Many people begin a new year with a quiet hope that this one will be different. Not just more productive or organized, but deeper. You may feel a desire to reconnect with God, to experience something real instead of routine, or to move beyond faith as a concept and into faith as a lived experience.
Contrary to what you might have been told in the past, encountering God isn’t about chasing emotional highs or checking off spiritual boxes. To truly encounter God, you need to create space for him to meet you where you are in the ordinary moments. If you’re unsure of where to start, here are a few meaningful ways you can position yourself to encounter God this year.
1. Create Intentional Quiet in Your Life
One of the biggest barriers to encountering God is noise. We’re not talking about just external noise, but the constant mental chatter that fills your days. Notifications, obligations, and endless content can leave very little room for reflection.
Encountering God often begins with stillness. That doesn’t require a retreat or hours of silence. It starts with small, intentional pauses. Sitting quietly before the day begins and turning off distractions for a few minutes.
In quiet moments, you give yourself permission to listen rather than perform. You’ll stop rushing toward answers and allow space for awareness. Many people discover that God feels closer when life slows down enough to notice His presence.
2. Engage Scripture as a Conversation (Instead of a Task)
Reading the Bible can easily turn into a routine that you feel you should do rather than something you want to do. When that happens, the words may stop feeling alive.
Instead of reading to get through a chapter, try reading to understand a single idea. Ask questions as you read.
- What stands out?
- What feels challenging?
- What feels comforting or confusing?
- What did this scripture mean to the original audience?
- What does this scripture prompt me to do?
Approaching Scripture as a conversation shifts the experience to one where you’re engaging with God in a conversation. This posture opens you up to moments of clarity and encouragement that feel deeply personal.
3. Practice Prayer
Prayer doesn’t need to sound polished to be meaningful. In fact, some of the most powerful encounters with God happen when prayer becomes brutally honest. He doesn’t expect you to have all the right words or be able to pray in large swaths of scripture.
Prayer can include gratitude, frustration, doubt, hope, and silence. It can be structured or spontaneous. Scripture tells us that what matters is the sincerity behind it. When you stop trying to say what you think you’re supposed to say and instead say what you’re actually feeling, prayer becomes relational rather than transactional.
4. Gather With Others Who Are Seeking God
Faith was never meant to be lived entirely alone. While personal practices matter, community plays a unique role in encountering God. In fact, there’s something powerful about gathering with others who are also seeking, questioning, and growing. Worship, shared prayer, and teaching can open your heart in ways that are harder to experience in isolation.
This is one of the reasons many people find renewed faith through local churches. As Elan Church in Naperville, Illinois, puts it, “We believe the presence of God transforms lives, so we gather not just to attend church but to encounter Him. United by purpose and driven by love, we exist to see people restored, empowered, and sent to live out the Gospel wherever they go.”
That perspective reframes church as a place where God’s presence is expected, and where transformation is possible because people are open to it as a collective community.
5. Look for God in Everyday Obedience
Many people expect encounters with God to feel dramatic or extraordinary. Sometimes they are. But more often than not, they’re subtle. They often happen behind the scenes without you realizing it at the moment.
It’s important to know that encountering God can happen through obedience in ordinary life. It might look like choosing integrity when it’s inconvenient or showing compassion when it’s undeserved. You might have to occasionally forgive when it feels difficult to do so.
These moments don’t always feel spiritual in the moment, but they often become sacred in hindsight. It’s how you begin to sense His presence during everyday life. Faith moves from something you practice occasionally to something you live consistently. That’s a huge shift that can change the fabric of your life and make you feel alive in ways that you previously didn’t know were possible.
When You Feel Distant, Keep Showing Up
There may be seasons when God feels close and seasons when He feels distant. Both are normal. Distance often means growth is happening beneath the surface.
In those moments, consistency matters more than emotion. Keep praying and keep showing up. When you approach the year with this mindset, encounters with God often appear in places you least expect them to.
