Skip to contentGetting Closer To God
Have you been wondering how to get a closer relationship with God? Sometimes we feel distant like we have allowed the cares of the world to become more important to us than God. I’m going to give you 6 practical steps that you can start today to help you on your getting closer to God journey.
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How Do I Develop A Closer Relationship With God?
It may seem like it’s a difficult process when thinking about getting closer to God spiritually, but there are some key things you can do to help you to get close to Him.
Make God A Priority
Start your day with the Lord, it makes a difference. Before you check your phone or turn on the television talk to God.
Psalm 5:3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will lookup.
We can take an example for David’s life. He started his day in prayer and we should as well. I understand that there is shift work and everyone has different responsibilities, but don’t get hung up on the time. Just let God be your priority when you wake up no matter what time that may be.
I never use to do this. The first thing I would grab when I woke up was my phone. One evening I was listening to an evangelist and he said how can we go about our day without speaking to the Lord and seeing what He has to say to us?
That can be through prayer or His Word. The next day I started to wake up an hour before I usually do so that I could spend time in prayer and read my Bible. It doesn’t mean that you will have a perfect day, but you start your day grounded and at peace. It gives you a boost to be able to hand whatever comes your way throughout the day. This was one of the first major changes that I made when I started my getting closer to God journey.
Prayer & Fasting
I believe that it is so important to make time to pray. Set aside a specific time during your day when you talk to the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying.
Paul tells us in that verse that we should never stop praying. We should constantly be in communication with God.
I like to do this early in the morning, it's quiet and peaceful no one else is awake, it's just me and the Lord. Prayer brings you closer to God because you are talking to Him and listening to Him and developing a relationship.
It’s just like any other relationship that you have, you need to talk to the person for your relationship to grow. If you ignore that person and never talk to them you will grow distant. It’s the same with God, if you don’t pray and spend time with Him, it will prevent you from having an intimate relationship with Him.
Fasting is a way to bring your flesh under control and show your flesh that you are not controlled by it. When you fast you should also pray. Fasting is essentially giving up food for a while and wholly depending on god.
The power of prayer and fasting is that it will bring you closer to God and allow you to hear His voice, it can also build your faith and strengthen your spirit.
In Matthew 17 a man brought his son to Jesus to be healed from a demonic spirit and he said to Jesus that he brought them to the disciples and they could not cast the spirit out of him. Jesus rebuked the spirit and It left.
The disciples seemed concerned why they could not cast out the spirit. In verse 21 Jesus said, “howbeit this kind goeth out but by prayer and fasting.”
That leads us to believe that there are certain situations that we will face that will require prayer and fasting to have it removed from our lives, so fasting must produce a greater power within us.
Read Your Bible
I didn’t know how important the Bible was until a few years ago. I understood that we should read it, but I didn’t understand the power that was within it.
Think about it, the Bible is the Word of God, so if you want a word from God, all you have to do is read your Bible.
Don’t just read it as a book of history, read it knowing that every promise that is in the Word is for you today. Read it with understanding. Ask the Holy Spirit for revelation and understanding so that you can apply it to your life.
Study Your Bible
My time of studying the Word is when I receive a lot of my understanding. There are many different Bible study techniques that you can use, but I prefer the SOAP Bible study method.
2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
When we study the Word of God it teaches us how to live as well as how not to live. We should consistently study God’s Word so that we will no neglect what He has to say to us.
Obey The Bible
If you read your Bible and study your Bible it will have no effect on your life if you do not choose to Obey the Bible.
John 14:23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.
James 1:22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
The benefit of obedience in the Bible is that through your obedience you show that you love God and that you trust and have your faith in Him. As those Bible verses above show that it doesn’t profit us anything just to know what the Bible says if we are not obeying and doing what it says.
Prayer Log
This is a new addition that I have made to my relationship with the Lord. I find it helpful to getting closer to God and building an intimate relationship with Him.
We pray and ask God for things or to intervene in our situations every day. We get so busy that we sometimes don’t realize that He answered the prayer. We just move on to the next thing that we need.
We should always stop and thank God for answered prayer, we should praise and worship God for who He is and for what He has done for us.
For me I like to write it down, that way I’m always mindful of it and it reminds me to give thanks. It comes in handy those times that I may start to feel a little discouraged and think will God ever answer this prayer?
I can go back to that list that I made in my prayer journal and see all of the other prayers that He answered, even the ones that seemed impossible at the time.
That truly brings about a feeling of gratitude to God and will help you to realize or remember how much He truly loves you.
Exodus 17:14 After the victory, the Lord instructed Moses, “Write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder and read it aloud to Joshua.
That is the same for us, when we get a victory or answered prayer we should also write it down so that we can have a permanent reminder of what God has done for us. This keeps us in a mode of gratitude and thankfulness.
Stay Connected With God Throughout Your Day
Remember God as you go through your day. You don’t have to just talk to God in a specific room at a specific time although it is good to have a designated time to do that. However, you can still talk to Him during your day.
Give Him thanks, praise, and worship God. You can do it quietly if there are others around. He is always with you no matter the time or the place, God is always there.
I always ask God for help throughout my day, this shows Him my dependency on Him and reminds me that I can do nothing without Him or His help.
John 15:5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
End Your Day With God
After a long day and you get to that moment when you climb into bed close your eyes and get ready to start the entire process all over again in the morning…remember your Heavenly Father.
I’m not saying that you have to go into an hour-long prayer, but just a simple thank you Lord for this day.
I always end my day by saying this power night prayer…Psalm 91. Then I thank Him for His protection and I say good night to Him. Some may think that it is strange but remember what I said at the beginning, your relationship with God is an actual relationship.
The same way you would say goodnight to your family, I end my day by saying goodnight to my Heavenly Father.
How do you end your day? Which of these 6 steps will you be using to help bring you closer to God?
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