Three Ways to Get Closer to God

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. (Deuteronomy 6:5).

How do we get closer to God? How do we love God with all our heart, soul and might? In order to do that, we must develop a relationship with Him and in doing so, we get to know more about Him and grow closer to Him.  When we fall in love with someone, we spend time with that person; we get to know the person and we begin to like who they are and some of the things that they do. This is the same for loving God with all our hearts. We must take the time to know Him. Most Sundays in my Instagram stories, I encourage others to attend their local churches, listen to a sermon on YouTube, or listen to Praise and Worship music if they are unable to go to a physical church house. I personally attend church on Sundays and have been doing so for all of my life, and so that’s why I encourage you to go on Sundays. My purpose for this encouragement is really to remind you to spend quality time with God, it is not just to go the physical building or worship on a specific day, it is really to encourage you take time-out and spend it with the Lord. While it is good to fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ, we must also focus on developing a personal relationship with God. I want us to go further than only spending time with God on Sundays or whatever day is your community worship, I want us to do this daily.  Think about it, for our earthly relationships, when we are trying to get close to someone, we spend time with them daily by communicating with them whether it is a text or a phone call. With those we love we make time to spend with them and check in with them regularly. We should do the same when trying to develop a closer relationship with God. You may ask how? Well, here are three ways to build a closer relationship with God: 

1️⃣ Pray 

We tend to overcomplicate the task of praying. We tend to think we must pray like those eloquent preachers or the powerful prayer warriors, quoting verses in the Bible and using elevated pitches in our voices for emphasis when praying to God. We think that if we can’t pray like that then why pray at all or we think God won’t hear us. However, prayer is simply having a conversation with God. It is simple as just talking to Him, just like how you talk to a good friend. One of my favorite conversation/prayer I have with God first thing in the morning goes like this: 

Good Morning Lord, thank you for waking me up this morning, thank you for allowing me to see another day, thank you for the great things that are going to happen today. Lead me Lord in the right direction and protect me as I go about my day. 

If you don’t know what to say here are a few other prayers that you can pray: 

– Matthew 6: 9-13, The Lord’s Prayer

– Psalm 23 – The Lord is my shepherd (one of my favorite prayers) You can make this prayer personal by inserting your name where appropriate.

– Psalm 46, The Lord is my refuge and my strength, is another great prayer to begin with.

2️⃣ Read the Bible 

Another way to get close to God is to read about Him (His word) and there is no other place to start than the bible. Similarly, when we read autobiographies and other non-fictions about someone’s life so that we can know more about that person, we can know more about God by reading His word. In 2019, I read through the entire bible, and while there were days where I was just reading to get through (especially the book of Numbers- go check out that book) there were other days where the story of God’s love and mercy was so interesting that I just kept reading and reading to find out more. Stories like the Three Hebrew Boys who were thrown in the fiery furnace, David and Goliath and Daniel in the Lion’s Den. These stories show how God protected these men from danger and how He can do the same for us. There are many other stories that can give us an idea of who God is and His love for us. All we have to do is to set aside a specific time each day to read His word.   

3️⃣ Listen to Praise and Worship Music

I love listening to praise and worship music; this is music that glorifies God, and it’s another way to speak to God and while listening to this music you can almost always feel his presence. Some of these songs tell stories about God which, again will assist us in knowing more about Him. Here is a short list of some of my favorite songs: (go check them out): 

– I know who I am – Israel Houghton  

– You still love me – Tasha Cobbs (I love all of her songs, but when I listen to this song, I feel God’s presence and it reminds me that he still loves me despite my failures) 

– Waymaker – Sinach 

– My God is Awesome – Charles Jenkins. 

If you want to get to know more about God and begin to develop a relationship with Him, I am encouraging you to try these three ways and do them consistently and watch your relationship develop over time. God bless you.