How Can I Get Closer to God?

How can I get closer to God?

Drawing close to God entails opening your heart to him (or her). Deuteronomy 4:29 tells us, “From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.” God desires to be found by us primarily because he will never force himself upon us. He loves us too much to do that. We are not puppets, instead we are his beloved. In Psalm 42:1 we find, “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.” This means that within us there is a deep, deep longing to grow closer to God and he will answer that call. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, wrote in the 4th century, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

Finally, in terms of how one goes about drawing closer to God, you might look toward spiritual formation through the use of spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines are activities such as praying, reading the Bible, engaging in worship, solitude, silence, service, and communing with others who are seeking the same things, just to name a few. A resource you may want to use is A Spiritual Formation Workbook by James Bryan Smith and Lynda Graybeal. You may also want to ponder the question, “How is God trying to get closer to me?”