Finding God

CoptPride

I need help finding God. I know this is a tough mission and it will take a lifetime to do. But I don't feel God in in my life. I don't pray i don't read my bible i have no desire to do so because I don't sense Him in my life. You know i want to be that person who speaks about God like they know him and have so much love for me. Not that i don't love God but i love him like an authority figure. 

So how do i find God?

How do i love him?

Any suggestions would help, books, prayers, etc.

Thank you and please pray for me. 

mabsoota

may God guide you. 

please just talk to God and tell Him about this, even if you don't get any emotional feeling that He is listening.

then ask HIm for help.

each person with similar problems has different solutions.

some people who feel far from God need to forgive people in their lives, others need to spend time with a loving person who does not mess with their emotions and others need to make an effort to start praying and attending church even if they don't want to.

and i always recommend the sermon by pope shenouda 'come back to God'.

ForeverYours

Well I assume that you want to find God because you feel a need for Him and not just to be that person who speaks about God. The first thing that I think is necessary is to feel a need. You must understand the immense emptiness and vanity of human life that is devoid of God. In a sense, to get in touch with that 'God-shaped hole' within.
But I think you must get in touch with this need.
I also think that knowledge of God allows us to love Him. You can't love that which you don't know, right?
So seek God in Scripture, in the lives of his saints, in the liturgical life of the church, in the beautiful world we live in, in his creatures, etc. And always keep in mind that even if you don't seem to see the greatness and depth of God at first, know for sure that he is all of those things and more.. Even if you can't see it. And how can you be sure of this? Because people like martyrs, desert fathers and other saints exist-- people who have known this greatness of God and as a result, gave their lives to him in such radical ways.

Best of luck on your spiritual journey, and remember to always pray.

Some books that I really benefitted from:
- the way of the pilgrim
- the inner kingdom
- life of st antony
- spiritual warfare (pope shenouda)
- release of the spirit (pope shenouda)
- confessions of st augustine

[Deleted User]

Beautiful advice!

blessedtobeawitness

CoptPride said:

Not that i don't love God but i love him like an authority figure.

Believe it or not, this is actually a great start. The Scriptures teach us that the Fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom; congratulations on receiving the grace of  wisdom. :) A wise person can gain many virtues through God's grace. 

As St. Peter tells us in his second Epistle, virtue is part of the road that leads us to the Love of God:

"But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love." - 2 Peter 1:5-7

It may be possible that God is now giving you a blessing you don't yet recognize; He may be encouraging you to add to your life the virtue of prayer. 

If this is so, you feel His absence in your life, not because He is absent in any way, but because you're lacking in prayer. Perhaps He's allowing you to feel this absence because He knows you're strong enough to bear it at this moment, and He wants to offer you the chance to grow closer to Him?

After all, prayer is conversation with God; if we lack this, we are missing an opportunity to build a deep relationship with Him. If we don't talk to someone, how can we truly enter into a loving relationship with them?

In my humble opinion, it seems the next step is to ask your Spiritual Father to help you establish a rule of prayer that is suitable to you.

So while this seems tough, and truly it is a struggle, it's the bitterness that comes before the blessing; kind of like birth pains. God be with you on your journey.