God

Howdy all,

Ok...so, jumping to a different topic again today, talking about God and us. Proverbs 8:34-35 says "Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD." So if we are waiting daily for God, we will receive life and favour. How many of us actually spend time each day to give God our burdens and listen to his voice?


Christians always advocate spending time with God. But what does that mean- exactly? Reading a few passages of the Bible when I wake up in the morning? Praying briefly before I begin my day? I think that everyone can figure out for themselves what brings their hearts fulfillment from time with God and how that time needs to be spent. 


Luke 9:23 says "Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Everyday we must humble ourselves before God, ask him to lead us and follow him. We need to give God control over each day so as not to control our lives ourselves. Time with God is so important- we all know the Lord's prayer- Give us this day our DAILY bread- and so on. We need to pray that God will provide for our needs of that day and totally and completely surrender to him. Time with God helps us!


Yet I think it's so much more than just asking God to do a bunch of stuff for us. It has the function to bring us closer to God and demonstrates to God how we want to experience him more in our lives through the sacrifice of our time. We are busy- it's hard to sometimes set apart even 15 minutes for God. But it's worth it. If you want more of God, and want to experience radical things with him (visions, dreams, supernatural stuff...) than the more time you spend with him, the more your heart and mind become in tune with the Spirit of God. Time with God can alleviate stress, comfort us, help us feel loved by God, give us direction for our lives and give us answers. God can do whatever he wants with the time that you give him. Just give it to him and let him take you places.


Okay, maybe you're thinking that this sounds nice and all but whenever you've spent time with God, it's been, well, boring. You pray and then you hear the silence, than you start thinking of the stuff you need to get done and God kinda fades from the picture. Or you really try to concentrate on God but nothing happens. Personal time with God becomes disappointing or boring. Ya, this definitely is how time with God sometimes seems but it doesn't make it any less important because God sees your efforts.


And it also makes me think that, perhaps, you're not spending time with God how you should. He created us all different after all! There isn't one rule of alone time with God. Some people find praying for a long time riveting to their soul, others, just can't concentrate on it. But prayer isn't only one way of communicating with God, it's important, definitely but there are other ways. Everyone has different talents, so use them when spending alone time with God- it will make it way more fun! Sing to God, write songs to him that express your thoughts, paint out your communication to God, journal your prayers, thoughts and whatever else (that's one of my personal favourites), even things like baking can count as personal time with God because you can do it for God! You can talk to him while you stir the dough or praise him while it's in the oven. Whatever we love doing, do it with God! 


Do something different all the time, journal for awhile but then take some time to study the Bible (we can never neglect the Bible!) or listen to praise and worship music and just concentrate on sending your own praises to God. It doesn't have to be the same thing all the time. Yet, what you should do every time is listen for God's voice. He may speak audibly to you (I've never heard him) but you never know how God wants to reach out to you. Other times, his voice may be thoughts that pop in your mind and over time you may be able to actually recognize those thoughts apart from others and know him speaking. It's difficult to say the least, confusing and sometimes frustrating but something I keep in mind is that if I am hearing something positive and uplifting- it's from God. If it's something that will encourage me, help me grow, it's from God. Sometimes it won't even be words, God can speak using pictures in your mind or sending you a random Bible verse to look up. Sometimes, as you go through your day, someone may say something to you that strikes you in a particular way and you just know inside that God is using that person to communicate to you. Or maybe even a certain event occurs during the day that points us towards God. It's important to always try to keep listening! The Holy Spirit is there inside of us to point out God's direction and truth to us so we better try to listen.


Anyway, sometimes I just feel that we'd fare a lot better if we just made some time for God- alone- no interruptions if possible. So I just encourage you girls to make it a habit and don't get discouraged when not much seems to happen, keep at it, perseverance brings more of God.