Cultivating A Deeper Relationship with God

When it comes to knowing God, many of us are searching for a way to cultivate a closer relationship with Him. When I was in 10th grade, I remember going to my church's summer camp. That week the Lord had taught me so much about Himself, and I physically felt His presence in a new, intense and exciting way. Once I came home, it was only a matter of time before those feelings had dwindled. Often, we walk away from conventions, camps, or Discipleship Now Weekends striving to hold onto this place where we felt so close and intimate with the Lord. However, it is not uncommon to come home and begin to lose those feelings towards God. The reality of life itself is never an easy concept. Working through family situations, demanding relationships, complex school assignments can genuinely make God feels so distant. So, the topic of conversation here is, how can we keep a close relationship with the Lord in our everyday life?

I want to address this by going straight to Scripture and talking about Daniel and his relentless pursuit to worship God in a time and place that demanded him to do otherwise.

In Daniel 6:6-9, we see a decree come within Babylon demanding its people to worship its King ONLY. Before this rule, Daniel was persistent in faithfully serving King Darius. However, his first dedication was given only to God. Now Daniel is forced to choose between his service to his earthly King or his worship to his heavenly Father. Daniel 6:10 shows us that Daniel decides to pledge allegiance to the Lord without a second thought.

In looking at the life that Daniel chose, we need to recognize that if we long to hold on to an intimate relationship with God or, in other words, that "spiritual high," we have to be dedicated to serving Him even when we are set in an atmosphere that encourages us in the other direction.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, unfortunately, every worldly thing will always pull you in the opposite direction of God. I do not know what might be pulling you away entirely, but maybe stressors such as your work environment, school, finances, sicknesses, or even family and friends have created a barrier between you and the Lord. Yet, Daniel shows us that in the midst of how our everyday life influences our actions, we are still called to give our complete commitment to the Lord. Maybe you agree with me right now but still asking yourself what that total commitment even looks like, to begin with. Daniel answers this question quickly for us by demonstrating one keyword in His relationship with the Lord, and that word is again obedience.

To begin serving Christ within our everyday life wholly starts with a commitment to be obedient to God.

Obedience means that we comply with the direction of higher authority. Additionally, compliance always requires action. Therefore, as we are analyzing our relationship with the Lord, we will not grow closer to him unless we know His word and are obedient to what it says. As we seek His Word, we will find that he has laid out for us spiritual disciplines that will implement our everyday worship to the Lord and draw us nearer to Him (if you do not know what some of these disciplines are, hang tight, we will get to them).

Here is my point, our obedience to God begins with discipline.

I tell you all because Daniel is a beautiful example to follow as he displays to us the discipline of prayer even as he faced persecution. Daniel 6 even says that he prayed "as he had done before" three times a day. This shows us that Daniel was not just choosing to follow the Lord as things got hard. But He had already been diligently praying before the Lord in the past. So, for you and me, that means that we are to serve Him when things are easy and good and when things are hard and hurt.

In that, we now have to be blatantly honest in saying that if we want to hold on to that "spiritual high," we will have to be willing to seek Christ even in the face of our most tremendous doubts, hurts, worries, and persecutions. Quickly, Daniel shows us that it is worth it, and he shows us that pursuing God is and always will be more rewarding and sustaining than what our society begs our attention for.

Knowing this truth, before I tell you what these spiritual disciplines are, I first want to acknowledge a lie that begins with obtaining that "spiritual high." When it comes to feeling God's presence in such a legitimate way, we always become discouraged and slowly walk away when the feeling starts to die down. Please allow me to tell you some hard, blatant truth. If our relationship with God is based on a feeling, then every one of us would be participating in a shallow relationship that would eventually end with us seeking to find a new and exciting feeling. God calls us to search for Him, know Him, and spend time with Him. If we long to build a lifelong fruitful relationship with the Lord, then we need to know His Word so that we can hear Him speak. Proverbs 2:1 teaches us that His Word is a treasure. In this, we see the power of an intimate relationship with the Lord NOT built on a "spiritual high" BUT built upon the foundation of His Word. With that said, let us dive in to see what spiritual disciplines are and how we can become obedient in following through with them to gain intimacy with Christ.

This section is simply an introduction to how we should begin to explore a disciplined relationship with the Lord. If these are practiced in our life, we will start to see how God can transform our hearts and draw us closer to Him. Please continue to explore this section to find practical steps and resources that will help you add these spiritual disciplines to your life.