Spending quality time with God is more vital to your health and well-being than proper food and exercise. Every issue you face daily will be easier to navigate with God’s help. The best way to gain access to the help God freely offers is to open your heart and spend quality time with him. You will see as your faith increase, your anxiety decrease. Your outlook on handling the ups and downs of life become more manageable when you are centered on God. You will find the deep peace of Christ. Nothing in this world can take that peace away from you as you journey from knowing about God to knowing God.
Your faith increases when you spend quality time with God.
Spending quality time with God is more vital to your health and well-being than proper food and exercise. Every issue you face daily will be easier to navigate with God’s help. The best way to gain access to the help God freely offers is to open your heart and spend quality time with him. You will see as your faith increase, your anxiety decrease. Your outlook on handling the ups and downs of life become more manageable when you are centered on God. You will find the deep peace of Christ. Nothing in this world can take that peace away from you as you journey from knowing about God to knowing God.
Spending quality time with God is life changing
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you,” James 4:8a (ESV)
Think about your best friend. Does just the thought of this person make you smile? Me, too!
You have shared tears and laughter with this friend. You have been through fire and water together. You love this person and can be vulnerable enough to share your deepest secrets. You don’t just share time, you share quality time.
In the same way, think about when you met for the first time. You were not best friends immediately! Even if you made connections right away, the key factor to becoming best friends is the quality time you spent nurturing your relationship.
You know how to treat a best friend. That is what is needed with your relationship with God. When you spend quality time with him connections abound.
Your faith increases as you begin to trust him more, are open and honest with him, and really focus on growing closer to God. How do you begin?
Practical Ways You Can Spend Quality Time with God
Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. Psalm 62:1-2
Talk to God. Listen to God.
Just like you spend quality time with your best friend, you can also spend that same quality time with God. Establish a set time for talking to God openly and honestly. Take time to listen by being still and quiet. Don’t worry if this is a very short time. God meets you where you are.
If you have to make a change in your routine to do this, it will be worth it. For me, getting up in the quiet of the morning before anyone else in my house awakens is my best quality time.
My day begins with talking and listening to God. Initially, I would spend 10-15 minutes with a daily devotional like The Upper Room or Our Daily Bread. That was right for me.
Over time I realized I rarely looked at the clock. In my retirement, I finish my time with God when I am finished.
You can find the time that works best for you by being consistent for a week. If that time did not fit for you, make adjustments to a better fit and try again. You are striving to make progress, but don’t need to be perfect
Sing Praises to God as you spend quality time with Him.
I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. Psalm 104:33
Before there was the written word, songs were used as a way to remember scripture, praise God, and participate in worship. The psalms are songs meant to be spoken aloud and sung. We can keep that tradition too as a way to improve our quality time with God by singing.
Spend time with songs from contemporary to childhood favorites, and to hymns of lament as well as praise. With all the options for Christian radio and streaming music now, you can include a playlist of songs that speak to you. The songs need not be all positive. Some of the most intense laments and outpourings are in the psalms. Our hymns and songs also reflect times when our soul is weary, and our hearts are breaking.
Often, when you are in a crisis, the words of these songs can bring comfort and peace to you and you will grow closer to God through this outpouring from your pain and discomfort. Remember, he is the Great Healer. When my mind drifts to negative thoughts, I can silence that with a chorus or line sung to God with a heart of praise.
Read and Reflect on God’s Word.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
You can attend a worship service to hear the word of God and a listen to a sermon given on that scripture. Focus on important parts of the readings that you may have never heard before. Listen to the message as if you are hearing it for the first time. You can take notes to help you remember. Spend some time later in the day reading the passage of scripture and reflecting on what the pastor said. Ask yourself: How can I use this in my daily life?
Simply sit and be still. Ask God to open your heart and mind to what he wants you to attend to. Spending quality time worship with these details in mind is an excellent way to honor the Sabbath.
On your own, you can read from Psalms, proverbs, or one of the Gospels as a way to get to know God better. Just like you share things with your best friend that you both like or have in common, you connect with God through reading and reflecting on the scripture. You can read some each day. Try one I mentioned in the section above. You may find one that speaks to you as if it were written with you in mind like Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. There are numerous devotionals to help you grow closer to God.
Consider my book, Touching the Heart of God, a unique devotional that includes scripture, poems, and prayer on 45 topics rather than day-by-day sequences. Click on the button below to learn more.
Touching the Heart of God
Are you looking for something to help you grow your faith when you have searched and felt lost? Are you experiencing the joy in life and seeking a way to show gratitude? Touching the Heart of God gives you all that and more. With short lines of poetry, scripture references, and simple heartfelt prayers, you will have all you need to draw closer to God as you spend quality time with him.
If you will make this a practice with a heart that longs for and loves the Lord, you will truly be walking in the Spirit and growing in grace! Even when you are so comfortable with your best friend that you can be your true self, you reserve and respect him/her by being the best version of yourself that you can be. Often, you are so comfortable with each other, there is no need for words. God wants that same level of comfort from you, too.
The benefits of spending time with God
“If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at God you’ll be at rest.”
Corrie Ten Boom
Corrie ten Boom stayed strong in her faith with incredible courage and determination during the Holocaust. She helped Jews escape Nazi persecution. She and her family risked their lives to hide Jews in their home, leading to their arrest and imprisonment in a concentration camp. After surviving Ravensbruck, she became a prominent author and speaker, sharing her story of faith and forgiveness, and advocating for reconciliation. She remains a prime example of someone who spent quality time with God even during the worst times ever. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom 1971
When we spend quality time with God, we learn how to trust and rely Him.
Remember that the quality of time is not as important as the quantity of time with God. His timing is so different from ours. Even the smallest amount you intentionally set and focus on will yield benefits for you greater than anything you can imagine. When you send your best friend a text asking for prayer and he/she responds with praying hands, you feel immediate relief. God works in even greater ways! He is truly that close to you.
Time in prayer with God can be a beautiful cycle of focused quality time. This does not have to be long or elaborate. Simple is best. Talk to God in prayer with the best words you have. Admit to him when you have no words, just needs. He meets you where you are. He will respond to “Help me, God” as if you had prayed for days.
Can you use this prayer cycle is a guide to help you improve your quality time with God?
Start with praise and gratitude.
Release everything that has caused you to stumble and struggle.
Thank God for his presence, his blessings, and his mercy to help you.
Ask God for his grace to help you forgive.
Lay your needs down by bringing them to God.
Ask for his healing.
How do you find quality time for God in a packed day?
Examine your typical day with complete honesty. Every hour on the hour, jot down what you have done for the past 60 minutes. At the end of the day, look back over your notes for time gaps and how you filled them. Highlight the time that is set and cannot be changed. Where do you see quality time wasted? Where can you carve out 15 minutes for quality time with God? Where is the time that cannot be changed?
You may find time early in the day works for you. You may discover the amount of time you are scrolling or binge-watching is more than you realized. You may discover fresh ways for your family to spend quality time together with God. Be open to new ideas. Remember that quality time can be in small amounts as long as you keep an open heart and mind.
Thoughts for you…
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Romans 12:9-13
“The only way for spiritual growth to take place in your life is to set aside time with the Lord on a daily basis. The Holy Spirit will work through your heart and guide you each step of the way. Each moment you seek to spend with God will be blessed by Him.”
I hope this message encourages you and gives you some ideas to put into action as you think of God as a best friend. The quality time you spend with God will change your outlook on life. You will start to hear him in your heart as a feeling of assurance more than an actual voice. He will delight you with instances of his presence in nature, through a friend, in a song, with a child’s laughter or an unexpected joy. When you make room for him to be with you, he will enter your space with unconditional love. He will walk you through everyday. He will never leave you. Keep making God a priority in your life, and look for creative ways to spend quality time with him.
