Last updated on October 27, 2020
Question:
I’m not as close to God as I’d like to be. When I was little I used to pray every night before dinner with my family. As we’re not as religious as we should the tradition died out 3 or 4 years ago. We only go to church on holidays too; I know that’s something I can change now, but what else can I do? How can I become closer to Him?
Answer:
You start with learning from God. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Practically, you can’t believe in something you don’t know.
The second step is to put each thing you learn into practice. “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:21-25). Things you don’t put into practice don’t stay with you.
The third step is to get back to church. There you are going to find other Christians who will help encourage you to stick with it. At the same time, you will be encouraging others. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:23-25).
You can’t drift into heaven and you can’t be a Christian by accident.