Tips On How To Grow Closer To God.

Hey friends! These are a few of my tips on how to grow closer to God. I hope you take these tips and use them because this is truly the best relationship you could have. You won’t regret putting your time into growing your relationship with God. Hope you enjoy!

Pray. Praying is such an important thing to do. God wants to have a conversation with us and if we aren’t talking to Him, then that’s not a conversation. The cool thing about prayer is that you can do it anytime, anywhere, any way! It’s kind of like texting, It can take some time to get a response, but He will answer. God always answers. Sometimes he does not answer in the way we want, but He always answers prayer. I use a prayer journal where I write out my prayers sometimes. It’s really encouraging to look back on old prayers and see how God answered. He is so faithful and sometimes we need a reminder of that. Having a prayer journal is really helpful for me personally, but it’s just a preference. Prayer comes in many different forms. I don’t write down every single prayer, that would be too many. I pray throughout the day too. Whenever I see something that reminds me of God’s presence, I pray and acknowledge Him. Just a short simple prayer each day is nice. Thank Him throughout the day for His goodness and providence. Prayer is powerful!

Read your Bible. This one is one of the most important things you can do to grow your relationship with God. I also want to let you know that it’s not about how much you read of the Bible but how well you understand the part you did read. You could spend days on just one verse because each time you read it God shows you something new. I know that for a while I would just read my Bible just because I knew I was supposed to and then not even try to learn anything from it. That defeats the purpose!! God has given us HIS WORD to be able to understand Him, learn from Him, and shape our lives. Right now I usually read one chapter each day. (It does depend on the day though) While I read through it I will just think about what I’m actually reading and what stands out to me. After I’ve read it once, I will go over it again and highlight the parts that stood out to me. I will write my favorite verses from that passage down in my notebook so that I remember them better. Then, I will write down what the chapter told me about God. To have a relationship with someone you have to know who they are. You don’t just call a stranger off the street your friend. You need to learn about them, spend time with them, and talk to them. Then I will try to learn about the background and why it was written. It’s helpful to understand what happened before this was written and what led up to this being written. I will then see what I can take from that passage and apply it to my life. I will read over the chapter again knowing all that I just wrote down and write anything else I learn from it. Then throughout the day, I will try to think about all that I learned in my quiet time and just chew on it. I hope that gives you an idea of what you can do while reading the Bible. But it’s important to learn from the Bible and not just read it and completely forget everything you learned. That’s why writing stuff down is helpful, you can always look back over it.

Be still. Breath. Look around you. God made everything around you! Hear the birds sing, the wind blow. Watch the clouds move across the pink and orange sky, the tree branches blow as if they are dancing. Taking time to be still gives you time to realize how much God is present in your life. He is good. Take some time to rest. We weren’t created to always be doing, but to take time to slow down and look around at what God has made. When we are busy and out and doing, we should remember to look at the simple things and use our gifts for the glory of God. Look for God in everything, if He’s not there, you shouldn’t be either. Be aware of the small joys in life and thank God for them.

Memorize scripture. This is a habit I’m trying to practice more. I want to be able to have His Word stored in my heart for so many reasons. To name a few, (1) To encourage others. When someone’s having an off day (or even if you’re having an off day!), you can use so many verses that can give them a bit of encouragement! (2) Knowing the difference between lies and truth. Some lies can be very deceiving and look like truth, so it’s important to know what is true. (3) Sharing God’s Word. When sharing the Gospel, you might not have your Bible on hand to share a verse, so wouldn’t it be awesome just to be able to know the verse?

Okay, now some ways that I memorize scripture are:

• Put them to tune. This is always really helpful because it’s easy to remember and stick with you. You’re more likely to have a song stuck in your head than a verse. This is what I do to help my younger brother with AWANA verses that he has to memorize. I like to put them to Disney songs because I’m already familiar with them.

• Put it everywhere. When I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE. When you are seeing the same verse over and over again, you begin to memorize it. Write the same verse on a notecard or a sticky note and put them places you look often. On the window in front of your desk, on the bathroom mirror, you can even make it your home screen on your phone! After some time, you will begin to know it by heart. I would also encourage you to say it out loud each time you see it.

• Write it out. When you write something a bunch of times you think of it over and over. It becomes ingrained in your mind. It’s really helpful to write a verse out more than once. You can also have some fun with this one and make some art out of it. :)

That’s all I have for today. If you have any questions about this, please don’t be shy and email us at tcktimes@gmail.com. We would love to answer them to the best of our abilities! There are so many more ways that you can grow closer to God, but I can’t fit them all in one article. God loves you so much and He wants you to have a relationship with Him. He is a personal God and wants you to talk to Him. He’s waiting for you and is ready to welcome you. Remember, you are God’s creation, made in His image by His own hands! Please take just 10 minutes to spend time with Him. Love you all! Have an amazing and beautiful day & don’t forget to look for the simple joys God gives you today! ❤️

~ Aliana 🦋