How to Get Closer to God: 6 Honest, Practical Steps

The distance is real, and you’re not imagining it. Prayers that feel like they hit the ceiling. A Bible that’s been closed for weeks. Church songs you mouth without meaning.

Most people who type “how to get closer to God” into a search bar aren’t rebels. They’re tired, busy, or quietly ashamed of how long it’s been.

So start with the promise underneath everything else: “Come near to God and he will come near to you” (James 4:8). Not earn your way back. Come near — and be met.

Closeness with God isn’t a feeling you wait for. It’s a direction you walk in, one ordinary step at a time. Here are six.

First, name what made the distance

Distance from God usually has a story. It’s worth knowing yours, because the way back depends on it.

Sometimes it’s simple neglect — life got loud, and the habit quietly died. Sometimes it’s unconfessed guilt keeping you away — we tend to steer around anyone we’ve left something unsaid with. Sometimes it’s disappointment: you prayed, and the thing happened anyway.

And sometimes it’s none of these — just a dry season, which even the psalmists knew well: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:2).

Naming the cause isn’t self-criticism. It’s picking the right door back in.

1. Talk to him today, badly

Not eloquently. Not once you’ve fixed things. Today, in the plainest words you have: “God, I feel far from you, and I want that to change.”

That sentence is a fully qualified prayer — and closeness is built out of exactly such sentences, said often. If prayer itself feels like a locked door, our guide on how to pray opens it slowly.

2. Let him speak back — a few verses at a time

Closeness is a two-way conversation, and scripture is where God holds up his end. But don’t assign yourself Leviticus as penance.

Start small: a psalm in the morning, a chapter of John, one Gospel story read slowly. Or follow a plan that walks you through — the Psalms over thirty days, say — so the next step is always laid out. “Draw near” reading beats heroic reading every time. If you’re not sure where to begin, our guides to how to read the Bible and where to start reading the Bible map out those first steps.

3. Confess the thing you’ve been carrying

If guilt built the distance, no habit will out-run it. Say the true thing to God plainly and let him forgive it — that’s his stated policy, not a hope (1 John 1:9).

We’ve written a prayer for forgiveness for exactly this doorway. Many people find the distance closes faster through it than through any other. And if you’re wrestling with whether you’ve earned any of this, our explainer on what grace means in the Bible is worth a slow read.

4. Obey in one small, concrete thing

Jesus tied closeness to obedience gently but clearly: “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love” (John 15:10).

Not everything at once. One thing — the apology you owe, the generosity you’ve postponed, the habit you know by name. Acting on what you already know God wants does more for felt closeness than a month of good intentions.

5. Stop walking alone

“Two are better than one… if either of them falls down, one can help the other up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). Distance thrives in isolation; closeness is mostly caught from other people.

Tell one believing friend where you actually are. Sit in a church service even if your heart lags behind your body. Borrowed faith is a legitimate bridge — the friends in Mark 2 carried the paralyzed man to Jesus long before he walked.

6. Give the day two anchors

Feelings follow rhythm, not the other way around. The oldest pattern in the faith is also the simplest: meet God at the day’s two hinges.

A few minutes of scripture and prayer in the morning; a short devotional or evening prayer at night. Small enough to keep, regular enough to change you. Our Christian morning routine covers the first hinge, and learning to meditate with God deepens the stillness between the words. For the second — the one most people drop — the Still app builds it in: a daily devotional, an evening prayer, and calming scripture, so the last minutes of the day belong to him even when you have nothing left. Download Still on the App Store.

When God still feels silent

Do all six and some days will still feel empty. That’s not failure, and it isn’t evidence he’s gone.

Scripture’s people knew long silences — David, Job, the psalm-writers who asked “How long, LORD?” The felt sense of God comes and goes; his presence doesn’t. “The LORD is near to all who call on him” (Psalm 145:18) stays true on the days you feel nothing.

Keep walking the direction. Feelings are usually the last thing to arrive, not the first.

Frequently asked questions

How can I get closer to God every day? Anchor it to the day’s two hinges: a few minutes of scripture and prayer in the morning, and a short evening prayer or devotional at night. Daily small beats weekly big — closeness compounds like any relationship, through frequency.

What does the Bible say about getting closer to God? The core promise is James 4:8: “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” Jeremiah 29:13 adds the posture — “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” — and John 15 describes the goal: remaining in him, like a branch in a vine.

Why do I feel far from God even though I pray? Often it’s a dry season, not a broken relationship — the Psalms are full of faithful people feeling exactly this. Check the usual suspects (unconfessed guilt, isolation, exhaustion), then keep praying through the flatness. Feelings follow faithfulness at a distance.

Conclusion: come near, and be met

You don’t close the distance to God. You walk toward him, and he — this is the promise — comes running the rest of the way.

Start today, small and badly. One honest sentence tonight is nearer than you were this morning.

A daily devotional can give that nearness a steady rhythm. Browse the best daily devotionals for women and for men, or find a longer companion among the best Christian devotional books.