If you have been a Christian for a little while, chances are you have heard of the term “spending time with God.” Whether it was a pastor mentioning it briefly, or another believer sharing their experience, you probably have heard it at some point.
But what does that even mean? To spend time with God? How can you spend time with a Being you cannot see?
Those are all excellent questions. And they are questions that are rarely answered in the Chuch today, which is sad considering everything in your Christian life flows out of your relationship with God.
So in this article, we are going to be covering what it means to spend time with God. And in addition to that, we will also be covering how to enjoy your time with God so that your time with Him will be a consistent practice that you continue to do all the days of your life. Let’s get started.
What does it mean to “spend time with God”?
To spend time with God means to take intentional time out of your day to come before God through prayer, worship, and reading of the scriptures. It is a time when you draw near to God and He draws near to you as you fellowship with Him.
Every one of us has experience when it comes to developing relationships in our lives. And although all of our relationships are different, with different people and different dynamics, the basics are still the same.
Mainly, relationships are only able to develop with two things; communication and time. Without these two foundations, no relationship will ever be established.
A perfect example of this is marriage. You can have the most intense desire in the world to get married to a godly man or woman, but no matter how intense your desire is, it will never happen if you sit all day in a basement. You have to meet that someone, talk to them, shake hands, and spend time with them.
I know this all sounds so obvious because we apply it to our everyday lives all the time. But what is surprising is that people forget that God is a Person just like you and me. And if we want a relationship with Him then we need to talk with Him and spend time with Him. Just like we would in any other relationship.
This is what it means to spend time with God. You are selecting a timespan within your day to devote to the Father. And during this time of being with God, you do what you would with any other person, you talk with them. You listen to Him through His Word and His still small voice, you ask Him questions, and you let Him know how much he means to you through worship.
Just like you would spend time with a best friend, spouse, sibling, or parent, is very similar to how you would spend time with God (apart from the worship, of course). [Related article: Spending time with God (Common Questions Answered)].
How do you enjoy spending time with God?
The reason people don’t enjoy spending time with God is that they miss the reason why they are spending time with Him in the first place. We spend time with God to know Him and become more like Him. If we miss this, time with God will end up becoming a chore rather than the growth of a friendship.
Too many times, time spent with God slowly starts feeling like a task that needs to be completed or a chore you need to get around to. Many of us have experienced this at times, but once we understand why this happens it really becomes an easy fix. [Related article: How to Spend Time with God (Even when you don’t want to)].
The only reason why Christians would get bored of being with God is because they have allowed their time with God to grow cold and stale. In other words, when we come to God because we have to, or because it’s the “Christian thing to do” we are not there to actually connect with the Father, we are only there to fulfill our religious duty.
If we come to God with this mindset, I can assure you the Spirit of God is not showing up to your “prayer time.” In fact, if it’s not done with a pure desire to know Him, He’s probably dreading it more than you are!
So, how do we make sure that our time with God never becomes stale and cold, and always remains fruitful?
By keeping our heart in a place where our sole desire from God is to be with Him, and to become more like Him. If we want to enjoy our time with Him, then we need to truly believe that when we open up His Word, or speak His name, He’s there.
If we truly believe the scripture that says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). will we really get bored of spending time with Him?
Think about it, the God of the universe desires to to spend time with you. And every time you mention His name through worship and prayer, and every time you open up His Word, He’s right there ready to be known by you. [Related article: How to Start Knowing God (Step by Step)].
That is amazing!
Our problem is we don’t really believe that, so when come to read the Bible, we read our three chapters real quick and then we close it and move on with our day because we “did our devotionals this morning.”
This shouldn’t be so! Instead, we should come before Him with the realization that we are coming to meet with God, and that when we open up the Bible, we are reading the literal words of God. [Related article: Spending Time Reading the Bible (Common Questions Answered)].
We should come before God with awe and worship that we are counted worthy by the blood of the cross to even enter His presence.
We don’t have time with God because its the “Christian thing to do”. We don’t have time with God to fill our heads up with knowledge. For the bible says, “knowledge puffs up but love edifies”.
We spend time with God for one reason and that is that we might “know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Phillipians 3:10-11).
In short, if we can learn to keep our hearts from getting stuck in a religious duty and instead keep them fixed on the real reason we meet with God to begin with, then we won’t fall victim to not enjoying our time with God.
Instead, our time spent with God will flourish because it will be accomplished with the Spirit of God present because our desire is aligned with His.
I hope this article assisted you in your walk with the Lord. If you enjoyed this article, please consider giving a donation of any amount by clicking the button below. The support we receive from you enables The Biblical Foundation to keep all of the resources free and to reach more people with the teachings of the Word of God.
