Jerry MacGregor - 40 Ways to Get Closer to God

2011 by Jerry MacGregor

Written with Keri Wyatt Kent

Published by Bethany House Publishers

11400 Hampshire Avenue South

Bloomington, Minnesota 55438

www.bethanyhouse.com

Bethany House Publishers is a division of

Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan

www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

Ebook edition created 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-1-4412-3388-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

Scripture quotations identified NASB are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

Scripture quotations identified nlt are from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations identified NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations identified KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

The internet addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers in this book are accurate at the time of publication. They are provided as a resource. Baker Publishing Group does not endorse them or vouch for their content or permanence.

Cover design by Jeff Miller/Faceout Studio

Author is represented by MacGregor Literary.

This book is for Colin, Holly, and Maelie
may you grow close to God as you see Him
at work in your life together.

Would you like to move closer to God? If so, lets get one thing straight right off the batIm no shining example. I didnt write this book because I am perfect or have it all figured out. I dont glow in the dark. I wrote it because, well, Im a wreck. I want to be a better Christian. I want to feel really close to God, but I cant seem to ever quite get there. I sin, ask forgiveness, and sin again. I dont have all the answers, and I dont want you to think, This guy wrote a book because he really has it all together. I dont.

But Im fifty-two while writing this sentence, and looking back over the past forty years, I realize Ive come a ways in my walk with God. I used to be farther away, and now Im closer. Most of that is because of books and people books that have shared good ideas with me for how I could move forward in my spiritual walk, and people who have helped me actually put those ideas into practice. So I wrote this book as a God challenge. In other words, I thought I could create something that would challenge you, ask you to try some ideas and to do some work, with the end result being that youll have moved a bit further down the path in your spiritual walk.

In this book youll find a bunch of spiritual practices Ive tried and used and found to be effective. Theres nothing phony in herenone of that dopey, made-up-for-a-book, try-this-even-though-I-never-have sort of thing. Everything here is practical and real. In fact, if you ran into me somewhere and we started talking about how to grow close to God, these are the very ideas Id share with you from my own experience.

And listen: Theres no shortcut. Just reading this book wont make you more spiritual, in the same way that watching Peyton Manning on TV wont make you a great quarterback. It takes work to get better at anything. Nobody buys a guitar one day and starts selling concert tickets the next. You dont pick up a set of golf clubs on Wednesday and expect to win the tournament on Saturday. If youre serious about it, you do some work. You try it out. You practice. You start with the basics, learn them, and then keep practicing until you get better. In time, you notice improvementwhether its golf or music or cooking or growing up in Jesus. Real spiritual growth takes time and effort.

So this book is a place to start. You read it, try it out, and see what happens. Maybe you talk about the ideas with a couple of friends, and you decide to try these ideas together.

Or maybe you take a solitary approach and decide to write your thoughts down so theyre on paper and available for later reflection. Journaling is a great way to dig into those thoughts. Use the writing spaces provided and explore what youre thinking and feeling. Writing down our concerns and struggles validates their place in our lives. Theres no hiding when we write our thoughts down.

Dont expect miracles here, cause Im fresh out. What I can promise you is this: Disciplines are the ONLY strategy I know for growing your Christian life. I figure youve purchased this book because those other methods you tried (going to Sunday school, tithing, praying before meals, watching televangelists) were nice but didnt really help you go deep with God.

Those practices arent bad, of course. They just dont go far enough. So instead, Im offering you a realistic plan to get closer to God. Try this book for forty days. Do the exercises, and see if youre not further down the path when youre done. At the end, you should have some fundamental skills for moving forward, for growing deeper, for drawing closer to God.

If you too are a wreck, my prayer for you is that youll discover you have much greater spiritual depth than you thought when you began this book. I wish you all the best as you start walking the path.

J ERRY M AC G REGOR
N EHALEM , O REGON

D AY O NE

J OHN O RTBERG

If you ask most people to tell you about a time when they felt truly fulfilled, odds are they will not tell you a story about a time when they focused on their own needs and wants. Rather, they will likely recall an incident where they set their own agenda aside and helped someone else. Maybe they tutored an inner-city kid or went on a mission trip or served Christmas dinner at a soup kitchen. Perhaps they performed some simple act of service for their own family, or assisted a neighbor or close friend. The practice of serving others actually brings us joy, if we undertake it with the right attitude.

Despite the fact that serving others often brings us fulfillment, many people dont do it. We have great intentions, but were so busy. And besides, how do you know which needs, of the many around you, to address?

I think many of us spend more energy than we realize keeping ourselves isolated from the needs of others. We may not be aware that right in our backyard (as Mother Teresa would say), there is a Calcutta. Our neighbors may not be starving or have leprosy, but they can be suffering or hurting in some way, and its possible we could do something simple to show love to them.