Reading your Bible, you're walking out your life as a Christian and you still do not feel close to God, I'm going to tell you why that is the case for you.

So in learning how to get closer to God, I have been in the book of Romans this past month and it has been so influential to my walk with Christ. And I'm going to tell you how to get closer to God. First, you have to understand the Bible values relationship over sacrifice. That's why the Bible says obedience over sacrifice. To obey someone is a type of relationship that you have to have with someone to think that what they're saying is worth listening to. So the Bible talks about how you are saved by your faith, you're not saved by your works, correct? And I start to think of how many things that Christians do thinking that they're getting closer to Christ. That is why we see a lot of performative Christians. Performative means you're acting as if you are close to Christ, but you are not actually close to them at heart. Who is another perfect example of this? The Pharisees. The Pharisees did so much work. They didn't do the staying work on the Sabbath, they didn't heal on the Sabbath day. But when Jesus comes into the scene, he's healing on the Sabbath day. He's doing things that were contrary to what the Jews were the Pharisees were preaching at the time. So why were they not deemed righteous or Christian enough in the sights of God? It's because they believed that their works saved them. That is what Romans is basically telling us about. And I thought to myself, why does he value faith over works? Because you can do something without being close and intimate with someone. Let me explain what I mean. If you go to a job you don't like, right? You're not going to that job because you know, you don't like it. You're going to well you're not going to that job because you love it so much. You're going because you want to get the reaping of it. You want what you get out of your work, correct? So you get money, you get compensated, pay days off, time off. That's why you go. You might not like the job and some people they love their job. That's good. This is my scenario that I'm using. You can work without having a relationship with someone. To have faith, you have to have a relationship with someone. You need to believe beyond reasonable the reasonable doubt that what they are telling you is so profound that you want to have your undeniable faith. That's why God would rather have your faith than have your works. That's why we see performative Christians. Performative Christians are acting as if they are with Jesus, they're acting as if they're Christians and living out their life. They're telling you all the things that they're doing, but they're not talking about the relationship. How do you get that relationship? Prayer. You cannot pray and also be far from God at the same time. Just the same way you cannot be texting someone that you love all the time and still not be close to them unless your heart posture is completely pushed away. But I can make a whole separate video on that. But consistent prayer, your prayer life is so key to your relationship. That's why the Bible says that out of your faith, your works come. And he also says that in um Romans chapter 3 verse 20 says, therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law, rather through the law we become conscious of our sin. It's because of the law you become conscious of what you're doing. It's because of a relationship with God that you become conscious of your sins and you start working towards different goals. Because of your faith, your works come with them. Because you love your parents, you adhere to the rules of the house. It's not that you adhere to the rules of the house and then you love them later. It has it comes in a sequence, it comes to a pattern. How can I prove this another way? We see Jesus, he's healing people, he's ministering to people, but he takes 40 days and 40 nights to go pray in deep prayer. And he goes to a land we don't even know and he prays for 40 days and 40 nights talking to his father. Whatever challenges he was talking about, who knows what it was. Prayer is so important to maintain a relationship. Jesus exemplified that so profoundly. Even up to the hours before his death, he was praying on that cross. He was praying, he was communicating with your father. You cannot have a relationship without communication, correct? We understand this from a human to human principle. So what makes you think that you can do the same with Jesus? What makes you think that that think that you can do the same with God? You need to get into your prayer life more. Pray. Even if you feel like you don't hear anything, you are still praying to a God who hears you. Even if you feel like he doesn't, he hears you.