Practical Ways to Get Closer to God

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What does growing closer to God mean?

Growing up I was always taught the most important thing in life is to develop a relationship with God. But what does that actually look like for the real-life twenty-first-century Christian?

Many of us have tried to grow deeper with God on our own and “failed.” We’ve felt the guilt of not doing enough or never “doing it right.” Can you relate?

And After all our efforts we still have questions.

How can I grow deeper with God?

In this article, you’ll find simple answers to these questions, starting points for each piece of advice, and examples of growing with God from how to get closer to God Bible verses.

Ready to learn how to get closer to God spiritually?

What Does Growing Closer to God mean?

In the Bible when you see the term “draw near to God” it typically describes people who are actively pursuing and following God.

They are listening for His voice, following His instructions, obeying His teachings, and growing in relationship with God.

The more consistent we are in these things the closer we grow to God. The less we prioritize these things the further from God we become.

There are a lot of believers who know a lot about the Bible yet don’t feel close to God. If all we’re depending on for a strong relationship with God is head-knowledge we’ll miss the mark of true intimacy. We learn in the Bible that even demons believe there is one God.

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
James 2:19

Knowledge alone will not get you closer to God. So what can? How can I develop a closer relationship with God? We’re going to get real practical about our approach to a relationship with God in the next section – tackling one of the biggest obstacles Christians face in how to grow with God.

How Can I Grow Deeper With God?

“If you can’t make the meeting because there’s too much going on, that tells me that we’re either doing something inefficiently or we need help.” – Greg McKeown (Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less)

He was speaking in terms of business but I believe this applies to our relationship with God too. If I can’t make time for prayer because there’s too much going on, that tells me that I’m either doing something inefficiently or I need some help with the tasks on my plate. This is the obstacle most of us face when trying to grow with God.

I think we underestimate the importance of discipline in a relationship with God. It’s more than going to church on Sundays. This relationship is one that tugs at the core of who are and requires our utmost devotion. It trumps every other relationship and every other priority. We experience the best of it when our heads, hearts, and hands are “all in.” It all starts with the discipline of saying yes to God when the traditions of the world tempt us to rush in the other directions. Before we dig into the baseline 5 ways to get closer to God, I want to share three habits that help me prepare well so that I actually have the time I desire to grow with God.

Schedule Your Time With God

Similar to other relationships, our intimacy and relationship with God both grow when we prioritize quality time with Him. I used to take a fairly relaxed approach to this, thinking I’ll spend the time when I have the time. The problem with that was I always found other ways to fill my schedule. I realized very quickly that I couldn’t just wait until I had the time or until the thought of being with God crossed my mind, I needed to plan for it and be disciplined enough to stick to the plan.

Gather your study material to one place (Bible, journal, music, or whatever media helps you worship and hear from God) and set aside a time specifically for you to meet with God. It doesn’t have to be at the same time every day. In fact, mine changes from day to day. But the fact that I have it written down in my schedule makes it three times more likely to happen. And if it doesn’t – habit #2 (below) gets me back on track.

Save space (Create margin) In Your Day

In the productivity world, we call this creating margin. Margin is empty space in your day, intentionally scheduled, for the purpose of ensuring rest, a bit of freedom, and – in my world – the opportunity to honor my priorities. I have an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening that I do not plan ANYTHING. This ensures I have unhurried time to seek God even if my day does not go as planned. If you’re a mom and you’re finding this task impossible in light of all your responsibilities, this article can help!

Set A Reminder

I call it a trigger. A trigger is something that you see or hear that is tied to a person, event, or memory. What do you have around your home that could serve as an audible or visual reminder for daily devotional time? Here are some examples of ordinary objects I’ve used for triggers.

A Planner or Tending List – A tending list is basically a sheet of paper that goes in my planner and helps me track daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Having “time with God” written on my tending list served as personal accountability and helped me get in the habit of making time for God each night.

The television – When my kids or my husband would sit down to watch TV, that was a visual reminder that helped me realize I had the opportunity right then in there to get alone with God if I hadn’t already.

My Bible – When I know a busy season is coming I’ll start leaving my Bible out on the counter each night and when I see it in the morning jammed full of home-school, ministry, writing notes; it prompts me to start my day with God instead of with my work.

Now that we’ve talked a bit about preparations, let’s look at actual actions we can take to grow deeper with God on a daily basis.

5 Ways for How to Get Closer to God Spiritually

How to get closer to God spiritually isn’t as mysterious of a thing as it’s made to seem. Scripture, the most practical guide we have for walking with God, actually outlines it quite well – both the Old and New Testaments.

My favorite of the many How to grow closer to God Bible verses was given to us by the apostle James.

Therefore submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded!
James 4:7-8

In this passage, we’re encouraged to adjust our actions, our commitment, and our affections in order to grow deeper with God. What does this instruction carried out actually look like? Here’s a baseline description of 5 ways to grow with God and strengthen your relationship with God.

• Prayer
• Bible reading
• Work together.
• Enjoy His presence
• Follow His teachings

Using Prayer to Get Closer to God

Modern-day Christianity puts a lot of emphasis on reading the Bible – which, before we move further I want to say IS important. However, even before Scripture was written down for us to study and learn, God was talking with, leading, and loving people through prayer.

Prayer is simply the act of talking and listening to God. It’s modeled that way throughout the entire Bible, from Adam and Eve in the Garden to Noah and Abraham, through the history of Israel, through the life of Jesus, and on through the New Testament teachings.

Even today God uses prayer to speak, lead, and love us.

How can I get closer to God spiritually? I can start listening for His voice in everyday moments and circumstances. I can start sharing what’s on my heart and mind with Him. I can ask Him what’s on His heart and I can listen for His leadership.

How to Grow With God by Studying the Bible

The Bible is God’s words, heart, and teaching written down for us to hold onto. We learn who God is, His instructions for living, His hope for creation, and how to discern what is right, good, and the will of God.

If studying the Bible is new to you, or maybe you’ve read it before but struggled to make sense of what you were actually reading, I have tons of free Bible study help and resources for you on this Bible Study page!

In his letter to Timothy, Paul wrote,

All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness.
2 Timothy 3:16

Most of the questions we have about God we can find answers for in the Bible.

So how can you develop a closer relationship with God? Get to know Him through His Word (the Bible).

Get Closer to God Spiritually By Joining In His Work

This is one of the overlooked gifts and opportunities that comes with Jesus being the Lord of your life. You get to join Him in His work to redeem creation from the destruction of sin.

You experienced this redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus and the forgiveness of your sins.

How can you grow deeper with God? Join God in sharing this redemptive gift with others.

Sometimes that looks like sharing the gospel with people (see Mark 16:16-15).

Some days it looks like mentorship and discipleship (see Matthew 28:18-20).

It can look like advocating for the voiceless and people in need (see Proverbs 31:8-9); advocating for justice (see Isaiah 56:1)

Jesus demonstrated His love for God by consistently prioritizing what was important to God. Even at a young age, He was “about His Father’s business” (see Luke 2:49) only doing what God showed Him to do (see John 5:19 and John 12:49). We can grow closer to God by doing the same.

Get Closer to God Spiritually by Enjoying His Presence

We talked about partnering with God in His redemptive work. On the other side of that is learning to just love God and enjoy God’s presence; a gift we’re all too quick to forget.

In Revelation 2 we’re reminded just how important it is to remember. It also gives us some important clues for how to grow closer to God when we feel far away from Him. Let’s look at it together.

“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Revelation 2:2-4

These were people so committed to doing things for God they fell in love with the work they were doing instead of the God they were doing it for. How did God instruct them to fix this? He instructed them,

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.
Revelation 2:5

In other words, remember what caused you to fall, repent (reposition yourself), and go back to the first things (the basics of love God). This brings us to our next principle.

Develop A Closer Relationship With God By Following His Teachings

A lot of people look down on following God’s teachings in the Bible. They’ll equate obedience to legalism and try claim God’s teachings don’t apply to a New Covenant Christian.

What’s interesting though is that the teachers of the new covenant; Jesus Himself and the disciples (who later became the apostles); taught a lot about God’s “Old Testament” teachings. Paul quotes many of those teachings in his letters, the church in Acts included both Jewish and non-Jewish believers who were learning and abiding by God’s teachings TOGETHER.

Notice the most important commandment in the Bible never actually changed.

The first commandment of the Old Testament is this,

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Deuteronomy 6:5

Matthew quotes the first commandment of the New Testament like this,

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Matthew 22:37

Mark quotes it this way,

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’This is the first commandment.
Mark 12:30

And Luke says,

“ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ” Luke 10:27

The work of Jesus on the cross made it so that we don’t have to burn or make blood sacrifices to atone for sins anymore or to obtain righteousness. There is still great value in the rest of God’s teachings though, and He is honored when we uphold them!

As believers of Jesus, we should work towards honoring His WHOLE counsel. Not just parts of it.

How to Get Closer to God As A Teenager

One thing I truly appreciate about our household growing up was that our parents were quick to emphasize that a close relationship with God has very little to do with our age. God speaks to teenagers just like he does adults. He fills youth with His Spirit just like he does parents, pastors, mentors, and adults of any kind. I remember a mentor of mine quoting, “There is no junior Holy Spirit”. Scripture supports the same sentiment.

If you want to simplify what I’ve written above and make it specific to how to get to closer to God as a teenager, teach your teenager to adopt these two principles.

1. Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.
2. Love your neighbor as yourself.

How to get closer to God spiritually isn’t just a matter of our actions, but a matter of our heart and its spiritual condition.

What has your attention (mind)?
What has your affection (heart)?
What has your commitment (soul)?

Growing closer to God requires us to direct our attention, affection, and commitment to Him. We call this practice prioritizing; and honestly, there’s no better time to master the skill of setting priorities than while you’re young – before the world tries to set them for you. You can start by adopting the same 5 disciplines outlined above:

• Start having real conversations with God. Learn how to talk to Him but also how to listen.
• Get to know God through the Bible.
• Join in the redemptive work He’s doing on Earth (learn to serve how He serves and love how He loves)
• Just be with Him. Carve out time to just “be”.
• Follow His teachings. Learn to love what He loves, hate what he hates, and value what He values. Then apply those teachings to your life and relationships.

One of the biggest obstacles related to how to grow with God as a teenager is the relationships that you welcome. I’m comfortable making that statement because in addition to witnessing it, I’ve lived it. As a teenager, it’s easy to be influenced by relationships instead of being the influence in your relationships; especially romantic ones. We talk about healthy relationship boundaries and how to grow closer to God with your boyfriend in this post.

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I hope this article has provided a starting point as well as some directions for how to strengthen your relationship with God. And if you’re still feeling overwhelmed let me leave you with this quick summary of how to get closer to God spiritually,

Draw near, and He’ll near to you.