In God’s loving plan for each of our lives, He gives us all the opportunity to have a personal encounter with Him.
If you made it to this post, it’s probably because you’re going through one of those moments.
Let me share with you some reflections about how you can be closer to God.
It is beautiful to think that by the grace of God we were given access to the most powerful force in the universe in its purest state.
That force that holds galaxies together, preventing the universe from tearing apart.
The one of which poetically we could say that scientists not yet being able to rationalize decided to call with the enigmatic and mystical name of “dark matter”.
The force that out of nothing can create anything, the force that creates life and sustains it.
The most incredible, simple and powerful of the forces that govern the universe.
Love.
The nature of the character of God Himself.
The expression of his being.
Let us ponder the beautiful words of the apostle Paul in the book of Philippians:
For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel (…)
| Filipenses 1:8-11, 27
The apostle John also says:
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love.
Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
| 1 John 4:16
Understanding who God is
When you consider how to be closer to God, the first thing you need to understand is who God is.
The Bible teaches us that God is love.
And that we have the most immense privilege of being able to love Him and be loved by Him.
Understanding that God knows us and love us as we are
To slowly begin to build that relationship with Him, we need to understand that God knows us perfectly.
That he knows even the most insignificant of the details of our existence.
Because he loves us he knows us, and because he knows us he loves us.
He doesn’t love a future version of us where we’re perfect or a previous version of us where we were better.
He loves us now, at this moment, the way we are.
Paraphrasing the words of St. Augustine or those of the flower in the book The Little Prince: “God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”
Getting to know God means falling in love with him
And that infinite personal love and that deep knowledge leads us to ask ourselves: do I know Him?
No matter how hard we try, by our own means, we can never love a stranger.
The reality is that we love someone when we know them, and when we love them, we want to know more and more about that person.
Thus, knowing the Lord and loving Him are two intrinsically linked processes.
To get closer to God you need to know Him as that loving and good father who cares about you and day by day you will feel more loved by Him and love Him more.
Being transformed by the love of God
That knowledge of God fills us with the Holy Spirit and results in love and wisdom to live our lives and make each of our decisions, discerning what is best in harmony with the principles of God’s will.
That inexplicable wisdom, the result of knowing him, fills us with respect and holy fear for his person.
For his dignity, power, and greatness; it helps us to conduct ourselves in purity and righteousness.
That wisdom, righteousness, and purity obtained through the work of the Holy Spirit lead us to bear fruit of righteousness.
But not of self-righteousness, but more importantly, of the imputed righteousness of Christ.
How much we should be interested in not being like the barren fig tree that the Lord cursed for not bearing fruit in his time.
As we live by the strength of the Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit, we will seek to sanctify our minds and our lives step by step in his hands.
We will draw closer and closer to Him.
That allows us to have self-control to lead ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Conclusion
Let us move forward together in faith, caring for one another as the Lord wants us to do.
Firm and unanimous in the same purpose.
Live for his glory!
When you think about being closer to God, think that He loves you, knows you, and accepts you as you are.
And that if you stay close to Him day by day, He will restore you more to His image.
Would you like to be closer to God? What is the circumstance you are going through? Let us know in the comments.
