Carving Out Time to Spend with God
Have you been working at carving out time to spend with God? These 5 suggestions can help your walk with the Lord.
The situation may seem all too familiar to you: you know you should spend time each day with God. And you want to.
But between trying to get enough sleep and rushing to and from work and waking up in the middle of the night with babies and tending to kids and juggling schedules and to-do lists, finding time to spend with God so often gets pushed aside.
He’s always there for us. Always waiting for us to spend time with Him.
But we forget.
We get preoccupied.
We move through our days with unbelievable speed and don’t stop to take time with our Creator.
In the process, we get more and more distant to Him and life seems to get more and more hectic and difficult.
By failing to spend time with the Lord, we fail to do the one and only thing that will revitalize our weary souls.
Finding rest
Lately I’ve been finding Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28 both encouraging and frustrating:
“Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
I am weary. I am heavy laden. I do come to Him. But the weariness of my world doesn’t magically disappear.
Yet somewhere in the process of coming to Him, I end up realizing what is important.
I remember that life is fleeting. I know Jesus gives my soul a rest that I can’t find anywhere else, even when my mind and body are so very tired.
Even in the cares and frustrations of the world, He gives me true rest.
Because of His rest, I know I need to come to Him more often. And most days, I know that I need to find time to spend with Him.
5 ways to find time to spend with God
If you’re struggling to find time to spend with God, these five suggestions have helped so much in my life. Hopefully they’ll help in yours:
1. Make time with God a priority.
Just because I don’t visually see God during my day, it doesn’t mean I should forget about Him. He doesn’t clamor for my attention like my kids or walk through the door every night like my husband, but He’s with me every part of my day.
Because He’s part of my life, I want to spend time with Him – and I make sure it happens.
2. Carve time out of your day.
Since I know I want to spend time with the Lord, I need to make sure I’m carving the time out of my day.
That time has looked different during different seasons of my life:
- Throughout middle school and high school, it meant reading the Bible and praying at bedtime.
- In college, it meant studying the Word in the middle of the afternoon between classes.
- When I was single and working, I soaked in the Word at suppertime.
- When I got married and was working, I spent time alone with God at breakfast.
- Once I had babies, I snuck in time when I could – early morning hours, naptimes, or once my babies went to bed at night.
- For the past few years, as a stay-at-home mom, I spend time with God early in the morning, once my husband leaves for work and before my children wake up.
Because quiet, reflective times change throughout my life, I make sure to adjust my time spent with the Lord according to the rhythm of my days.
3. Pick a favorite time and place.
In your current season of life, what time of day would be easiest for you to be able to spend time with the Lord?
Once you figure that out, set a time and stick to it. As your time with God becomes a habit, it’s no longer something to fit in to your busy schedule, but an automatic and essential part of your day.
As you’re figuring out what time works best, also think about what place works well.
If you can spend time in the Word while you’re eating breakfast, plan on spending your time with the Lord at the breakfast table. If it’s before you go to sleep at night, curl up in bed with your Bible. Or find your favorite comfy chair.
While it doesn’t really matter where you go or when you spend the time, having a habitual routine makes it easier to add the priority to your daily life.
4. Give yourself grace.
If you miss a day studying the Bible or praying, don’t feel like you have scrapped it all – give yourself some grace, and start again the next day.
Eventually you’ll get into a rhythm and you’ll crave it; it will feel strange to miss the time with your Heavenly Father.
5. Anticipate the reward.
James 4:8 promises, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” Since it’s a promise that God will draw near if we draw near to Him, why wouldn’t we?
Knowing that finding time to spend with God will help bring me closer to the Lord of the Universe makes me want to do it. I know that the reward of finding the time is more than worth it – and so I anticipate it.
Because I know I should spend time each day with God – and I want to – I make sure I do. It’s the one and only thing that will revitalize my weary soul. And it’s the one and only thing that will revitalize your weary soul, too.
What works for you as you’re finding time to spend with God?
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Thank you for this encouraging post! I have been out of routine with my daily prayer and reading time and I know that I need the Lord in my life…every day! Thank you for reminding me to “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”
Next to accepting Jesus Christ as lord and savior, spending time on purpose, daily with our heavenly father, who loves us so very much, is one of, if not THE most important things we can do. Spending time studying his word, praying or just meditating are a few ways I enjoy. Great article.
The article is me through and through. I drive for a living, so I listen to K-love a lot on the radio which gets me through the day. However there are times the station doesn’t always come in. I’m not on the road 24/7 and I look forward to getting to a place where the reception is strong, like home. I know this isn’t enough cause I can feel it. I come home at night fix dinner,sometimes I pray and other times I’m just in a hurry to eat and go to bed. Will see if lunch time might be the time to grow closer to God. Half hour is better than no time at all.
Thank you Hilary!