Spend Time With God
Do you spend time with God? I didn’t ask if you listen to a sermon or go to Church. I didn’t ask if you prayed through your list of things to prayer for. I didn’t ask if you attended small group or read a Christian book. All of those things can be aspects of spending time with God. But they do not inherently mean you spend time with Him.
Do you have time set aside each week where you deeply, intimately, have fellowship with God? Spending time with God, meaningfully, means that you speak your heart to Him and allow Him to speak back to you. Most often, He speaks through His scripture.
You will not grow as a Christian if you never spend time with God. You can modify your behavior without knowing God. But you cannot experience true change, a deep re-routing of your hearts desires, unless you are spending time with God.
How do we spend time with God?
Here are three ways, there are millions:
1- Turn on worship music, open to a Psalm, and pray the Psalm. I did this the other night for 10 minutes before bed. I read Psalm 23. As I read about God being a shepherd, I told him I didn’t always trust Him like one. Then I read “I shall not want”. I was reminded that God is truly good. I can trust He will meet my needs. Praying the Psalms allows me to express my lack of trust and then allow my trust to be built up by His word. It allowed me to not mindlessly speak to Him, but rather open my heart to Him. My lack of trust was exposed and confronted because I opened my heart via the Psalm.
2- Take a walk and pray. For me, getting outside of my room, outside of a book, and experiencing nature has some profound effect on how I speak with God. It allows me to “get out of my head” in a way that I so often can’t. You can be creative in how you spend time with God.
3- Journal your prayers. My friend does this and speaks wonderfully of its effect on him. He says he often has trouble staying aware and focused if just praying in his mind. But if he writes out his prayer it allows him to express his heart, his emotions. It keeps him focused. It helps prayer be more meaningful for him.
An encouragement
I suspect many of the spiritual issues in my life are owing to my lack of time spent with God in meaningful ways. It’s so easy to see entertainment as more fun. Phones and tablets to seem more engaging. And time with others more “real”. But I can truly say, the moments I have spent with God have been sweet and good and life giving. They act like a type of salt to the moments in our lives, making them all the more beautiful because we bring God into them.
Spend time with God. We were made to “taste and see that He is good”. There is no better pleasure in this world than fellowship with God. That sentence may sound good, but you may find it not to be the reality in your life. I know I do at times. What are we to do? Let us pray that God would stir our affections for Him. Then spend time with Him until your spiritual taste buds come alive.
Fighting to spend time with Him too,
Josh.
