Lord, Meet Me Here
One Prayer That Changes Everything About How You Meet With God
Maybe it’s been a while since God felt close. Not because you’ve walked away, but somewhere in the rush of life, the connection quietly thinned. Singer-songwriter Seph Schlueter shares what he discovered about God’s desire for closeness and how He’s never stopped leaning in toward you.
“The heart of the gospel is really about a God who loves us so insanely that He would do anything to be close to us.” Seph Schlueter has believed that for years. It just took a while to believe it was true for him.
“For anyone … hearing that and maybe not feeling that—I was there,” he says. “I remember feeling like, okay, God is real, and I get it. But I don’t think actually that God can have a relationship with [me, that] I can actually be close to Him, or I can talk to Him.”
Believing God exists and believing He wants you are two entirely different things. The distance between them is where a lot of us quietly live.
The God of the Universe Does
“It took me years to understand the reality,” Seph shares, “that we have a God who wants to be so close to us, who wants to speak to us personally, who wants to have a real relationship with you in the same way you have a relationship with your best friend. You talk to them and you share your heart with them. And you do things with them. He actually wants that kind of relationship with you—the God of the universe does.”
James says it plainly: “Come near to God and He will come near to you” (James 4:8 NIV). The movement toward closeness starts when you recognize that He’s already leaning into you.
The Place You Get That
So where does that kind of closeness actually happen? For Seph, the answer requires something most of us resist: stillness.
“The place you get that is in those moments of stillness and quiet, where you just spend time with Him,” he says. “Or you just go to your room, go to a quiet place, and maybe just open up the Scriptures and start with the Gospels and just read the story of Jesus and do it slowly. And just pray simply — ‘Lord, I want to meet you here. Lord, would you meet me in this place? Would you meet me in the Scriptures? Would you meet me in this song? Would you meet me in nature? Would you just meet me in these places?’”
No elaborate words required. Just showing up and asking.
What Begins to Happen
Seph offers the practice of abiding as a promise. “The more you pray that prayer, I promise you, you’re going to actually begin to see God show up in those places.”
What does that look like? Seph says, “You’re going to begin to feel that still small voice, like leading and guiding you, or feel a sense of peace and weight being lifted off your shoulders, or a sense of joy and happiness, a new fulfillment in life that maybe you didn’t find before.”
It’s an encounter available to anyone willing to get still enough to receive it.
Keep Taking That Next Step
Seph says, “I just encourage you, keep taking that next step. If the first step is just praying, ‘Lord, meet me where I’m at,’ maybe the next step is opening Scripture. And then maybe the next step is getting connected to a church, or a community, or a place where you can grow—not just by yourself. We are made for community. We were made to seek God and encounter Him in community.”
It starts with one simple prayer, one open Bible, one quiet moment.
“Come to those places and just begin to take those steps,” he says, “all with the knowledge that you have a God that loves you so much and wants to be in relationship with you.”
If you’ve been longing to feel what you’ve always believed — that gap is exactly where He’s waiting. Come to the quiet. He’ll meet you there.
Spend five days with us in Psalm 139.
It may be one of the most personal portraits of God in all of Scripture. It paints your heart with the presence of the God who knows you completely and is present in every moment of your life. Search Me, Know Me: A Rest-Filled Journey Through Psalm 139 is a 5-day devotional that takes you through that psalm slowly, helping you move from knowing about God’s closeness to actually experiencing it. Start here: [YouVersion link]