How To Grow Closer To God In 2026 (The Answer May Surprise You)
Published on December 16, 2025
Do you want to grow closer to the Lord in 2026? A lot of us feel that way.
This year, Christianity saw an unprecedented revival, with many seeking the Lord in droves and selling out Bibles nationwide.
Yet for some of us, the public flourishing of the faith has felt distant, because behind closed doors the year was one of spiritual warfare, plagued by constant distraction, unrelenting noise, and a pace of life that made closeness with God feel harder, not easier
Disciplines that once worked failed to feed us spiritually. Practices that brought us peace fell flat, and even prayer times seem to be stifled: blocked by an invisible barrier only seen by heaven. Leaving us floundering in a sea of busyness without respite.
For a Christ follower, drifting away from Him is never neutral. Distance leaves us vulnerable, pulled back toward old patterns and slowly disconnected from the purpose and peace found only in Him.
As this year comes to a close, it’s time to refocus on our true north. To quiet the noise, resist the pull of the world, and create space to hear God more clearly as we step into the new year.
The Reality of Our Lives
It wouldn’t serve us to build a roadmap to get us closer to Christ without first acknowledging the reality of life as we know it. Spiritual how-tos often neglect to take into account that the world doesn’t stop just because we need to be spiritually fed. And that tension between daily responsibility and spiritual desire is often where the quiet drift from God begins.
And that is the crux of it all, isn’t it? At any given moment, there are countless demands pulling at us. Family responsibilities, ministry commitments, and work expectations all compete for our time and energy. Even blessings can leave us physically exhausted, emotionally spent, and spiritually depleted, with very little left to offer the Lord.
Not only are we overextended, but we are overwhelmed by the pace of life, and if we are completely honest, we have been pouring out from an empty cup for far too long because we don’t ever stop long enough to tap into what God is saying or doing. And when we lose that attentiveness to Him, everything else in our lives becomes heavier, harder, and more disordered.
What does being closer to the Lord mean?
Let’s be careful here not to confuse routines with relationships. Routines can be helpful, even necessary, but they are not the same as intimacy. Left unchecked, they can quietly replace desire with discipline and presence with performance. Salvation has to come through us by grace, not works (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Recently, the Lord confronted me with the fact that I had been studying my Bible as a means of checking it off on a mental checklist. Not because I wanted to hear from Him, not because I was seeking His face no, because it was something that I did every day out of habit. Ouch.
At that moment, I was faced with a question: What does it mean to be close to God?
For me, it meant: sitting in His presence, being still long enough to hear Him, and being okay if the only thing that got done that day was spending time with Him.
For a person who strives to accomplish things and feels uncomfortable with stillness and rest, these three things put me outside of my comfort zone. Yet that surrender made a way for an intimacy with Him based on attentiveness to His presence, rather than a stale routine.
What is pulling us away from the Lord?
I can’t answer this question for you, but I can lead you to a good starting point.
Start with confession. Confession is a gift from the Lord, and an underutilized tool. Start this search, bringing all your doubts and fears to the Lord. Where you don’t trust Him. Where you don’t want Him, and where you’d rather be. Lay out all your cards before the Lord.
Invite the Holy Spirit in. He is our helper and here specifically to aid you in navigating a life of faith. Ask Him to show specifically what is keeping you from getting closer to the Lord and to instill in you a distaste for those things: ask for it even if you don’t feel it.
The Bible tells us in 1 John 5:14 that anything we ask according to His will, He will hear. What better request can you ask the Lord than to remove the obstacles that keep you from Him?!
How to grow closer to the Lord when the world doesn’t stop?
Oftentimes, it can be easy to think that we must seize all activity to be with the Lord. In today’s world, that is an unreasonable expectation. What’s a more realistic goal? To lessen the noise of the world, so that the times that we do make for the Lord resonate and deepen our relationship with Him. This is what I have found most helpful:
Sit in silence with the Lord. This is so hard. Invite the Holy Spirit into a moment of silence, and just sit in the Lord’s presence. Don’t ask, don’t plead, don’t think, just sit. There is something very powerful about dwelling in the presence of the Almighty and being content with that.
- Take a digital detox. I have taken a social media Sabbath for myself this month, and it has been amazing. While I currently have to do social media for my work here at Holy Culture, I have stopped creating content for myself, and it has given me immense relief. I have been able to be more present in all aspects of my life, including my time with the Lord
- Embrace a new perspective: Small doesn’t mean insignificant. Sometimes we think that going closer to God requires grand gestures from us. But we often see growth in small obediences we have left to fall to the wayside, or in the consistency we have not been faithful to grow. Small in a busy world is also holy.
Closeness Is Not Dramatic
As we step into 2026, growing closer to the Lord doesn’t have to feel overwhelming or out of reach. It doesn’t require perfect discipline, uninterrupted quiet, or a complete overhaul of our lives. What it does require is intention—a willingness to notice what has been pulling at our hearts and a desire to make room for God again, even in small ways.
Closeness with Christ is not built in dramatic moments, but in quiet faithfulness. In choosing stillness when everything urges us to rush. In listening, when we’re tempted to fill the silence. In obeying God in the ordinary places we’ve learned to overlook. The Lord is not distant, nor is He unaware of the weight we carry. He meets us where we are, in the middle of our lives, inviting us back to Him.
May this new year be marked not by striving, but by nearness—and by a renewed awareness that God has been present all along.
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