How to draw closer to God …

If you’ve ever read the Bible, you don’t have to wonder if God wants a close relationship with you.

The story of the Bible is how God has worked throughout human history to execute His perfect plan to reconcile humanity to Himself. That plan wasn’t to save us but keep us at a distance; God’s plan is one of adopting us into His own family as His sons and daughters. That’s an intimate relationship!

That’s what God wants, but how about you?

Are you close to God?

Have you felt the need, or desire, to draw closer to Him?

James reveals something simple but wonderful for us to know: “Come near to God and he will come near to you …” James 4:8a.

God isn’t hiding from us! If only we will come close to Him, guess how He will respond — He will come close to us!

So how can we draw closer to God? Here are four things you’ll need to do to be close to God:

1. Make study of the Bible a daily priority. God reveals Himself to us through the pages of the scriptures. The Bible is God talking to us! Essential to being close to anyone is listening to them, and our means of hearing from God is through our study of the Bible. Research reveals most Christians don’t read their Bibles outside of a church meeting setting; in that case, don’t expect to be close with God! If you’re not listening to Him, you cannot be close to Him. But if you want to draw nearer to Him, make time to be in the Word every day so you can listen to, and learn from Him.

2. Make prayer an unceasing practice. Reading and studying the Bible is our means of hearing from God. To make that relationship a two-way interaction, we need to talk with God, and that’s what prayer is — our talking with God! Unfortunately, many Christians only talk to God briefly to make requests of Him. But God wants us to talk with Him throughout our days! He never tires of us talking with Him, as that is an essential way we can share our lives with Him. That’s why the apostle Paul admonishes us to, “Never stop praying” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

3. Get help from the Helper. The most recent results of a study on American theology and what Christians believe reports a majority of those surveyed think of the Holy Spirit as some type of “force” rather than a Person. But the Holy Spirit is a being, not a force, and He comes to live within every Christian to be a helper to them in understanding the truth and transforming us into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Too often, we grieve the Holy Spirit rather than yielding to and cooperating with Him. If we would deepen our relationship with the Holy Spirit, and yield to His leading in our lives, He will help us grow in our knowledge and understanding of God, which assists us in our endeavor to come closer.

4. Faithful fellowship in a local church. A lot of Christians today mistake having an intimate relationship with God as having a private relationship reserved only for them and their Creator. But that isn’t how God relates to His children. When He saves us, He adopts us into His family, which is the church. The Bible also describes this family as being the body of Christ — one body that is intimately connected together in a very dependent way! We’re as dependent on each other as one limb or organ of our physical bodies are to the rest of the body. God plants us into His church so that we have a place to be discipled, equipped to serve, loved, supported, encouraged, to have people to help carry our burdens, to worship God with, to remember our Lord with (Communion), to serve the needs of others with, to make disciples of the world with, and all of this (and more!) helps us to come closer to God. Where you find God’s church you find God; the further you distance yourself from His church, you’ll find you’re putting distance between you and God as well.

Some might suggest additional steps for drawing closer to God, but necessary to coming closer to Him is listening to Him (Bible study), talking with Him (prayer), growing in understanding of Him (help from the Holy Spirit), and full fellowship in His family (the church). None of these things are secrets – if you’ve been a Christian for any period of time, you’ve heard admonishments for all of these. That’s because it’s these simple, basic steps that help us step closer to God, and when we do, He draws close to us.

Scotty