Staying Close to God

 
 

I find that my closeness to God depends on how much time I spend with Him. The more time I spend with Him the closer I am to Him. It's actually quite simple. If I spend 1 hour a day, I am closer than if I spend 15 minutes a day. If I spend 2 hours a day I am closer than if I spend 1 hour a day. It depends on how close you want to be. 

There have been times since becoming a stronger Christian that I find myself getting real busy with a job or maybe I go on a trip and temporarily get out of the habit of spending my usual time with God each day. 

I find that when I start spending regular time again, I don't immediately feel close to God.  Do not give up if you start and do not immediately feel results.

I like to read an easy reading version of the Bible for my devotional reading. For Bible study on doctrinally subjects and my beliefs I use the King James version. For devotional reading, to see what God has to say to me, I use the New Century Bible or another easy reading Bible.

I find it very helpful to keep a journal of prayer requests and Bible verses. Did you ever pray a request and when it's answered you start wondering if you really prayed that request? Sometimes it can be quite a while between requests and answers. If I write my prayers down then I can go back and check that “Yes” I did pray for this and God did answer my request. 

I also like to write down Bible verses I read that I find particularly meaningful. Often they are directly related to my present situation.

I find that God wants us to pray our requests but not pray the solutions or the answers we want. I find I need to ask according to His will and then be willing for His will no matter what it is.

If I don't feel willing, I tell Him that I choose to be willing for His will and I ask Him for the feelings that go along with it. We should not live by our feelings. We must live by our beliefs. It is nice though to have the feelings that go along with our beliefs.


Finding Joy

If you are feeling down, or a bit empty, or not as joyful as you would like, ask yourself these questions:

1) Have I sang praises to God
    today?

2) Have I given thanks to God   
    today?

3) Have I spent time reading the
     Bible and praying today?

    4) Is there a Bible passage I’m 
        trying to memorize?

    5) Have I asked God for joy lately?

When I ask for joy it doesn’t usually come immediately. Often it might be the next day. All of a sudden I think, “Wow! I’m feeling pretty good.” Then I remember that I had asked God for joy. This has happened to me, not once but, many times. 

Satan tries to steal all the joy out of a Christian’s life. In this way he hopes to get us so discouraged that we give up and go back to the world to try to find joy. But it’s only a false joy the world has to offer. And usually the false joy Satan gives comes from doing wrong and then we have to live with the consequences.


Beware of Substitutes

I have found from my own experience that while we should do the following activities, they can’t take the place of our own personal time with God if we want to be a strong Christian. 

1) Attending Church,

2) Family worship,

3) Listening to religious sermons 
    or programs on TV,

4) Participating in mission work 
        or community service,

5) Studying the Bible for doctrine   
    only.

All of the above activities are good and we should do them but they should be done in addition to our own personal time with God.

I find that my closeness to God depends on how much time I spend with Him.

Spending Time