This is a good question. You are lucky because you came to the right place. I can answer your question, but not everyone will see what I am saying.
I have some lectures and the most beautiful little meditation you will ever find that can assist you. But like I said, you have to see for yourself. So if you are ready - fasten your seat belt, and here goes.
First of all, why do we have trouble getting close to God?
Most of us have been educated to look in the wrong place. We are taught to look for God in a building or in a book. God is not in a book or a building. You find Him within.
You cannot study your way to God. The only thing that studying religion is likely to do is make you prideful or get your all caught up intellectually with words. The very Bible you read admonishes that "The letter killeth but the spirit giveth life." (2 Cor. 3:6)
God lives in the eternal present. This morning I was listening to Golf Talk on the radio. Bob Toske was being interviewed. Bob Toske was a successful professional golfer who became one of golf's most respected coaches. He was asked about how not to have the rest of your game affected when you hit a bad ball. He said something very interesting. He said "You have to play golf in the present tense. Not the past tense or the future tense. The present tense."
You find God and realize His Presence in the present, not the past or the future.
Now perhaps you can see what our biggest problem is - we spend much of our time lost between our ears - reliving the past and worrying about the future. We mull over what someone said to us yesterday, we relive and resent some unpleasant interaction. Then we pre-plan what we are going to do or say next time. We get so lost in thinking that we drive right past our exit on the freeway.
When we are not planning and scheming (which always backfire), then we are indulging in daydreams of glory or shameful thoughts of revenge. Soon all of our ego building makes us uneasy, anxious or just plain guilty!
So we escape into texting, surfing the Internet, listening to music, or more study. And when those are not strong enough to drive away conscience, we turn to marijuana, alcohol, pills or other licit or illicit pleasures.
But the more we indulge ourselves, the guiltier we become. And this leads to another round of pleasure and distraction to escape.
Stay with me, if you can, because we are getting close to answering the question "how to get closer to God." There's a story about a man who was lost for hours in the forest. Finally he encountered another man and said "good, you can show me the way out." The other man said "But I'm lost too." No problem, said the first man. We can show each other the ways that don't work, and perhaps that way we can find the way that does."
If I can show you the places were you won't find God and what you are doing that leads away from Him - perhaps you will see what does work. By not going the wrong way, you will be in the right place. So let me continue.
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