How do you naturally meet God? Have you ever had felt His presence in some natural way?

I don’t mean by forcing yourself to pray or reading your Bible because you have to, but rather just being there and letting God meet you.

This might not make sense, so let me explain further.

I’ve found that, for me personally, God always meets me in the thunderstorms. From when I was a kid, thunder, lightning, and rain have been something that have naturally and easily put me in awe-struck wonder.

When it’s thundering, I want to hear more, to stay awake—just to listen. When it’s raining, I find myself wanting to feel the warm drops, smell the wet concrete, run around on the damp grass. When there’s lightning, I can’t take my eyes off of the sky.

And these things aren’t just cool to me. They put me in a spot where I easily and naturally find God. Some people might say, “You like rain and thunder, whatever!” But it’s not just the rain and thunder—it’s the power. What if the reason we are afraid of thunder is because it’s the closest thing to God’s audible voice?

A few months ago I made a post about how God spoke to me—in a way—through a thunderstorm. This experience has changed my whole point of view—I hadn’t realized that God was naturally meeting me during thunder throughout my whole life, and I only recognized this recently.

Now, some people reading this might think, “So Willow is telling us to not even try to meet God. She wants us to be lazy and let him reach out to us instead of us reaching out to him.”

That’s not what I’m saying—bear with me here. 

I’m saying that oftentimes we expect God to come when the worship music is flowing, the Bible verses are speaking, your hands are in the air and your heart’s in the song. (If you get that reference, let me know.) 

What I mean is this: God will find ways to meet us in the unexpected, and sometimes that means reaching out in a simple way that touches us and leaves us speechless.

Oftentimes these meetings are when we need it yet don’t ask for it. Like the thunderstorm story I wrote about, I needed to hear from God but I didn’t ask for Him to speak through a thunderstorm. I had just said, “I need help.” And He gave it to me.

I was talking to one of my small group leaders about this. She commented that nature is something that a lot of people have found God naturally in. Tall trees, rushing rivers, chirping birds—these things put us in a state where we realize: God did this. God is here. God is meeting me in the unprepared, imperfect, unexpected, and in a natural way. 

So I’m going to leave you with these final thoughts:

~You don’t have to try hard to find God. More often than not He is there, watching you focus on making the moment perfect and the space just right, but He’s also there in the dark nights and the rainy days and in the middle of who-knows-where.

~You can have a deeply spiritual moment with just yourself and just God—no flashing lights, no music, no sermon. Just the two of you. (Although those other things are amazing!)

~When you cry out to God, He will come. It might be in an unexpected way, like a thunderstorm, or it might be in the conversation with a small group leader or friend, or maybe it will come when you are at church and the service is just hitting hard.

And thus, we’ve reached the end! So: where do you naturally meet God? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!
~Willow <3

‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.’
Psalms 46:1 NIV