How to Actually Go Deeper With God This Year

Welcome to season two of the Going Deeper podcast! Fittingly, today, we will talk about how to 'go deeper' with God in 2025. Essentially, we're going to answer the question of how we actually grow spiritually and do so in a way that contrasts the ways of culture and the world.

After taking some time off, I feel recharged and ready to tackle the topic of moving beyond a superficial Sunday morning faith. In a world where it’s easy to be a lukewarm Christian, I know many of us want more. I’ll be sharing my journey of surrendering fully to God and letting go of half-hearted beliefs. 

Going deeper isn’t about doing more; it’s about our closeness and conformity to Christ. The closer we get to Him, the more we become like Him. 

Follow me on Instagram: @justinecheri
Join my email list: https://justinecheri.ck.page/3837c183df

Today's Recommendations
Books - Deeper by Dane Ortlund and Domestic Monastery by Ronald Rolheiser
Podcast - Back Porch Theology with Lisa Harper
Episodes I enjoyed with Kristi McClelland:
Unlearning Inherited But Unbiblical Theology
What God Says About Women
How Jesus Amens What God Says About Women
Song - Deep Dive by SEU Worship

Access the show notes here: 

Download the Go Deeper Guide:
https://justinecheri.ck.page/goingdeeperresourceguide 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

There is this divine dance between God's coming to us and our coming to God. He will always come to and He will always show up. But He gives us the freedom to do the same. We get to decide how close we are to Him. Welcome to Going Deeper. This podcast challenges the cultural status quo and societal norms keeping us from a deep life of faith. Discussing topics all across the spiritual secular spectrum from social media and consumerism to fasting and scripture memory. Come burdened by the constant stimulation and have it all mentality of modern culture. Leave refreshed and encouraged to go deeper in your relationship with God. Welcome back to Going Deeper. I'm so excited for season two and I'm very glad that I decided to establish this podcast as a seasonal podcast because it is amazing how much can change in a couple of months, how much God can teach you in a couple of months. And I feel so refreshed and ready to be here, especially comparing how I felt at 36 weeks pregnant. I was, I was tired. You guys, I was just exhausted. My body was done and I was having to edit episodes. I was having to edit all of my breathing out of episodes and I'm super grateful that I'm not going to have to do that, but a little life update here. I'm Definitely not pregnant anymore. I am three months postpartum. So my third baby and second daughter Tatum was born on October 7th and boy, the labor was wild. I got to have the natural delivery that I wanted, though it was not at all as I planned. That's a whole story that we're not going to go into today, but she's doing well. I am doing well. just trying to navigate the adjustment from two to three kids. And I tell you what, I thought I had no time with two and now I really have no time with three, which is why we're up late recording this episode, but that is okay. because we're here and we're doing it. And I'm just so excited to be back behind the mic in hopes to just encourage you guys with what the Lord's put on my heart and hopefully get you fired up and your heart and your spirit stirred up for the new year. I have sat down and created the outline for season two, and I'm pretty pumped about the topics we're going to be covering. We're going to talk about mental health, church, stewarding our homes, self-care, The list goes on. Lots of good stuff coming to you guys. So make sure that you subscribe, that you follow along. And if you would, word of mouth, and I'm a marketing nerd. For those that don't know me, I have a degree in marketing. My background is in marketing. And so if you're in marketing, you know that the most powerful marketing tool is word of mouth. No ad, no nothing could compete with word of mouth advertising. So tell people about this podcast. If you love it, share it with a friend, copy the link, post it to your social medias, all of the things for, um, Just because you love me, right? Because you love this podcast and you love listening. So that would mean the world to me. So before we dive in, we are going to keep this, uh, trend going of recommendations prior to every episode, because I'm always listening to something. I'm always reading something and I've always got something to recommend to you guys. So here are today's recommendations. First and foremost, I'm going to double down on the recommendation by Whitney Lowe from a few episodes back, domestic monastery It's a quick read. It packs a punch, but it is so good. I even have a quote from the book on my screensaver because I thought it was so impactful and inspiring. So let me share that with you. The quote goes, there's a rich spirituality in these principles. Stay inside your commitments. Be faithful. Your place of work is a seminary. Your work is a sacrament. Your family is a monastery. Your home is a sanctuary. Stay inside them. Don't betray them. Learn what they are teaching you without constantly looking for life elsewhere and without constantly believing that God is elsewhere. Come on. That's so good. So good. So highly recommend that book. And I'm Back Porch Theology is a podcast. I've listened to two or three episodes and I'm definitely hooked on Lisa Harper. How have I not listened to her as I just don't know, but great podcast. I'll make sure to link the two episodes that I listened to and really enjoyed down below. And then a song. So S-E-U Worship has a song called Deep Dive and it's my jam. It was my jam probably at the But I listened to it again today, and it just really reminded me of my heart for this podcast and my heart for just believers in general to not have a surface relationship. So, and this is kind of going to pull us into today's topic, today's episode of how do we go about going deeper, pun intended, in 2025? What does that look like? How do we do that? And I just want to really hope to encourage you and inspire you and stir your spirit up. And yeah, just give you some good food for thought. That song that I shared with you guys, part of the... the lyrics to go, I don't want a service relationship. I want more than this. Take me on a deep dive into your heart. Show me every detail and unveil all that you are. So that is just going to catapult us into today's topic. And really the reason that I wanted to talk about this at the new year is kind of twofold. So one, we live in a society where being a Christian is really common. Going to church is very normal and putting Jesus follower in your Instagram bio is praiseworthy. And where there is no Christian persecution, there tends to be greater apathy, greater chance for having a lukewarm faith, greater chance of having a shallow faith, a surface relationship with Jesus, just because there's no There's no drive to do that because it's just so commonplace. And I don't want you listening. I don't want anybody for that matter, but I, because I know what it's like, I don't want anybody to be content with just a Sunday morning faith. And so there's that aspect of why I wanted to talk about this, but, but secondly, it's a new year. And with the new year, we have goals. We have, um, resolutions. We have a desire to change. A lot of us do with turning over a new leaf and feeling just the inspiration that comes with a new year, a new chapter, turning the page on your life, the season that you're in and There is something genuinely refreshing about a new year. And, you know, I think you could poo-poo on it all day long and just be like, oh yeah, it's just another day, but nobody likes a cynic, right? Nobody likes a cynic. We want to be people who are like open to any sort of opportunity for positive change, right? Like why not? And I think that If we have that perspective going into the new year, it can be actually helpful in our relationship with the Lord and actually helpful in us going deeper in our faith because we can say, okay, the past is the past. 2024 happened, whatever that looked like for you. And this is a new year, a new opportunity to lean in and not settle for a shallow faith. So that's kind of the heart behind why I wanted to talk about this. As the first episode for season two. So I wanted to share just a brief part of my story. And I know I've talked about this in a previous episode, but just sort of like a reminder. And it's going to connect. We're going to connect the dots here. But part of my story is that I went to college. I went to a Christian college. And I fell away from the faith very much intentionally my sophomore slash junior year. And I remember vividly my reasoning was sort of, I was trying my best, like I was doing a lot of striving and a lot of straining in my flesh to sort of produce some sort of like growth. It was almost as if I was trying to modify my own behavior to fit the mold of Christianity or fit the mold of what I thought was somebody who was mature in the faith, but not realizing that maturing in the faith has nothing really to do with behavior modification, or it's not... It's not about that necessarily. It's going to happen. Behavior modification is going to be a result of deepening your faith and your love for the Lord. But it's not going to lead to... Yeah, you guys know what I'm saying. But because I misunderstood that, because I was so focused on my actions and my behavior and habits and disciplines, and it was so much of a focus on myself and trying to produce rather than... what I'm going to talk about in today's episode, rather than looking to Jesus and just really coming to Jesus with everything that I have, but also nothing that I have, if that makes sense. And emptying myself before him and just saying, man, I suck at doing this whole Christian thing. I need your help. Instead of coming to him with that posture, it was always this posture of, I'm going to do my best for you, God. I'm going to try and try and try and try and try. And then when I failed... I was so tired of failing, and I felt like I failed all the time, that that discouragement and that failure was what distanced me from God. And it's very much the same if you look in Genesis, the beginning, 1 through 3, where Adam and Eve, they sin, right? They disobey God because they eat the fruit that they're not supposed to eat. And what do they do? They hide. They run from God. And God says... Where are you? And so the first thing that we do when we sin, when we fail, when we struggle, when we mess up is we hide because sin distances us from God. It separates us from God. And that is how I felt all the time because I was struggling so much with my sin, but I was looking at my sin instead of looking to Jesus, the one who saves me from it. Um, And so anyways, the point is, is that I fell away. I distanced myself from God because I was so tired of failing and struggling and my shortcomings and my sin. It just overwhelmed me. And I became so discouraged by it that I walked away. And I wasn't walking away forever. I wasn't walking away because I didn't believe. I was walking away because I was so discouraged. And what I realized... part of my story, what I realized is there is no room for discouragement in the gospel of grace. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and his mercies are new every single morning. And he sits there with arms wide open for those of us who are failures and sinners and who fall short all the time. Like that's what his grace is for. That's the gospel. That's the good news is that We're going to fail and we're going to suck at being a Christian and we're going to be messy and all the things, but he's there and he wants to sit with us and he wants to help us and he wants to mature us and he wants to help us be conformed into his image and his likeness. And so it wasn't until I fully surrendered myself to the Lord and I said, okay, I'm done. I can't measure up. I am not good enough. And so I give it all up. And I kind of did like, what do they say nowadays? Like a full send. It was one of those things where, and there's a lot of, there's another aspect to that story, but, but the point being is I surrendered and I said, you can have it all God, you can have me, you can have it all. And so this episode, how to go deeper in 2025. And again, And recognizing that we live in a society where being apathetic in your faith or having a lukewarm faith or being shallow in your faith is a lot more common than, well, it's just common, and we know that. If you are somebody who resonates with my story, and if you are somebody who thinks to yourself, man, I no longer want to be content to have a shallow faith or a lukewarm faith, and I want to go deeper, I want to take a deep dive into the truth of the gospel. really and truly get to know Jesus and really and truly surrender it all to Him, you're in the right place. And I hope to encourage you in today's episode because everywhere we look, with it being the new year and just our culture, there's always some new tip or trick or pathway to health and wealth and productivity and growth and success and happiness. And it's never ending. It is. And it is exhausting to keep up with it, especially the influencer culture nowadays. It's like, there's always a, a online course or a weight loss program, or, you know, there's something out there to do. And I don't think I mentioned this. This was supposed to be a recommendation at the I've really enjoyed reading this past year. That partly was what helped inspire this podcast was Dane Ortlund's book, Deeper. And his premise in the book was that sanctification is not about doing more or being better. It's about going deeper into the wondrous truths of the gospel, the truths that helped save us when we were first baptized and first saved. So yes, I think that the culture nowadays is all about do more, be better. And especially living in a highly individualistic society and a self-focused society, on the one hand, there's the negatives of that. There's the negatives of all these self-hyphenated messages out there because it causes us to be very selfish and self-focused. But then there's these other ones that we try to pull away as maybe more positive, like body positivity and self-care. And we'll have a whole episode on all of that. And it's not that you can't look at yourself, but what I have found in my own experience, and if you look at scripture, is that the more and more and more we look at our ourselves, we're going to find that that causes a lot of issues. It's either one going to cause selfishness and just a love of ourself that doesn't produce any sort of outward others focused desires. But also if we look too much to ourselves, we're going to eventually become frustrated and discouraged because we tend to suck at doing this thing called life and Yeah, walking with Jesus, if we're relying on ourselves, is just a path of failure upon failure. And I know that from experience. And so we have to look to Christ. We have to look to Christ in a culture that is telling us to do more and be better and look at yourself and work on yourself and improve yourself and all of the things. I think that's why Jesus says, come to me all who are weary and burdened and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The ways of the world are weary and burdensome. Our sin struggles and our self... Our inflicted struggles and frustrations are weary and burdensome, but Jesus, his yoke is easy and his burden is light and he gives us rest for our souls. And you don't really realize that until you surrender and you kind of go full send on this whole, Jesus, I'm seeking you. Jesus, I'm looking to you. Jesus, I'm fixing my gaze upon you. I don't know how to do that, but I'm going to continue to do that. And I'm going to show up stubbornly to do that. And we are going to go in briefly to some practicalities here, but I just want to encourage you that going deeper with God requires a heart that is sold out for Him, not a soul that feels obligated to show up for Him because of some inherited religiosity. It's us making a personal decision to say, I'm done with having a half-hearted faith. I want all of you and I... I'm surrendering myself. And so, like we've said over and over and over again, going deeper, sanctification, spiritual growth is not about doing more or being better. And Dane Ortlund talks about this in his book. And I love that he says, going deeper into the wondrous gospel truths that washed over us when we were first united to him. We like to think that I don't think that there's any direct person out there saying this, but I almost wonder if it is just this widespread understanding or misconception that once we get dunked and we're baptized and we're saved, that we just move on from this whole gospel salvation story, right? And that's just not true. We never move on from the gospel. The gospel is the means by which we are going to experience the ultimate transformation in our life. The gospel saves, but it also sanctifies. And so let's talk about this idea of sanctification and spiritual growth, because it really is a simple thing. It's not easy, but it is extremely simple. It is us growing in two things, our closeness to Christ and our conformity to Christ. So we want to be near him and And we want to be like him. And you're going to find that these two things are connected. The closer that you are to Jesus, the more conformed you'll be to his image. And that's the secret here. Closeness and conformity are connected. And Christy McClellan talks about this a lot. She is a Bible teacher that... teaches a lot from a Jewish cultural context. And she gives you a background that is very much the way Jesus would have understood how his life was in Jewish culture back then. And I love that because it really does bring to life so many of the biblical stories. And one thing that she says, and I I believe this is a Jewish phrase. We want to become covered in the dust of our rabbi because we've stayed so close to the sandals of his feet that the dust he kicks behind him gets all over us. So you could click off this episode right now if you remember this one thing. Stop looking at the world. Stop looking at yourself and start following Jesus. Look and follow Jesus. Be so close to Jesus that you become covered in the dust from his sandals. Closeness is going to result in conformity into his image and his likeness. 2 Peter 1.3 says, So what is it that we've been given? Christ, his grace, his church, his word, it's all there in the story of scripture. When you open up God's word, everything we need for life and godliness, it's all there because Jesus is the word made flesh and he's revealed himself in scripture from Genesis to Revelation. And so we want to, as second Peter says, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. So this is where we're going to get to some of the practical things. the concrete ways that we can go deeper this year, ways that we can grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. First, you don't need a clean slate or a clean past or a clean anything to grow spiritually this year. Come dirty, come broken, come messy, come battered, come bruised. Hear me here because this is something I get really fired up about. Do not wait until you feel cleaned up enough to come to God. Just show up. He will meet you there. And when you show up, you will not be the one doing the cleansing. Jesus purifies and he cleanses and he washes us white as snow. But secondly, don't allow your sin, your failures, your mess-ups, your misstreaks, your bad days, or anything else keep you from coming back to to God. Because it's one thing to show up one time, two times, three times, two weeks. What do they say? There's like a date. Is it like January 11th or 17th or something where it's like the day known for quitting your New Year's resolutions? It's one thing to show up once, twice, three times, but to keep coming back to God when you feel like giving up, that is so important because discouragement is one of Satan's favorite tactics to keep you at a distance from God because it points the finger at you. Discouragement and shame gets you looking at yourself. Like I've been saying this whole time, it gets you looking at all of your shortcomings and all the ways that you've done wrong instead of having you look to Jesus and all the ways he's done right. If you're one like me to get discouraged, if you find yourself getting frustrated, or maybe you're a perfectionist like me, you can actually use this to your advantage. And this is what I mean. Satan wants to use our discouragement to keep us distant from God. But if we have done a deep dive into the gospel, if we have a holistic understanding of the gospel of grace, we will be able to look at ourselves with a healthy dose of disdain, and allow all of those feelings to point us to the one who is perfect, Jesus. So either your sin and shortcomings are going to discourage you away from God and distance you from him, or they're going to cause you to run to him because you know that he's the one who's going to give you you need. He's the one who's going to help you. He's the one that's going to be with you and to encourage you and to wash you white as snow and to clean you up and to grow you and to mature you and to love you, you know? So in order to stay close to Jesus so that we can be conformed into his image, we almost have to just get over ourselves. And I mean that in the best way possible. We have to get out of our own way and assume the role of an empty vessel. A broken jar of clay and humbly continue to show up at his feet. His grace is endless. Our pastor says it all the time. Endless second chances. That's the good news of the gospel. Here's the thing. There is this divine dance between God's coming to us and our coming to God. He will always come to and he will always show up. but he gives us the freedom to do the same. We get to decide how close we are to him. We get to decide whether we run or hide or whether we stay connected to the vine. So thirdly, this is the encouragement, stay connected to the vine. Okay. There's somewhere in scripture, it says, Apollos planted, I watered, but God gave the growth. We don't do the growing. We, in going deeper in your relationship with God and growing spiritually and sanctification, we're not the one doing the growing. Even though our individualistic self-focused culture likes to put all the emphasis on us, we're not the heroes of the story. And we're not the ones who are going to bring about any sort of positive change. John 15, 5 says, you can do nothing apart from Christ. Nothing good happens apart from Christ. Nothing happens apart from Christ. And what I love so much about John 15.5 and just the whole abide in the vine message is that all a branch has to do, like physically, literally speaking, all a branch has to do in order to produce fruit is remain connected to the source, the vine. And the vine is the one that will do all the work. The vine is the one that's going to bring about the fruit. All the branch has to do is stay connected. So it's like, You have literally one job as a Christian. We like to think that as a Christian, we have all these things that we have to do, when in reality, we have one thing. It's like the story of Martha and Mary. Jesus says to Martha, Martha, you're troubled about so many things, but only one thing is necessary. Only one thing. Mary chose the better portion. It's not going to be taken away from her. Choosing the better portion is choosing to look to Christ, choosing to depend on Christ, choosing to rely, to love, to worship, to read about, to study, to know. That's it. That's how we grow. Okay, fourth thing. We have got to, piggybacking off of the third, simplify our understanding of of sanctification and growth, and we like to overcomplicate it. We want to do all the things, right? We don't just want to do the one thing. It's almost like we don't get the satisfaction, right? If it's just like, oh, well, I did my one thing for the day, right? Like I sought Jesus. We want to do all the things, and we like to overcomplicate things. I think maybe there's a sense of control or pride or whatever. But you're going to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus when you focus on the grace and knowledge of Jesus over anything else. So simplify this whole idea in your head of what it looks like to be a Christ follower. Crack open your Bible and then keep cracking open your Bible, right? Show up to church and then keep showing up to church. Join a small group and actually keep showing up to small group and get involved in people's lives. You know what I'm saying? Okay, so we're going to get into some of these practical things here. So obviously, communing with God through His Word and in prayer is extremely vital. Jesus is the Lord, and you're going to find Him on every page. So to look to Him is to read the Word, to study the Word, memorize it, meditate on Scripture as much as you possibly can, right? Just as much as you possibly can. I did a whole podcast episode called No More Excuses. How to read and study the Bible every day. So if you want encouragement about that topic, definitely listen to that episode. But make that a discipline in your life if you do nothing else. And I even talked about sort of this idea that discipline is not legalism. And I think I'm going to do a whole episode on that as well. I talked about it on Instagram. So if you wanted to watch that five minutes video, it's pinned to my reels, but discipline yourself, challenge yourself this year to be in the word every day. No excuses. There's no more excuses. You know, there's the YouVersion app. There's the Dwell app to listen. There's audio Bibles. It's endless. Choose your mode. You're going to read. You're going to slow study. You're going to memorize. You're going to meditate. What are you going to do? And then just commit to it. Show up, right? And then prayer, right? So for me, the two ways that I find right now in this season to pray is by journaling. I love to journal. I love prayer journaling. And then just communal prayer throughout the day. Dane Ortlund says in his book, Move through your day praying. Let God be your moment-by-moment Father. Hear His voice in Scripture in the morning and turn that Scripture into prayer. And then let that time with Him, that back-and-forth communion, send you off into your day, communing with Him all day long. So good. Okay, so just time in word and in prayer. That is the discipline that we really have to develop if we want to go deeper with the Lord this year. And then secondly, live in community with other believers. Be part the body of Christ. You are not going to see growth if you're doing it alone. And I've said that over and over and over again on this podcast, and I will continue to say it, that the local church is vital to your growth, to all of the things, to you walking with God. You have to do it. It's just not meant to be done alone. And we don't see that anywhere in Scripture. Walking with God is meant to be done with other believers. And so if you're not in a church, if you're not in a small group, if you're not in a Bible study, if you're not in something, you need to do that. And then third, lean on the Holy Spirit for wisdom and for strength. So that's kind of another aspect of don't do it alone. Don't rely on your flesh because your flesh is going to fail you. Lean on the Spirit to give you what you need. to not only get through today, but also to show up. Because the Spirit can help us to show up. So if all you can get out is God help, Holy Spirit help, I say that all day long. I can't tell you how many times I say that. And He does. He helps. He guides. He corrects. He nurtures. He loves. He disciplines. He gives wisdom. He gives strength. So depend on Him. To just sort of recap today, We go deeper with God by deepening our relationship with Jesus, deepening our understanding of his gospel, deepening our dependency on his grace and his spirit. We have been given all that we need. There is no self-help book, no influencer, no special prayer journal, no perfect church, no perfect streaks. None of that ultimately matters. What matters is our heart, our commitment, and our discipline to show up every single day at the feet of Jesus and allow him to change us. So here's sort of like a CTA question for you. What needs to be removed from your life so that you can have more room for Jesus, so that you can be closer to Jesus? Is it a sin? Because sin separates us from God. Is it a temptation? Is it distraction? Entertainment? Netflix? Scrolling on social media? Unhealthy relationships? Your own agenda? Control? What is getting in the way? What is a barrier for you? Is it your own inability to fully surrender? Is there something that you're holding on to? Is there an idol in your life that you're just unwilling to let go? Pray about that. Talk to somebody about that. Is there something that's holding you back from a full send, as I said earlier? Pinpoint that and call it out. What is it? And then how can you add more Jesus into your day today, right? How can you swap scrolling on social media for praying? Can you swap being on Netflix to reading an edifying book? Can you pray while you wait in line rather than distracting yourself? Can you read a Christian book rather than something like calling Hoover? I'm just trying to... give you ideas of replacements of ways that you can just get more of him, right? Because yeah, we're going to find him in the word. And yeah, we can sit with him in prayer and we can talk about him with our friends. We can see him and other believers and we can share with others about him. But how can we just pack more Jesus into our day, right? Having worship music on when we're driving in the car. I think that's all I have for you guys today. today. I hope you were encouraged by this. I hope something resonated with you. Please take time to leave a review. If so, copy the episode link and share it with a friend. It would mean the world to me. And if you have any lingering thoughts or questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me via email. Thank you guys so much for listening and I will catch you in episode two.