Getting close to God is not difficult; is it?
I know I love God, and I know He is the centre of my world. Although I’ve always felt close to God, this has changed significantly over the years, and every day I find myself in situations that remind me how much He is part of my life.
Recently, I have found myself part of discussions about getting closer to God and being more like Jesus.
I get the bit about being more like Jesus, especially about living a life that more closely reflects His life. But I am struggling with the part about getting closer to God.
How do you get closer to God?
If I think about my relationships with people, I understand that getting closer to them requires me to understand them better. It means that we are more vulnerable with each other and share life in a deeper more intimate way. This closeness means I feel safe and secure in their presence in my life. But there is honestly not one human being on this earth that I feel close to in the same way I feel close to God.
God absolutely and without question knows more about me than anyone. God is, and if I think about my life, has always been the closest to me. In at least the last 20 years I know God is the only one who truly knows me, and loves me. I do not question that.
I do on occasion question His decisions about my life. I question what He has chosen for me, and why He has done what He has done. But through the fog of not understanding there is always assurance in what He has for me.
There is no doubt an appropriate Bible verse to support the idea that He is my shield and my strength, that He is my rock and my safe place. These are things that I know to be true, and I have lived as my truth.
So how is it that I get closer to God? Are all these things about how I feel about my relationship with God, and have I left out how God feels about our relationship?
If I say I am with Him every day and every moment of my life, am I not as close as I can be? I am not always asking Him for things, I am sharing my life with Him. I am conscious of the habit I have formed to thank Him for every little thing that happens in my life. I am even conscious of the fact that I recognise when something doesn’t go as expected there is a bigger picture I cannot see. There is no question I want to see it, and I am apt to beg to see the big picture, but at the same time, I can clearly hear God gently laughing at me at the thought that I have even asked.
I don’t understand the concept of asking for more from God. I ask God to give me what He wants me to have for the situations I find myself in. When I am told by others that I should have this or that, I ask God to show me what He wants me to do and show me what He wants for me and from me. I am not as confident in the rules of man regarding the practices of our faith and religion.
If I were to make the statement ‘I want to feel closer to God’ I see that as an action I obviously must take not God. And I guess that’s what people are saying, but I think the action is about finding ways to know more about Him.
The inference is that the only time we talk to God is when we want something, which is not true for me. Or we only spend time with God when things are good. Or maybe our relationship with God is completely contingent on how we feel about our lives.
What I want to acknowledge is I could spend more time just being with Him and not having my focus anywhere else. But if I say that every morning without fail, as the sun rises I am going to do that, it’s not real for me. There are moments when I am so very connected to Him and focused on just the two of us, but that’s rarely a planned event. If I hang out with God every day, what can make that experience ‘more’?
I don’t have the answer. I don’t really understand the question. But it is in my nature to be curious and keep asking questions. And my go-to place for answers is God, so I’m going to start there.
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