How Do I Draw Closer to God?

When I was a young child, I was so excited to begin a new life as a Christian. I didn’t understand that much, but the part I knew was that God loved me and for me, that was enough. My sister and I would belt out songs at the top of our lungs we learned in church while swinging in the backyard. Praise and worship were simple things. Crawling up into God’s lap was easy.

God called my sister home when she was seven. She never had to learn religion, and it never interrupted her relationship with God.

I was not so fortunate. Religion taught me to fear God because of the sin in my life. I was sure He was perpetually mad at me. It affected how I read the Bible, how I prayed, and why I went to church and served. It did not keep God from using me, and I am thankful for that, but it cost me the closeness that makes doing the ‘right’ things so rewarding. I was never specifically taught what I intend to teach you.

If you do not know who God is and who you are to God, your relationship with Him will be dysfunctional.

Many of David’s Psalms, especially Psalms 119, made little sense to me in those days. David delighted in the law of God while I feared it. David treated learning more Scripture as if it were getting treasure. No, no, I thought, learning more of the Bible means learning more ways I am failing God. Was David a glutton for punishment?

I needed repentance and rehabilitation. I have covered repentance in my post, The 7 R’s of Repentance (https://www.walkinthetruth.org/post/the-7-r-s-of-repentance), but I will discuss it again next week when I revisit the 7 R’s and show how they can be applied.

Rehabilitation is like repentance in that you need to wipe away your old religious or convenient views of God. For me, it was unlearning what I had learned and returning to the love I had at the beginning. For others, it may be accepting God for who He is instead of who you imagine Him to be. I could probably write an entire book on how to get God wrong. Satan has many lies out there for you to believe. Some of those lies are at odds with each other. Satan doesn’t care which lie you believe; he only cares that you believe one.

Rehabilitation

You have heard that God loves you. It is in one of the most well-known verses (John 3:16). He wants us to choose Him and love Him. He wants a relationship with us. The Cross is proof of how much He loves us and wants that relationship. Through Christ, we are adopted as children of God. Our choice must be wholehearted.

A Christian should understand that eternity will be spent in an intimate, loving relationship with God, and you need to practice Kingdom living now.

Even though this life seems large and long, it isn’t. There are many things and people here for us to love, but God must be first and foremost. God expects to get the best part of you, not whatever you have left after a long day. He must be your highest priority, not someone you visit for an hour every Sunday.

If what I am saying to you is a shock, you are not alone. American Evangelism has been quick to tell people that the gift of salvation is free so they can get people to say a prayer and get baptized to bump their numbers. However, Jesus warns us to count the cost of following Him because it will be steep. Someone who fully understands what they are getting will sell everything to get it (Matthew 13:44-46). Salvation is a gift of grace that you can’t do anything to earn or deserve, but being born again means dying to your old self.

Instead of following Christ–Run after Him!

• Start with prayer. Tell God that you thirst for a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him. Tell Him that the distance you feel between you two is something you can no longer tolerate. Ask Him to help you by showing you the obstacles you have placed in between. Ask Him for wisdom and guidance.

Consider this Psalm while you are praying:

Have a heart that wants Jesus so badly that you would:

-Grab a piece of His garment in a crowd-Matthew 9:20-21

-Cry out for Him and not be silenced-Matthew 9:27 & Luke 18:38-39

-Climb the tree–Luke 19:4

• Create a praise and worship journal. Try to fill it out daily. Look for new reasons to praise God for what He has done for you, what He has created for you, and worship Him for who He is. In addition, try to take moments of your day to pause and praise and worship.
  

• Read or reread the Gospels, but do not just read them; expect God to speak to you through His word because He will. Pray before reading for the Holy Spirit to highlight what you need each day, and discipline yourself to journal what He tells you. Also, journal questions you have about the text. It has been rare for me to have a day with a shallow journal entry. With the right heart and expectation, you will find God speaking to you throughout the Bible.

As you read the Gospels, pay attention to Jesus, who exemplifies the Father. Pay attention to His messages of change, joy, peace, love, servitude, and sacrifice. Pay attention, as this completely innocent person is brutally tortured and killed because of His love for you. It is the Cross that will break down barriers.

• Spend time with God. Sometimes prayer is silent time, just wanting more of Him.

• Keep Him with you. Try not to let a full hour pass without acknowledging God in praise, worship, or prayer. Prayers need not be elaborate. They can be simple, like text messages. “Good morning, Father!” is a great prayer to say before your feet hit the floor in the morning. Pass a love note to Him during class. Send Him a mental snapshot while traveling. Tell Him a joke. None of these replace your normal prayers, but they are the things you do in a loving relationship, right?

• Take the Lord’s Supper, focusing on what it means.

• Join a small group of loving believers from the church you attend. Establish trust with them and allow them to help you with your quest as you help them with their issues. You are there to build each other up, find the Truth, and share in the high points and low points of our lives. You may also need help with accountability as you practice repentance.

• Pray and ask for mentors. These can take the form of books you can read or people you can interact with. They can help you understand God's nature more, unlearn lies, and learn the Truth.

• Expect Him to show up because He will. As you fill your life with righteousness by putting Him first, you will diminish the time you have for worldly influences and their hold over you. He will work miracles in your life.

You might recognize the above as a portion of the Spiritual Disciplines, and you are right. When we need to take a next step, it is common to target some of them in a specific direction. It does not mean the others take a back seat.

I pray this post will help you fall in love with God, the true God. I pray that as you come to know Him better, you will realize how nothing compares to Him. He is worthy of all your love and trust, and that is why you should never try to make Him settle for anything less.

The guide I am giving you is one that I must keep in front of me. It is not one anyone can do for a specific time period and get a certificate of completion. You will begin to drift and minimize God the moment you stop completely. This is how we recharge!

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The following Scripture was used or considered in the writing of "How Do I Draw Closer to God" by RD Montgomery: Exodus 34:14, Deuteronomy 26:1-10, Psalm 63:1-8, Psalm 119, Matthew 9:20-21, Matthew 9:27, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 19:14, Luke 14:25-33, Luke 18:38-39, Luke 19:4, John 3:16, John 3:30, John 8:44, John 14:9, 2 Corinthians 9:6-7, Ephesians 3:14-19, James 4:8, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Revelation 2:4, Revelation 3:20