Based on your daily routines and actions, where can you expect your walk with Jesus to be in five years? Growth doesn’t just happen. It must be intentional. Without a plan to draw closer to God, you’ll be – at best – about as close in five years as you are today. Is that okay? Do you think the status quo is what God envisioned when He created you with a unique blend of skills, passions, and talents?
The Psalmist says we are all remarkably and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). If God took such care in crafting who He knew you could become, don’t we owe it to Him to fulfill our potential for His glory? God gave His very best for us. How can we give Him anything less?
God created us to live in close relationship with Him. The purpose of creating man in His image was so the whole earth would worship God. We cannot worship what we do not know. Intimacy breeds worship. Everything we do in life should be to His glory. The best way I know to serve Him well is to know Him better. Therefore, I believe it is the responsibility of every person who calls Jesus Lord to strive to know Him better every day.
This isn’t about doing more things. It isn’t about earning God’s favor. A desire to know Him more should grow out of our love for Him. When you are in love with someone, you can’t get enough time with them. You want to spend every waking moment in their presence. When you’re apart, you are thinking of them. This is how it is with our physical relationships, so why should it be different in our spiritual relationships?, everything we experience in the physical world is but a pale shadow of its spiritual basis. We love because God first loves us. We live temporally because Christ lives eternally.
Prayer time should be carved out. Studying His Word should have a definite slot in your calendar every day. These aren’t requirements for salvation, and I don’t think they will earn you any extra points in Heaven. If that’s why we are doing them, we are missing the point. We should prioritize prayer and study because we have an insatiable love for God and an unquenchable desire to know Him better. I believe the first of our time each day should belong to God. There is nothing more worthy of our time than He is.
Do you have a plan to grow closer to God? What disciplines have you established in your life that make knowing Him better something you do without even thinking about it? Are your priorities ordered in such a way as to demonstrate knowing Jesus is the most important thing in your life? If you don’t have a plan to know Him better, ask yourself why. Is He worth knowing? Do you love Him like you say you do? Be intentional about drawing closer to God. His Word promises if we will draw closer to Him, He will draw closer to us (James 4:8). When we get to know Him better, we will better understand the reason we are here and what we are meant to do for His glory.