When You Want to Feel Closer to God But You’re Not Sure How

I received an email from one of my subscribers, and I felt she was echoing what I’ve felt so many times. She’s given me permission to share her struggle with you.

Here’s the crux of my problem. After I gave my life to Christ, I joined a church and began reading the Bible daily. Yet, I never experienced that overwhelming feeling of change that so many others experience. In my quiet times, when I seek to know Him better and wait quietly for answers, I do not get the nudges that others talk about.

I know that some people hit rock bottom and then experience a dramatic life change accompanied by an emotional high. I sometimes wonder if I will have to experience some great trial in order to have the wonderful feelings of a true relationship with Christ.

I try to start each day with quiet time, scripture reading and prayer. I try to have a God-focused day. Is something wrong with me? Do other women feel this emptiness too? Should I be feeling something more? What more should I be doing? I know Christ loves me, but something is missing and I don’t even know what it is. What should I do?

—Stephanie (Not her real name. Used by permission.)

Perhaps you see yourself in those words. Maybe you long to feel closer to God but sense there’s just something lacking, that you’ve missed the mysterious formula to make it happen. Perhaps like most women, you’ve tried desperately to balance the montage of mundane demands and somehow slip God into the white spaces that are few and far between.

I call this a “glory ache” —a persistent longing to experience God’s presence on a daily basis.

We long to spend time in the sacred with God but find the desire crowded out by the responsibilities of the secular—the daily demands—that lay claim to our attention. We yearn to experience God’s presence but feel far away from Him as we reach to click off the bedside lamp and collapse exhausted once again. Maybe tomorrow, we sigh.

The travesty is that we allow the busyness of life to crowd out the Source of life. As the Psalmist wrote, “We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing” (Psalm 39:6).

And most of us are quick to think ‘something more’ means ‘doing more.’ We ramp it up and gun the engines—sign up for a new committee, volunteer for a new cause, bake one more casserole to feed the sick. We attempt to silence the hunger pains of the heart by feeding it the bread and water of duty. And at the end of the day, while we might feel a self-induced sense of well-being, the hollowness in our soul that can only be satisfied with God echoes with the grumblings of hunger still.

We long for a sense of closeness with God, but we have a hard time putting our finger on exactly what that closeness would look like. It’s just something more. Something different. And we are quite right. We are craving the closeness that comes with an intimate relationship with Jesus.

In Acts 17:28 Paul wrote: “For in him we live and move and have our being” (NIV). That means every moment all the time. He also wrote: “Pray continually” (I Thessalonians 5:17 NIV). That means every moment all the time. But how in the world do we do that with everything else we have to do?

Here’s the key. Erase the line that separates the sacred from the secular so that ALL of life becomes an act of worship. Paul also wrote: “Whether then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31 NASB). That means:

Vacuuming to the glory of God

Reading my Bible to the glory of God.

Cooking dinner to the glory of God.

Shopping for groceries to the glory of God.

Singing praises to the glory of God.

All things…to the glory of God.

Closeness to God means including Him in every activity! It’s not an activity for your to-do-list to be checked off, but an attitude for you to-be-list to be wrapped in.

Closeness to God isn’t about what He wants from us, but what He wants for us…as us live and move and have our being in Him.

As we move into 2026, let’s erase the line that separates the secular mundane activities from the sacred majestic relationship with Jesus so that all of life becomes sweet communion with God.

Dear Lord, soothe my glory ache with Your presence. Help me stay in constant communion and union with You no matter what else I have going on today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

If you’re willing to take me up on the challenge to erase the line that separates the secular mundane activities from the sacred majestic relationship with Jesus, then leave a comment that says, “I’m all in!”

Digging Deeper

Friend, this is a message that changed my life. I discovered that closeness to God wasn’t accomplished by doing more for Him but being more in touch with Him throughout the day.

Do you long to feel close to God but sense there’s something missing? That you’ve missed that mysterious formula to make it happen? Do you have a glory ache – a persistent longing to experience God’s presence and working in your life, but not quite sure how to make it happen? If so, my book, A Sudden Glory: God’s Lavish Response to Your Ache for Something More, is just for you. Join me and discover how to erase the lines between the secular and the sacred and experience a deeper more intimate relationship with God than ever before.

This book includes a study guide in the back!