Getting Time With God
Getting Time With God
Christian Atkins
Time—one of our most valuable assets that all are constrained to live within. Moreover, time does not play favorites; it doesn’t allow exceptions for some, nor can it be manipulated to give some more and others less - at least within a 24-hour day. Some may say it is “the great equalizer” because, in the competition of life, all have the choice to use it wisely or foolishly by the same amount. The only uncertainty is precisely how much total time we will be given. On average, if you live in the United States, you can expect to live for 74 years, so the question is: what will you do with that time?
More specifically, I speak to the Christian who has been given new life and, therefore, whose desires have changed to please God. All our time is now “God’s time,” so how do we steward it well? To narrow the scope further, how can we expect to be filled to do God’s work? Maybe the answer seems obvious to the devout or challenging for the newcomer, but I challenge you to be a blank canvas today.
As a believer, I propose there needs to be a dedicated time in your daily life that you set apart for being intimate with the father, that is then proven by the fruits in your life. “Quiet time,” “time alone with God,” “devotional,” or maybe even “PBJ (prayer, Bible, journal) time” may all be different titles for it, but the intent is the same—uninterrupted time devoted to seeking God through prayer, worship, Bible reading, confession, listening, and/or resting. Where does this come from? Are we supposed to have this time as Christians? What should it look like?
Jesus is recorded to “get away to a desolate place” over a dozen times that we know of. Jesus valued this time so highly that he literally missed going on a boat with his disciples, knowing well that his disciples were leaving to cross a sea but holding a greater value on retreating to the mountains to spend time alone with God. The modern-day equivalent would be if you had a plane to catch in the morning, but you revered a moment alone with the Father so much that you missed your flight. If you are not getting away sometimes, perhaps you are not dependent enough on God. Jesus said we would walk in a similar way as he walked if we abide in him, so if the Son of God needed a quiet time, we do too. I bet you can guess where Jesus was at the most grievous point in his life—willfully alone with the Father (in the garden of Gethsemane). Although he invited his closest friends to be near, he still kept them at a distance to create alone time with his Father. Based on the life of Jesus, we should get the hint that Jesus pours out, then needs to get refreshed.
I believe there is a pitfall in America, of which I am personally guilty—compartmentalizing Jesus into only devoted time. In 1 Thessalonians, the Bible tells us to “pray without ceasing.” This phrase is hyperbole, more intentionally meaning “you should pray all the time,” similarly to if you were sick and were coughing all the time. Perhaps we over-emphasize our compartmentalized quiet time but neglect the repetitive “coughing” prayers throughout our day. The Christian life is not meant to be a pray-at-night, pray-in-the-morning type of religion. In actuality, we are supposed to pray every 20ish-minutes, with notable breakthrough increases when something overwhelming occurs.
How often do you eat food? Every day, right? “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” You should have such a high regard for the word of God that it is a priority to consume regularly. How often? I don’t see evidence in scripture for an exact time frame, but enough to be “full”. A mentor in my life who regularly wakes up at 5am to seek God once told me, “I need 3 hours a day with God. I don’t know what anyone else needs but that’s what I need.” The question is not, “How much do I need to scrape by?”, the question is “how much time do I need to be in an overflow state?” Oftentimes, we severely lack being able to protect ourselves from the enemy or sinful thoughts. Did you know you are actually supposed to know the word of God enough that you fight off the enemy? When Jesus was tempted by the devil three times, Jesus quoted scripture back to him. Know that Satan will even try to use the word against you, manipulating its meaning or taking it out of context. Knowing this, you must be able to combat “taken out of context” scriptures.
In Ephesians 6, we are told to equip ourselves with the “full armor of God”, which includes “the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.” Somehow, the sword of the spirit is equivalent to the word of God. The sword is the most offensive weapon in your arsenal and seems to be summoned out by the spirit. If you are not giving the spirit a good sword to yield, you may lack what is required for battle. If God is a good God, he will test you on what you have been studying to solidify what you know in your head. His word says, “God will not test you beyond what you can bear,” which assumes God will not allow certain trials to plague your life if they would obliterate you entirely. However, your goal should be to keep up with knowing what scriptures to hang onto as God stretches you. I fully support everyone being on a Bible reading plan, but of primary importance is that you are equipped to overcome your current struggles. Regular Bible reading will equip you in your reaction to trials; circumstantial Bible reading will equip you to overcome your trials. Jesus went to the cross knowing his actions had to abide by God’s word, exemplified by the many phrases, “...this happened so that ___ might be fulfilled.” You need to know how God speaks into your trials, which, I might add, may require digging into the multitudes of the Bible, including Old and New Testaments. To my point earlier, we should err on the side of overflow; Old Testament Jewish students who went to synagogue had the first five books of the Bible memorized by the age of ten. Unfortunately, some of these same students did not know God and went on to live pharisaical lives, which proves God requires more than just knowing scriptures.
Keep in mind Jesus likely didn’t “flee to a desolate place” with a physical Bible (Old Testament). In those times, the Old Testament was read aloud in the synagogue, which is where Jesus most likely committed to memory most of what he knew. Jesus was obeying the verse in Joshua that says, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.” From what we know, Jesus “meditated” on scripture more than he actively listened to it. Nowadays, I think we have a lot more factual Bible readers and not enough meditating Bible readers. Furthermore, most times when Jesus “flees to a desolate place,” he is recounted as specifically praying, but I would bet letting the Holy Spirit work through scripture was part of the dialogue.
Another practice of the saints is to repent. This may be more of a spontaneous act, as God prefers immediate obedience, but David also asked God, “Search my heart, Oh Lord, so that you may find fault within me.” The Psalms are littered with phrases such as “The Lord is my refuge, my rock, my salvation.” You get the sense from the psalmists that pleading and praising God was far from rare, especially from the phrases like, “As a deer longs for a stream of cool water, so I long for you, O God.” Even if you look at what the Psalms are in and of themselves, they are essentially the “journals” of the leaders of Israel. Practically, we should be making it a habit to allow God to search our hearts and convict us of our trespasses.
This post is by no means an exhaustive list of the importance of quiet times. Hopefully, this sparks the interest to dig deeper, and if there is currently no desire to spend time alone with God, as a Christian, there may be no more critical factor to your success in life than to know you need this. While there is nowhere in the Bible where you will find exactly what a quiet time is supposed to look like or exactly how long, we do get little glimpses here and there that piece together a more complete picture. To sum everything up, the Bible supports having a consistent time alone with God consisting of prayer, learning the Word, repentance, and meditation. It’s reasonable and within God’s will that everyone should have a quiet time multiple times a week, with some days being treated as “no-exceptions” when trials wage war at your capacity. On the cautionary side, it is the seasons where little is going wrong that may be the most dangerous because it’s easy to start drifting away and self-sufficiency starts to creep in. If it has been a while, maybe you ought to sacrifice everything else for the sake of knowing your Creator’s will— ask him “what’s next?” He will not disappoint.