock God and faith.
   
5. Choose a person of faith. Ask them to give you direction. This does not need to be a vicar or nun or evangelist. Simply ask someone that you respect for their personal convictions.
   
6. Compose questions for your search:
   
   • Is there a God?
     
   • What are the attributes or characteristics of the nature of God?
     
   • How would an infinite being be revealed to mortal men?
     
   • What is God's assessment of mankind?
     
   • If mankind needs redemption, how is it transacted?
     
   
   
7. Speak to God. Most religions recognize prayer as a basic function of faith. Tell God about your quest and your reasons for choosing to become a seeker.
   
8. God may be in plain sight. One reason you may find yourself looking for God is that your God is all you have ever seen, from day one, all around you. There is a very illustrative story in the Zen tradition that likens a man searching for God to a fish searching for the sea. Is it truly possible to search for something that you cannot lose?
   
9. Be ready to discard whatever existing notions you may have of the nature of God. It has been said that in order to find God, one must give up God; or even to "kill" God, meaning killing one's human, finite concept of what God is. Using your finite mind to try to grasp infinity is like asking a fish to swallow the oceans of the world. You're bound to find something you aren't 100% ready for. If you don't, you're not being honest with yourself in your search.
   
10. Be ready to look outside of religion. Religion and God are not the same thing. Their relationship is akin to the relationship between Exxon and gasoline. Nowadays, when you hear one, you automatically think of the other - but it wasn't always that way.
    

Tips

• If you live near a church that offers seeker-sensitive meetings, you could start there, but any music and service will likely have 'a message'. This may help, or, may obstruct.
  
• Some places of worship offer 'meetings' or 'courses' in a more neutral environment, more like a coffee shop or bookstore, to 'ask some questions about God'. These courses can help your search, but they can often feel designed to lead you in a particular direction.
  
• You can find God on a very limited quantity of faith, as small as a tiny mustard seed.
  
• You can find God more easily than you might expect, because God is also seeking you.
  

Warnings

• Once you believe you have found God, realize that some people will not appreciate it if you attempt to force your finding on others. Hopefully, people will soon begin to see the differences in your life and ask you about it.
  
• Realize that some people will insist that there has never been any verifiable proof that God exists.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Find God Beyond Christian Law
  
• How to Find Forgiveness through God
  
• How to Have a Personal Relationship With God
  
• How to Develop Self Esteem Without God
  
• How to Believe in God
  

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