There is no more awesome feeling than being in the presence of God. If you’ve spent time there, you know this for yourself. Its true God is always near, but in our busyness, we tend not to notice Him. Once you’ve tasted being in the presence of God, you crave more time there. Knowing this, why is it we spend so little of our precious time pursuing the greatest love of our life?
Is it, perhaps, we don’t consider Christ to be our greatest love? Or maybe we think we’ll get back to God once our lives slow down and we’ve accomplished certain goals? For those who have pledged our lives to Jesus, there is no excuse for not spending time in His presence.
Your life is busy; I get it. Our modern world seems to speed ever faster with each passing day. We have to make thousands of decisions every day while combating the thousands of advertisements being thrust in front of us in the same period. The amount of distractions we face is unparalleled in human history. The busyness and distractions are weapons Satan is using to keep us from having any time to spend in the presence of God. If he can keep God feeling distant, he knows you will be ineffective in building the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
The simplest way to combat the perils of busyness and distraction is to spend time in the presence of God. I don’t mean the thirty second prayers before meals and bedtime. Nor do I mean the random bullet prayers we send up throughout our day when we’ve gotten ourselves into yet another mess. I’m talking about regular, extended, and uninterrupted time spent talking with Jesus. I’m talking the kind of thing that gets written in permanent marker on your calendar and is never missed because it is the most important thing you will do the entire day.
I recommend you spend time in prayer to begin each morning. Depending on your lifestyle, another time of day may work better for you. The “when” isn’t as important as making sure it gets done. I will say this, however: when studying the biographies of great men and women of God, true warriors who made incredible impact in this world, you find the common habit of beginning their day alone with God. I think it comes down to putting God first in all things, and to me, this extends to making certain He is our first conversation and focus each day of our lives.
How long you spend in prayer is also not something I would presume to prescribe. For me, 30-45 minutes seems to be a sweet spot. Some spend hours. Others as little as 5-10 minutes. It’s not about quantity. It’s about what you put into it. Start small and let it grow organically. Trust me, once intimately engaged with God, you aren’t going to want to stop.
No other discipline will grow your spiritual walk with Jesus more than spending time in the presence of God. Nothing else you will do or try will come close to the effects of spending time conversing with Him. Jesus wasn’t too busy to come for you, to die for you. Are you really too busy to spend time each day with Him?