My focus is on the first part: “Draw near to God.” Drawing near to God is not something imaginary. It is actually about an action you take. How do I draw near to God? Simply put, you are drawing near to God in the place of prayer. You are moving your heart away from the things around you and directing it to God.

And Jesus Christ has taught us. He said, “When you pray, say: ‘Our Father in heaven…’” (Luke 11:2, NET). You cannot see God, but wherever you are, in that moment, in that split second, you are relocated instantaneously to the presence of God.

Philip was translated from where he was and suddenly found himself with the Ethiopian eunuch (see Acts 8:39–40). That is what I am talking about. Once you make that move to pray, you are right there in God's presence. When someone says, “It is as if my prayer is hitting the ceiling,” it shows a lack of understanding of what prayer is about. You are looking at how you are feeling: “How am I feeling?” There is a feeling you are seeking, and your feeling can be based on different things happening at different times.

Drawing near to God—praying—is not about how you are feeling; it is about what you are doing. And Jesus Christ said, “When you pray, say.” He did not say, “When you pray, feel.” He did not say, “When you pray, bring a candle and light a candle,” as if the candle is your means of getting to God. He did not say, “When you pray, bring oil and pour it around you,” as if the oil is your means of drawing near to God.

Those things are insults to God, who gave his one and only Son so that the way to the throne could be free through Jesus Christ. When we believe in him, we can draw near to God through him (see Hebrews 10:19–22). That is the faith we are talking about: you do not see anything. Somebody will say, “Pray with this handkerchief.” That is an insult to the Spirit of grace. It is an insult to the kind of effort God expressed to send his Son, for his Son to die on the cross, to shed his blood, to carry the cross on the streets of Jerusalem, to hang between two thieves, to have a crown of thorns put on his head, to have nails in his hands, to be spat on and struck on the face, to have blood dripping from him.

It is an insult for you now to say, “Let me bring a candle. Let me bring water. Let me bring oil.” It is an insult. “Draw near to God.” Once we make it complicated, we are in trouble. We are already departing from the faith and doing something else. Again, Jesus Christ said, “When you pray, say…” That is it. It is in your mouth. Say. One minute saying, two minutes saying. “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven…’” Say. Just say it. Direct your heart to God. Direct your prayer to God, and instantaneously, you are in the presence of God. It does not matter where you are on the face of the earth.

And the person who made that possible—say that name: Jesus. That is the person who made it possible. And you also have the Spirit of God in you. Paul wrote that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him (Romans 8:9), and that we have received the Spirit “by whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15).

So, draw near to God. That drawing near to God, that shifting, that moving away from whatever is going on around you—however you want to do it—I would strongly suggest that you do it regularly. And that “regularly,” my suggestion would be: daily.

God bless you.