Looking for God in All the Wrong Places
"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." — 1 John 4:12
If someone asked you, "Have you ever seen God?" your first response would probably be, "No." After all, Scripture tells us that no one has ever seen God. He is invisible, beyond what our eyes can perceive.
But perhaps the better question isn't whether we've seen God. Perhaps it's whether we've been looking for Him in the right places.
In his first letter, the Apostle John makes a remarkable statement. He begins by acknowledging that no one has ever seen God, but then immediately tells us that when we love one another, God lives in us, and His love is made complete in us. In other words, while God Himself is invisible, His presence becomes visible through the lives of people who have been transformed by His love.
That challenges the way many of us think about experiencing God. We often expect Him to reveal Himself through dramatic moments, while overlooking the countless ordinary ways He makes Himself known every day.
Looking for God in the Extraordinary
Most of us imagine that encountering God should be a spectacular experience. We expect Him to appear in powerful worship services, miraculous healings, life-changing spiritual moments, or unmistakable answers to prayer.
God certainly does meet us in extraordinary ways. Scripture is full of those moments, and many of us can testify to experiencing them ourselves.
But if those become the only places we expect to find Him, we may miss His presence in the quiet rhythms of everyday life.
You see God when a tiny seed pushes through the soil after weeks hidden underground. You see Him in the beauty of a sunrise that quietly announces a new day. You see Him when exhausted parents comfort a crying child in the middle of the night or when someone prepares a meal for their family after a long day at work.
You see Him when forgiveness replaces bitterness, when compassion overcomes selfishness, and when broken relationships begin to heal.
These moments may seem ordinary, but they reveal something extraordinary because God is love. Wherever genuine, self-giving love is present, the character of God is being displayed.
Why Love Can Be So Difficult
Of course, talking about love isn't always easy.
For some people, the word love brings to mind warmth, acceptance, and belonging. For others, it immediately recalls betrayal, rejection, heartbreak, or loss.
Our experiences shape how we understand love. If we've been wounded by those who claimed to love us, it's easy to project those experiences onto God. Without realizing it, we begin to wonder if God is distant, disappointed, or unwilling to fully embrace us.
The problem isn't that God has failed us. More often, our pain has distorted the way we see Him.
John invites us to discover a different kind of love—one that isn't based on changing emotions or human performance, but on the very character of God Himself.
Agape: The Love That Chooses
The New Testament most often describes God's love with the Greek word agapē. Unlike the way our culture typically speaks about love, agapē is not primarily an emotion or a feeling. It is a deliberate choice to seek another person's good, regardless of the cost.
This is the love Jesus demonstrated throughout His ministry.
He washed the feet of disciples He knew would soon abandon Him. He welcomed outsiders who had been rejected by society. He forgave the very people who crucified Him. Time and again, Jesus chose love even when it required sacrifice.
This is why Paul's famous description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is so powerful. He is not simply giving us a checklist for healthy relationships. He is describing God's own nature.
God is patient.
God is kind.
God keeps no record of wrongs.
God always protects, always hopes, and always perseveres.
This is who God has always been, and because this is His nature, His desire has always been to share that love with the world.
Love Was Never Meant to Stop With Jesus
John writes that God's love is "made complete" in us. At first glance, that phrase can sound as though God's love somehow needed us to finish it. But that isn't John's point.
The Greek word he uses, teleioō, means to bring something to its intended goal or mature fulfillment. God's love is complete in its source, but it reaches its intended purpose when it transforms our lives and begins flowing outward to others.
Jesus used a similar image when He compared God's Kingdom to a mustard seed. A seed already contains everything necessary to become a flourishing tree; it simply needs to be planted, nourished, and allowed to grow.
The same is true of God's love. When His love takes root in our hearts, it begins producing visible fruit.
Jesus said,
"I am the vine; you are the branches... If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit." (John 15:5)
That fruit is seen whenever we forgive instead of retaliating, serve without seeking recognition, care for those in need, remain faithful when relationships become difficult, or comfort those who are suffering.
God's love was never intended to end with us. It was always meant to flow through us.
Why We Need the Holy Spirit
If we're honest, this is where many of us become discouraged.
We know how we should love, but we struggle to live it out. Loving difficult people is hard. Forgiveness often feels impossible. Serving others can be exhausting, especially when our efforts go unnoticed.
Jesus understood this. He never intended His followers to imitate Him through sheer determination or stronger willpower.
Instead, He gave us the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Tyler Staton captures this beautifully when he writes, "The Holy Spirit makes the impractical, practicable."
The Spirit empowers us to forgive when resentment feels easier, to serve when we'd rather be served, and to choose grace when every emotion urges us toward revenge.
The Christian life is not about trying harder. It is about remaining connected to Jesus, allowing His Spirit to produce in us what we could never produce on our own.
The Holy Spirit Is a Person
Many Christians speak about the Holy Spirit as though He were merely a force or an emotional experience.
Jesus described Him very differently.
He called Him the Paraklētos—the Advocate, Helper, or One who comes alongside us.
The Holy Spirit teaches, guides, comforts, convicts, and empowers. Most importantly, He continually directs our attention back to Jesus.
Healthy Christian faith has always required both truth and transformation. We need the truth of God's Word, but we also need the living presence of God's Spirit to shape our hearts into the likeness of Christ.
Remember God's Faithfulness
John's letter also invites us into an often-overlooked spiritual practice: remembering.
Throughout the Old Testament, God's people built altars and memorial stones after experiencing His faithfulness. These visible reminders helped future generations remember that God had been present and active.
We all have those moments.
Perhaps it was a season when God carried you through grief, provided when you had no answers, restored what seemed beyond repair, or met you in your deepest pain.
The enemy would love for us to forget those moments because when we forget God's faithfulness, we become vulnerable to believing He has abandoned us.
Take time to remember your story. Write it down. Tell it to someone else. Those memories become anchors that steady our faith when new storms arrive.
The Greatest Evidence of God
People often ask for proof that God exists. Some look to science, others to philosophy, and still others wait for miraculous signs.
John points us somewhere unexpected.
Look at love.
Not sentimental love.
Not romantic love.
But sacrificial, patient, forgiving, enemy-loving love.
One of the clearest modern examples came after the tragic death of Botham Jean. During the sentencing of the police officer responsible for his brother's death, Brandt Jean publicly forgave her, encouraged her to follow Christ, and embraced her in the courtroom. It was a breathtaking demonstration of justice and grace existing together—a glimpse of the kind of love Jesus commands His followers to embody.
That kind of love cannot be explained by human strength alone.
It points beyond us.
It points to God.
Open Your Eyes
God has not disappeared, nor has He abandoned the world.
He is still at work—in acts of compassion, quiet sacrifices, restored relationships, forgiven offenses, and lives transformed by His grace.
These are not merely examples of human kindness. They are glimpses of the invisible God making Himself known through His people.
So perhaps the question is no longer, "Have you seen God?"
Perhaps the better question is, "Have you been paying attention?"
Because wherever God's love is genuinely lived out, the invisible God becomes visible, inviting the world to catch a glimpse of His heart through the lives of those who belong to Him.