Daily Time with God

In the last post I described the first of three points that I emphasize about the Christian life for people preparing to become church members: “God loves us.”  This month, I’d like to describe my second encouragement:

Spend Time Every Day Reading the Bible and in Prayer.

Becoming a Christian is the easiest thing in the world: Jesus Christ took care of that on the cross.  Nothing needs to be added his perfect work in suffering, death, and resurrection to accomplish the goal of a perfect relationship with God.  All we do is receive and accept what he has done for us.  On the other hand, remaining a Christian is one of the hardest things you will ever endeavor.  We face constant pressure, from the passions, willfulness, and pride within us and from the appeal and force of competing claims around us, to revert to a life in which God is at the periphery.  Daily time focused intentionally upon the One who seeks to draw us back to him is the best way for us to respond to and to overcome this pressure.

Jesus once said of the Good Shepherd that “his sheep follow him because they know his voice” (John 10:4).  It takes time and practice for us to recognize and to follow the voice of our Shepherd.  The voice often comes to us faintly, and we struggle to distinguish it from the many other voices that shout at us.  But the more time we spend seeking that voice, the easier it will become for us to identify it through the din that overwhelms our spiritual ears.

If you want to develop a skill or an ability, start where you are and become stronger or more adept with practice over time.  In the same way, your prayer life and your ability to recognize the Spirit’s voice through Scripture develops over time.  If you feel discouraged because great spiritual insights don’t flow upon you, or because you can’t make heads nor tails out of a Bible passage, don’t sweat it.  Even Arnold Schwarzenegger had to start on the light weights before he became a champion body builder.  Daily exercise will strengthen your spiritual muscles.

You don’t have to impress anyone with your daily time with God.  So often we tend to fall into “performance-ism:” doing things so that others can see us doing it, and ensuring that they will admire or appreciate what we’re doing.  When performance-ism strikes our time with God, we focus no longer upon the Lord, but on what we can tell others about our time with God.  Our devotional activities become a game of one-upsmanship, as we try to outdo one another in our descriptions of the blessings we receive from our spiritual disciplines.  Resist the temptation, either to boast about your practices, or to feel inadequate in comparison to someone else’s.  Nobody needs to know how you spend your time with God except for God.  And there’s no need to impress him; he’s already hopelessly in love with you.

How should you spend your time each day with the Lord?  You have many options about what to do, and I can give you suggestions if you like.  But the best way is the way that works for you.