Closer Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video

What if drawing near to God had nothing to do with getting it "right"?

What if prayer, silence, fasting, and meditation weren't religious duties—but doorways into communion with Jesus?

In Closer: Spiritual Practices to Deepen Your Intimacy with Jesus, best friends Lisa Harper and Christine Caine invite you to trade performance for presence. Bridging different faith backgrounds with honesty and humor, these two beloved Bible teachers deliver one liberating truth: “Jesus is the prize. Intimacy with Jesus in the point.” The disciplines themselves are not the destination; they are simply the bride—the intentional, devoted means of drawing near to a God who already sings songs of delight over you. 

Over four sessions, you'll recalibrate your cravings toward God, bring clarity to the noise, find freedom from spiritual bondage, and gently shirt your faith from performance religion to genuine, relational communion with Jesus.

Study breakdown:

Session 1: Prayer
Lisa Harper and Christine Caine strip prayer of pressure and performance. Through raw stories — including Christine's account of a prayer that helped rescue trafficking victims in Uzbekistan — this session frees you from fearing you're "praying wrong." Prayer isn't about the right words; it's an ongoing conversation with a Father who's already praying for you.

Session 2: Silence and Solitude
In a world of constant noise, Christine makes the case for reclaiming quiet. Jesus regularly withdrew from crowds to be alone with the Father — and this session shows you why that's still possible today. Honest and practical, it gives you simple ways to carve out silence in your real, busy life.

Session 3: Fasting
Lisa and Christine tackle a widely misunderstood discipline with humor and biblical depth. From Christine's childhood confusion over fasting traditions to stories of saints who took focus to extremes, this session reframes fasting as anything but a diet for you. Rooted in the fasts of Moses, Esther, and Jesus, it shows you how setting aside distraction can awaken a deeper hunger for God.

Session 4: Study and Meditation
What if the Bible is a love letter, not a rulebook? Lisa and Christine trace their very different journeys with Scripture to the same conclusion: transformation happens when you marinate in God's Word instead of skimming it. Introducing lectio divina and retelling familiar stories with fresh eyes, this session invites you...read more...