There is No Substitute for Time With God

The primary goal of our busy lives should be to become Christ-like, or as Peter states in II Peter 1:4, to "become partakers of the divine nature."  There is no greater goal for life--nothing else more worthy of living and dying for.

Godliness is our goal. This brings to mind such things as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, humility, truthfulness, and justice.  In this article we will not discuss in greater detail what godliness is; rather, we will take a look at how one becomes a godly person.

There is really only one way to become godly. Godliness comes from spending time with the One who is God. It's based on the principle that we take on the characteristics of those we spend time with. The writer of the Proverbs said it this way: "Spend time with the wise and you will become wise, but the friends of fools will suffer" (Proverbs 13:20).

This passage mentions one way of spending time with God--namely, being in the presence of wise people who know and love Him. That's where Christian fellowship and interaction come in. Being with others in whom Christ dwells allows us to literally be with Him. That's a good reason all by itself to "meet together and encourage each other" (Hebrews 10:25).

But there are two other important ways of spending time with God. I am more convinced all the time that these two personal disciplines are the greatest things that I can do to be the person God wants me to be.

Be a lover of lover of prayer.

Prayer is talking to God and letting Him speak back to us. As good communication is a key to any human relationship, so it is vitally important to our most important relationship, that with our Creator and Savior. The more we talk, the more we feel comfortable in each other's presence.

Marriage taught me this. I'm quiet by nature; my wife, Shirley, is the more talkative one. Many evenings she's had to practically pull out of me the details of my day (as I buried my head behind a newspaper). Often, just as I've been dozing off in bed, she has drawn from my inner being the thoughts of my heart. She was right. We need to talk about every aspect of our lives. That's how we've learned to love each other more, respect our differences, share our joys and hurts, and develop the comfort of intimacy.

It's the same in our relationship with God. I've never met a man or woman committed to regular prayer who did not have an intimate relationship with the Father. The two go hand in hand. Contrarily, I've met many people who feel that God is distant. They also admit that they rarely talk to Him.

In spending time with God in prayer, I would like to make three practical suggestions. First, Paul said in I Thessalonians 5:17 to "pray continually." That means do it all the time. Always be talking to God. On your jog, in the shower (you can sing songs there too!), during the commute, at your desk, over the dishes, while mowing the lawn, while talking to a client, lying in bed, on a trip, at the dentist (pray like mad), or any place you go. Brother Lawrence, the famous dishwasher monk, called it "practicing the presence of God."  It's being aware that God is always there.  

Second, it's important to have a special place for private prayer. Mark 1:35 says that Jesus "went to a lonely place, where he prayed."  Seclusion is necessary for developing intimacy. In a quiet place, away from other distractions, deeper and more intimate conversations can take place.  Jesus had the hills of Galilee and the Garden of Gethsemane. Daniel had his room. Moses had the tabernacle. Solomon had a temple. Habakkuk, a tower. Peter, a rooftop.

In my own life, no matter where we've lived, I've always found special places where I could be alone with God. In one area, it was a secluded beach. While in Washington, D.C., I oftentimes went to the quiet western steps of the U.S. Capitol. Now I use an office in our home.

Third, you need to schedule regular, daily prayer times with your heavenly Father. Prayer needs to be spontaneous. But it also needs to be one of the most stable habits of our lives. All the godly men and women of the Bible prayed frequently and everywhere.

Do you know which time of day most of them chose for a regular prayer time? The morning. Notice the full quotation of Mark 1:35: "Early the next morning, while it was still dark, Jesus woke and left the house. He went to a lonely place, where he prayed."

You'll find this pattern throughout Scripture. It's good to establish a habit of early morning prayer. Then the rest of the day you'll have the spiritual strength to pray while on the run.

But there's a better way still. The Bible actually teaches that the very best habit of prayer is three times a day. Daniel prayed three times daily in his upstairs room in Babylon (Daniel 6:10). David said, "Morning, noon, and night I am troubled and upset, but he will listen to me" (Psalm 55:17). In the same way that most of us try to eat three meals a day, the Bible says that through prayer we can have three "spiritual feasts" throughout the day.

In my own life, I first established the morning quiet time, then added a time of prayer at the end of the day, and later began to snatch some time with God during my lunch break. The result was tremendous.

But there is another way to have quality time with our Father.

Be a lover of the Bible.

The Bible is the greatest book of all time. It is God's love letter to each of us. It has sold more copies and been produced in more languages than any other piece of literature in history. Getting His message out to a sinful world cost God thousands of lives (people martyred for their faith).

As a book, the Bible is totally unique. It is the only pure and unadulterated written source of truth in all the world. Its central message is God's redeeming love through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If prayer is our way of communicating with God, then the Bible is God's way of communicating with us. It is alive and living, sharper than a double-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12).

There a number of different ways that the Bible can be used for personal spiritual growth. Let's take a look at three of them.

We should meditate daily on God's word. Psalm 1 promises that all who meditate on the Bible will be strong, like a tree planted by a river (Psalm 1:3). Joshua 1:8 tells us if we study His teachings, then "you will be wise and successful in everything." Bible meditation is thinking deeply and often about truths in the Scripture. Memorization can be helpful, but it is not synonymous with meditating. Bible meditation is taking a verse or phrase from God's word and contemplatively "chewing it over" in your mind to extract the nutrition. Its literal meaning is "to muse or mutter."

I personally enjoy taking a verse out of a quiet time and thinking about it for the rest of the day. David said it this way, "How I love your teachings! I think about them all day long" (Psalm 119:97).

Another way of spending time with God in His word is regular Bible study. Studying the Bible, as opposed to meditating on a few verses, involves a more in-depth and thorough approach to a subject or topic. It could be the analysis of a major theme or teaching, using a concordance or other helps to gain a wide breadth of knowledge. It could be the study of a particular person or character quality in Scripture. Usually it involves hours and/or days of exploration.

I've tried to make Bible study an ongoing part of my life. Once I studied the theme of salvation in every book of the New Testament. A few years ago I researched the Scriptures regarding the character quality of servanthood   A Christian never stops being a student. David said it best when he stated, "I think about your orders and study your ways" (Psalm 119:15).

 A final method of being with God in His word is having daily, total Bible devotions. This is the habit of reading three to five chapters of God's word every day to wash and refresh your soul. It's different from meditation. There usually isn't time for study either. Reading the Bible devotionally requires taking 20 to 30 minutes a day (usually in combination with a prayer time) to simply let God's word "shower" you with truth. Billy Graham once said that reading four or five chapters in the Bible each day was one of the most important habits in his life.

And what's crucial is the total reading of Scripture from cover to cover. God inspired the whole Bible. Most wrong doctrine and incomplete teaching come from lifting individual Scriptures and ideas out of the full context of the Bible. And remember, any text out of context is a pretext.

Unfortunately, many people read the Bible like they go to a smorgasbord. They pick and choose at random. When they want encouragement, they read the Psalms. Normally they prefer the New Testament to the Old (even though God made the Old Testament four times as big as the New). When they're depressed, they read Ecclesiastes. When they're in a learning mode, they look at Proverbs. When they're about to get married, they turn to the Song of Solomon!

The problem with this method is that some parts of the Bible never get read. Whole portions of God's Word are neglected. Long ago a wise man encouraged me to devotionally read through the Bible, four to five chapters a day, from Genesis through Revelation, each year. For twenty years I have practiced this habit and consider it one of the most important parts of my life.

Company determines character.

Who we spend time with determines what we become. Paul said it best in I Corinthians 15:33 that "Bad company corrupts good character" (NIV).  The opposite is also true: "Good company produces good character." There is no better company than God Himself--and absolutely no substitute for spending time with Him.