3 Tips for Intentional Time With God
When I was first starting out in my relationship with God, I struggled to really get away from worldly distractions and talk to my Father one on one. This struggle continued until I was willing to take intentional steps to maximize the time that I had to spend with Him. Today I'm going to write out THREE intentional steps that I took that helped me in my personal relationship with God and I hope that these help you as well! These tips are going to be all about what we call our "Quiet Time" with God!
Tip number 1: Set a Time!
We call our devotional time with God our "quiet TIME" for a reason. Set a specific time that you are going to get in the word of God and stick to it. There are a few things that I consider when I set my time to get away and go deeper with God.
First of all, I like to do my quiet time in the morning because of the first part of that phrase: QUIET. The world is still fast asleep when I do my Quiet Time because there are less distractions that can take my attention away from what God is saying to me. It helps me to wake up first thing in the morning and get into the word of God. I meditate on His word throughout the day and it feels me with peace when the storm of the world begins to buzz around me.
Also, I segment my time in to 3 phases of Quiet Time. First of all I read from God's word. My quiet time always begins with this so I can hold onto a part of Scripture throughout my entire day. Then I go into the second phase: Journaling. I write down a specific verse or a specific word that I hear from my Father. When you write it down not only does it stand out in your mind more, but also you can look back at the date that God spoke that to you and you can remember it. The 3rd phase of my Quiet Time is prayer. I always end my Quiet Time with God by praying over what I just read or what God just said to me. One of my pastor's told me once that throughout the day when he prays he doesn't say amen. He said that he wants every word he utters throughout the day to be a prayer to God where at the end of the night he can just say amen as he falls asleep.
My morning quiet time sets the tone for the entire day but it IS NOT the only time I talk to my Father throughout the day!!
Tip Number 2: Silence your devices!
In these modern times we have been trained that when our phone vibrates we immediately reach over and look at the notification. It is a reflex to most people. When you are having a serious conversation with someone and you look at them but every five seconds they look down and check their phone you feel like they aren't interested in the conversation, right? Don't you think God feels the same way? How can we expect to carry a conversation with God when every time He tries to speak we say "hold on, let me check this notification!"
I believe that any time we spend with God is an honor and a privilege. He is our Lord and creator and He WANTS to spend time with US! So whenever God is speaking to us the best thing we can do is silence the world around us and pay attention to every word He speaks.
When you silence your phone during quiet time, you limit the possibility for distraction while also honoring God by paying attention to the conversation you are having with Him!
Tip number 3: Search your heart!
Quiet Time is all about talking to your Heavenly Father but it is also a part of the Sanctification process. Sanctification is described as "A progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and more like Christ in our actual lives". So our Quiet Time should include a time of reflection where we ask God to search our hearts for anything that does not reflect Jesus Christ in us. Sanctification is also a process that continues for your entire life. We can never achieve perfection in this life but through our Quiet Time when we search our hearts we can weed out the thoughts and desires of the world and meditate on how Christ taught us to live!
Psalms 139:23-24
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
When we get alone with God and ask Him to search our hearts it will reveal things in us that need to be corrected and improved upon. If we want to live more like Christ then allowing God to search our hearts needs to be part of our daily walk with Him.
We cannot succeed in life without asking God to help us live with clean hands and a pure heart!
There are TONS of other things that I could write about spending Quiet Time with God, but these are just 3 tips that I use to make my time with Him intentional! Like I said before, you can speak with God all throughout the day but setting aside a specific time (preferably in the morning) sets the tone for your entire day!
I hope this helps and encourages you as you continue your walk with God!
Comments