One on One with God (Part 1)

Let’s discuss the importance of our time with the Lord.  The “quiet time” if you will.

First, let me just say that I believe that a person will grow closer to God if there are two elements present in his/her life.  They are 1) the desire and 2) time to invest with God.

Church services, small groups, accountability partners, etc. are all great, supplemental tools for growth.  However, these alone are not substitutes for your one on one time with God.  You are directly responsible for just how close you become with Christ.  Your pastor, wife, best friend, or whoever cannot get you there by themselves.  Example: reading the bible without trying to connect to God through it doesn’t do you much good.  At that point, it’s just reading.  Praying to God out of obligation is pretty much meaningless, too.

So then, a couple of facts.

Fact:  I know there are Christians lacking the desire.  They feel as if they know enough already or have achieved a certain level of spiritual understanding and therefore the overall desire is subdued.  Or the case might be that they are under the illusion that they can’t get any closer to God.  The list goes on.  There are many more scenarios that I could describe, but I want to keep this post short.

Fact:  I know there are Christians lacking the time to invest.  Today’s society is fast paced.  We are constantly finding ways to cram more and more into our schedules.  But when our schedule gets too tight, what is the first thing to usually go?  That’s right, our time for God.  John Ortberg once said that in our time today ‘hurry’ is the enemy of spiritual growth.  I totally agree with that.  MAKE TIME!  If you don’t make time for God, you will not grow.

How do I know these two facts are true?  Because I have been an example of each one at one point in my life or another.  I’ve been a Christ follower for almost twenty years now and I’m just now at a point in my life where I am sure of my calling and truly attempting to answer that call.  My desire to be faithful to God is still growing and I’m finding more and more ways to invest in the ministry of Christ.  In the next post, I’ll share with you what I’ve found to be most successful so far for me in how I spend my time with God.

Let me leave you with these two thoughts. 

• You will never get too close to God.  Don’t ever be complacent with where you are.
• Your responsibility is your responsibility.  Others can lead you, but you have to make the decision and commitment to go to the next level.