If I have grown to love and treasure one thing in life it is this: spending time in the presence of God. There is nothing better than being with Him and experiencing His tender love and His life-changing Words.
“One thing I have asked of the Lord; that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, and to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His temple”
Psalm 27:4
Some people call time spent with God “devotions” and some others call it “quiet time”. Whatever you call it, the main idea is time set apart to meet with God and to get to know Him, and in the process opening your heart more and more to Him. My times with God include a combination of spiritual disciplines such as prayer, worship, studying the Bible, meditation, and silence. Not in that order, or not any exact combination. My desire is simply that everyday I meet with God alone and be changed in His presence.
THE TRUTH IS, HOWEVER…I haven’t always understood the importance of meeting with God. There have been seasons of life where I was legalistic with my quiet times, and others where they just didn’t exist. There have been times that I thought of having “quiet times” as something I should do, but without much desire or passion to do it.
During those times, “doing” quiet times seemed to me kind of like the duty of flossing. I have a really bad track record with flossing-basically I didn’t do it…ever…then when I had to go to the dentist I would cram in power-flossing for a few days to appear as though I’ve been doing it all along. Spiritually speaking, in the past when I was going to meet someone who may want to talk to me about my times with God or who was really growing with God, I would try to cram in a few “quiet times” in order to have appeared like I’ve been doing it all along too. This is the definition of a self-righteous, performance driven mind-set and it is totally the wrong idea…I have fallen prey to it, but such a portrayal of “devotional time” is completely missing the point and cheating us of our destiny in God.
The point is knowing God’s heart – receiving and giving love to the One who desires relationship of the most intimate and personal nature.
He longs to open our heart and touch the places that need healing, to touch our minds and rework where we’ve believed lies, and to touch our lives so that we can walk whole, healed and transformed with Him at our side.
He wants to give us good things. Those good things come in the context of relationship-not in the context of religion (religious services, pious activities or just obeying rules).
Its happens in the context of relationship with our loving and holy Father and discovering who we are in His eyes.
Relationships grow with time invested in them. Relationships develop when there is a commitment to an intimate heart connection. Relationship with God happens as we meet Him on a personal level. It is about you before God. Its about coming to Him and opening your heart to the One who fashioned it. It’s about coming home to His presence and being changed daily into the woman or man He has destined for us to become. All this happens in the secret place of devotion to God- in the early morning hours, in your lunch hour, in any set apart time you can give Him your whole heart, mind and soul- when you can give Him the gift of undivided attention.
Join me over the next few posts as I explore more of what meeting with God looks like in my life and offer a few ideas of how it can become a real part of your journey towards knowing God and becoming who He created you to be.
May we all hunger for the deeper places of God’s heart.
~ Wrapped in His Affection ~