How Can I Get Closer to Jesus?

This is one of my favorite questions. It tells me a few things.

#A. You're curious. Curiosity leads to learning and we should always want to learn and challenge our thinking.

#B. You either don't know Jesus and want to or you know of Jesus, but want to know Him more intimately.

#C. You see someone with the Holy Spirit inside of them and want to feel that freedom, too.

Obviously, there are many other reasons why I love that question, but those are 3 that cross my mind first.

I have been on both sides of that question. Present day, I often think it surprises people that I spent much of my life not rooted in Christ. After all, all my platforms are centered around Christ and if you talk to me in person, I'm mentioning Jesus throughout. It wasn't long ago that I was planted among thorns or sand. It goes to show that it's never too late to surrender your life to Jesus.

I do not have all the answers nor do I pretend that I do. I can say, however, that these are 5 things that I've done/currently do to get closer to Jesus and to strengthen our relationship.

Read Scripture Daily

This may sound like a no brainer, but it has to be mentioned. Often times, I think we look at the Bible and are overwhelmed by it. It's large, there's a lot of books inside, and there are a ton of words that could easily be misunderstood if not studied. There's also the idea that if you say you're reading the Bible that many will ask you to quote from it, know a specific passage, etc. While it's AWESOME to be able to do that, that comes with time and the first step is to simply pick up the book and read.

Whether it's one verse, a chapter, or even the whole book (example: book of Jonah), it's good to get into the habit of reading every day. When you read every day, you begin to hear God's voice and can distinguish what He sounds like from the enemy and even your own voice. If you're brand new to being a follower of Christ, I recommend starting in the New Testament, specifically the first four books, which are the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are eyewitness testimonies. Within these books, you'll learn of Jesus, all He's done, and hear from Him, too.

Study from other Followers of Christ

No one has all the answers. No one ever will have all the answers...except for Jesus, of course...so, it's important to study. There are people who are way more knowledgable than I. They've studied about Christ and I'm sure have studied from others to gain the knowledge they have. A few of my favorite Disciples of Christ that I study from:

Billy Graham:    / @billygraham  

Cliffe & Stuart Knechtle:    / @askcliffe  

Frank Turek:    / @crossexamined  

Sam Shamoun:    / @thearchive6671   

Kap Chatfield:    / @kapchatfield   

Start a Prayer Journal

Prayer is just a conversation with the Lord. It allows you to start the conversation. Having a prayer journal holds you accountable for praying. Prayers don't need to be long! They can be as short as simply saying, "I am praying for my mom." What's fun about a prayer journal is coming back to your words and seeing how God fulfilled it.

Daily Verse of the Day

Similar to reading the Word every day, the Bible App is a great source. The app has many cool features, but my favorite is the daily verse it provides. I start the day reading the verse, writing it down, and then writing what it means/how to apply it. After it tells you the daily verse, there's a short 1-2 minute video of a speaker explaining where in scripture the verse comes from, what's going on during the time it's written, and what God is calling us to do. What I love most about having a daily verse is using it to set the tone for the day. God's Word, after all, is perfect.

Read Texts from Other Followers of Christ

Similar to studying from other speakers, reading texts by those centered in Christ is helpful to strengthening your own relationship with Him. There are many authors who say they are of Christ, but after reading, you'll notice their works do not align with scripture. It's important to recognize true work from untrue work. What do I mean by this? Well, scripture is the truth and anything that deviates should make you question whether or not the source is reliable. I will say to this point, however, that no follower of Christ is perfect. We all get it wrong, despite wanting to always get it right. I say this to say, show grace if you're reading from an author and they say something that you recognize as incorrect. They do have a duty to be as accurate as possible, but at the end of the day, we're human beings and we fall short sometimes. It's part of the reason we surrender to Jesus.

This list is ever growing, but these are 5 things that I personally implement into my life to continue building my relationship with Jesus. I'm looking forward to revisiting this blog post soon with more things I've added into my day to day.

I'm going to leave you with a question this week: What are ways you're strengthening your relationship with Jesus?

I love you, but Jesus loves you more. 

CPB

Reading not for you? Check out my visuals on YouTube: #ACheyMoment