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There was a time in my life when I felt this emptiness. I was just down. You may call it a “quarter-life crisis”. Now looking back, I realize that getting closer to God was definitely on the back burner. Many of us have had that moment where you might ask “So what’s the meaning of all this?” or “Why am I here?”. I felt like I had no purpose, no goal, no vision. Because of that, I had no idea what direction my life was going.
However, what I did know was that God was real and I believed in who Christ was. I knew that God could help me. I craved to draw close to God but I was left with one question, how? How do you get closer to God?
You may have the same desire, to draw near to God but you have asked yourself the same question, but how? So, sis, I’m glad you’re here.
I’ll be sharing with you a few practical tips for how to draw closer to God. Then, you can begin to put these into practice today! Let’s get into it.
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Reading God’s Word draws you closer to God
Why this is important
The Bible is our rule book for life! I’ve heard it related to a user’s manual for a product or a car. It’s our user manual. Our foundation, guide, protection, and connection to the Lord.
Scripture tells us the word of God is living and active. No matter the situation, the bible applies. Hundreds of years ago or today, the bible applies. Scripture is how we hear from God. Scripture is how we begin to examine ourselves. Scripture is how we begin to build our relationship with God (more on that later).
Where to start/What to read
I’ve heard many ask the question, well where do I start? My advice? Just start! Don’t spend too much time getting caught up in chronological or not, NT or OT, just start! You could even close your eyes and flip to a page and begin in that book! Lol But seriously, just start.
If you’re hung up on it, pray and ask God to lead you to where he’d like for you to begin. However, if you haven’t gotten to the point of reading your bible often or at all, the best thing to do is start reading and begin the process of drawing near to God.
How to study
There are many ways to study the bible, MANY. But if you’re looking for a practical way. Here’s my tip, grab a commentary. Commentaries are great resources for taking scripture and making it easy to understand. You can read your verses, then read the commentaries associated with those verses. Here’s one I love
Here’s a simple process: Read scripture verses> Read commentary> take notes (the notes are a great way to review again what you read so you can retain it)
Decide whether you’ll read 1 chapter or a few at a time. Or maybe you only want to read a handful of bible verses at a time, don’t rush it, it’s not a race. We want to build lifestyle habits.
Pick a translation. I’ve gotten this question a lot. Which translation should I read? There are some serious King James peeps out there, and their advice would be to only read the King James Version.
My advice to you? Read what you can understand. I cannot count the times that I read King James because that’s what I thought “real Christians” read, and after I read it I had no idea what it said.
So, choose a translation that you can understand. I started with the message version. As you mature in your reading, you’ll venture into different translations. Some great ones I can suggest are ESV, MSG, NIV, NASB, and AMPLIFIED. However, there are MANY! Right now we’re focusing on growing closer to God, the translation isn’t the focus.
Getting Closer to God Through Prayer & Communication
Come with humility, vulnerability, & transparency
Going to drop a major spoiler alert on you. Don’t hide things from God…he already knows. I think this is one truth we all know but if we were to be completely honest, I think it may slip our minds every once in a while.
Have you ever gone to God in prayer or to talk and avoid bringing up “that thing” or maybe you bring up something without talking about the one thing you know you should mention? We’ve all been there. It’s better to bring it all to God, everything.
Be transparent. You can’t go to God pretending to be something or someone you’re not. Be vulnerable and be honest. Bear your heart. Let it out. When entering prayer, have an open mind and heart. Let God in, he’s interested in all the little details of your life, even the ones you may not be so proud of.
What/how you should pray
Check out the full how-to-pray guide but as mentioned before you want to go to God in all things. Give him everything. Invite him into all areas of your life.
Remember to thank God for all he’s done, doing, and will do. Also, remember to ask for forgiveness for your sins and the wrong things you’ve done. Give him your prayer requests. We always make it a point to pray for ourselves but remember to pray for others. Those you know and those you don’t know. Pray for your government, the world, the needy, the children who are without food and resources. Pray for your family and friends. Make your requests known to God.
Make prayer a lifestyle
One reason you’ll hear people give for why their weight loss wasn’t successful is because they went on a fad diet. Something quick, fast, and temporary.
Those types of diets are rarely successful, though they may show results quickly, it involves no long-lasting change. People are easily thrown back into old habits and before you know it, they gain their weight back.
You’ll hear experts say the best thing to do for your health and weight loss is to make lifestyle changes. This is much like our prayer life. Sure you could pray here and there and that’s better than not praying at all but you’re doing a disservice to your spiritual health.
Prayer should become a part of your lifestyle. Something you make a habit of. Something that you do at anytime, anywhere. Get familiar with having conversations and dialogue with God.
The more you communicate with him, the more familiar his voice is.
Building Relationship
Spend time with God
I’m going to share a few ideas for you on how to get closer to God every day. These are things you can incorporate in your day to work on building your relationship with God
- Pray while cleaning
- Read devotionals
- Memorize one scripture a day
- Listen to worship music while driving/walking
- Go on a social media fast and focus on connecting to God
You can totally get creative here. What other ideas can you come up with? Leave some ideas for others in the comments under this post.
Get to know God
The best way to get to know God is through his word. As mentioned before, make it a point to read your bible. If it seems too overwhelming at first, there are plenty of apps that have bible plans that you can work through over time.
Fasting and prayer is a great way to get to know God. Fasting from food for a certain time, fasting from social media, or television, just to have that time where you can deeply connect with God.
Have a plan to get closer to God
Now I know this may sound a bit weird when it comes to getting closer to God. However, until you’ve established some discipline, having a plan is a great way to stick to your commitment.
For instance, think about when you will read, what, and for how long. Will it be a few minutes, an hour? Consider prayer, will you pray in the morning, evening, or both? Then, what extra things will you do to spend time with God?
Having a checklist makes it simple when trying to consider all these different things. You can grab your free checklist here
If you’re ready to commit to your journey of getting closer to God, get started now with the Getting Closer to God planner. It’s a great resource for creating your plan for drawing near to God.
So today you have 3 ways to get closer to God that you can begin to implement immediately. There’s nothing like a close relationship with God. The peace, love, and contentment you feel are seriously unmatched. Don’t forget to grab your free checklist before you head out or snatch a planner so you can get some support in getting started right away!
Xoxo
Lee