Be Closer to the Lord

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. (Psalm 145:18). How close can we be to the Lord in this life? The Lord is in Heaven, but His Spirit lives in the heart of the believer. 

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. (Ephesians 3:17) Christ speaks to us by placing His thoughts in our minds and changing the desires of our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

The Lord gives us everything we need to have a close, loving relationship with Him. Our closeness to the Lord is dependent on how much we desire and how much we pray to be close to Him.

Ask the Lord

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)

This verse says, if we ask and seek, the door will be opened. Therefore, if we desire to be close to the Lord, we pray that we remain close to the Lord as we go through our day. When we ask the Lord, it shows our desire to be close to him and our dependence on Him.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:17-18)

It is important to cry out to the Lord in prayer with a humble heart, especially when we go through difficult times, because He will provide us with His power and strength to endure.

Serve the Lord

If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. (John 12:26)

If we live to be a servant of the Lord, and we see the Lord as our Master, trusting him fully, we will be dependent on the Lord with hearts of love.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

We are to bear fruit, tell people the good news of salvation through Christ, and we must remain in Christ because without Him we can do nothing. Remaining in Christ gives us a close relationship, driven by our need for Christ in our ministry.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7)

It’s a heart filled with God’s love that really connects us to the Lord because God is love. As we personally witness to others, the Lord fills our hearts with His love. And the more we witness, the more His love fills our hearts.

A heart of love changes us and motivates us to minister to everyone, and love places anguish in our hearts for lost souls. A heart of love opens the Word for deep understanding, and love draws us closer to the Lord.

When our hearts are motivated to bring Christ to the world, we live in the Word and in prayer. We become dependent on Christ and the Word to witness because our power comes from Christ and the Word. Our dependence on the Lord and His Word comes from being the Lord’s servant.

Without Christ and the Word, our ministry has no divine power.

Blessing of Being Close to the Lord

There is nothing in this life that is better than being close to the Lord.

Our soul is continuously fed with blessings from Heaven that change how we think and we feel. I can only imagine how great we will feel in Heaven when we are in the presence of the Father and the Son. We get a glimpse of what it will be like by the feeling we get when we are close to the Lord in this life.

The world can never give us divine blessings because things of the world are temporary and primarily feed our flesh. Our soul is our thoughts, personality, and will; while our body is a suit we wear while living in this world.

We will never be fully content in this life until our souls remain content from the blessings of God. Our souls come from God and seek to be content all the time, and only God can achieve this for us.

The closer we are to the Lord, the more powerful are the divine blessings that feed our souls, keeping us content in all circumstances.

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. (Philippians 4:11)

The apostle Paul was close to the Lord and the Lord fed his soul with blessings from heaven, making him content in all circumstances. Paul spent time in prison, time without food, he was persecuted, and he was shipwrecked, but he was always content in his soul.

This example of Paul’s contentment is available to us; we must desire and seek to be close to the Lord and we will reap the same divine blessing for our soul.

Our thoughts normally reflect what’s in our brains, but for Christians, our thoughts come from the Spirit. God renews our brains to the ways of Christ. Now, our physical mind and the Spirit are working together in accordance with God’s will. Our thoughts and emotions are controlled by Christ, and our thoughts are on things above.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 3:2) When we are close to the Lord, we will find things of God far more interesting and fulfilling than things for the world.

When we are close to the Lord, we are His servants and we have a strong desire to be in Heaven with the Father and the Son.

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3) When we are close to the Lord and we experience the blessings in our soul, we will seek to always be closer to the Lord.

Meditate

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Joshua 1:8)

Meditation on the Word and on God brings us very close to Him, and the worries from the world disappear. Meditation requires being alone with the Lord in a comfortable, quiet place with no interruptions.

It’s being alone with God just as Jesus went up the mountain to be alone with the Father. The Spirit connects us to the Father and the Son, and our thoughts take us into the Kingdom. We praise and thank God, and we unload our feelings and concerns.

It may take time to reap the blessings of meditation, but if we keep meditating and praying to be close to the Lord, we will increasingly experience His blessings.

If we meditate in the evening, it can help us sleep with peace and comfort and feeling secure in Christ. Seek to find time to be alone and meditate, even though it may be difficult.

If possible, take a few minutes during your day to meditate. For example, take five minutes and discuss what’s on your mind. Short meditation during the day helps us to relax. It can slow us down inside even while the world around us may be rushed and chaotic.

Conclusions

The more we desire to be close to the Lord, the more we depend on the Lord to guide us through the day. And the more we live to serve the Lord, the closer we will be to the Lord.

There is nothing better than knowing the Lord is with us because we feel His presence: Love, peace, joy, comfort, and contentment to our souls. The closer we are to the Lord, the less fear we experience from Satan because His love casts out fear.

There’s no greater blessing than having a close, loving relationship with our Lord. He loves us more than we can imagine, and He desires to fill our souls with divine blessings as He carries us through live into Heaven.