Are you spending time with God daily? You are being bombarded with trials daily. Maybe your job is stressful. Problems at home, perhaps. Financial stress. The devil bothering you and your loved ones. Struggles with your own sin. Sickness. Persecution. The world system creeping in. You need time with God daily to have all the love, joy, peace, strength, and hope you need to endure and overcome your trials!
This isn’t a have to. It’s a want to, and a need to! Where else can you go for enough love of God to fill you up but to the One who loves you the most? Thank God for godly people around us! But even their love isn’t enough to fill our cups to overflowing! Only God can do that! Psalm 23, a famous and well-beloved psalm tells us:
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want [lack]. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. [King James Version]
God is the One who fills your lacks. He refreshes you as if you were in a green pasture. He calms the troubled storms in your soul and life and leads you to His still waters. He restores your soul when you are worn out from just surviving each day, dealing with the pain others inflict on you, and enduring your trials of sickness and spiritual, emotional, and physical pain. He shows you the paths of righteousness to walk in so that you don’t end up shipwrecked in sin. Even if you face impending death, you don’t have to be afraid! God is with you! He lovingly corrects you and comforts you with His divine protection from the attacks of the devil. To be sure, the attacks will come; but when You call on God in the mighty Name of Jesus, He is there to defend you and make the devil leave! Even when others around you are persecuting you, trying to intimidate you into backing down from living in the Spirit of God and speaking by the same Holy Spirit, God has spread a banquet on His table for you! When you read the Bible enough daily, He anoints your head with oil, the Holy Spirit! Spending time with Him will cause the cup of your heart to overflow with love, life, peace, and joy! You can ask Him for healing for your sick body, as well, and He will answer in His perfect timing and way! This may be immediately, gradually, or when you are promoted to heaven in death!
Are you spending time daily with God? I love Psalm 103! It says:
Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies: Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth His children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passesth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children’s children; To such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them. The LORD hath prepared His throne in the heavens; and His kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the LORD, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word. Bless ye the LORD, all ye His hosts; ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure. Bless the LORD, all His works in all places of His dominion; bless the LORD, O my soul.
God is the One who forgives all your mistakes and errors and removes the shame! He is the One Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, and Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies! He satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s! The LORD executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed! He is so merciful and gracious and doesn’t get angry quickly! He is overflowing with mercy! He doesn’t always get on your case, and He doesn’t hold grudges. He doesn’t dish out to you the judgment you deserve when you ask Him for forgiveness! Fear God, and He will show you great mercy! He takes your sins away as far as the east is from the west! He shows pity to you like a father does his child! He remembers you are weak and that you were made out of dust (see Genesis 2:7). People will fail you and die, but the LORD’s mercy is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and He blesses your godly descendants (if you have them). God’s/Jesus’ kingdom rules over all. He is so worthy of our praise!!!
Are you spending time with God daily? The devil will try to make us so busy that we do not have time to spend with God. A five-minute “power time” with God each day is not enough! I’m not against apps that give you a scripture a day. However, that is not enough spiritual food to fight the devil, friends! You need to read the Bible each day. You need to read from Genesis to Revelation, the whole counsel of God, not only your favorite passages! Just because you read the Bible through once doesn’t mean “you are good”, that you need no more. You need to be reading the Bible from cover to cover the rest of your life because otherwise you will forget what it says! God’s Bible is His love letter to you. With the aid of the Holy Spirit and a good version of the Bible (I like the King James Version and the New American Standard Versions best), He can help you understand it and apply its wisdom and hope to your life. Every answer you need in your life is in that Book somewhere. God will show it to you as you spend time reading it for revelation of its meaning. Jesus is the Word of God (see John chapter 1, especially verse 1). If you want to get to know Him better, He will speak to you consistently with what is in the Bible!
You need to go to a loving, Bible-believing church somewhere regularly. That could be a large or medium assembly. –Or it could be one or two others you meet with to have church. Jesus Himself said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20. I like to go to both. If you are a Christian, you are part of the Body of Christ. You will languish and be lonely if you don’t meet together with other believers for worship, teaching of the Bible, communion, and prayer. Perhaps you left churches because of rejection and persecution. Sometimes you have to leave in such abusive situations. However, don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves with other believers (Hebrews 10:25). Ask God to lead you to a loving assembly. Don’t just stay shipwrecked on the side. Let God lovingly heal you and help you find other believers with whom to meet together in His Name.
That being said, if all you do is go to church and you never spend time with God alone, except maybe an occasional prayer in distress, you will not be able to be very close to God! Being close to another person takes much time. It is no different with God. God wants to be spiritually intimate with you. He wants Himself and you to be best friends and in love as spiritually engaged to one another until the rapture, after which you will get spiritually married! If you are a Christian, Jesus is your Bridegroom, and you are His bride! If you want to be spiritually intimate with God, it will take more than merely going to church.
Are you spending time daily with God? Are you attending church regularly? Are you reading the Bible daily? You also need to pray to God. Pray from your heart. Speak respectfully and sincerely. He is your very best Friend! Jesus understands you completely. He became a man and suffered all the kinds of trials you have. He knows how to comfort you and help you through everything. He will give you the love and affirmation you crave and help you with all your problems. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” He will use you to intercede for others to become more like Him and close to Him. Sometimes you may even need to pray all night like Jesus did to His Father. Luke 6:12 says, “…And it came to pass in those days, that he [Jesus] went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.” Nighttime is a great time to spend alone with God when all is quiet!
Perhaps the demands of life and job are so difficult that it is difficult to find time during the day to spend with God. Let me tell you a well-known story with a promise for you. Mary, the brother of Lazarus and Martha, had chosen to spend time at Jesus’ feet listening to Him teach. Martha was in the kitchen, distracted and worried about all there was to do to show hospitality. Martha told Jesus to tell Mary to help her. Here is His response: to Marth, “And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” [emphasis mine]. I believe that is a promise from God/Jesus to us, too, that if we choose to spend time daily with God, even if we are bombarded with many things to do, He will make a way for that time; and it will not be taken away from us!
Are you spending time with God daily? Get that time with God you need every day. Find a quiet place, and shut the door [if there is one]! Jesus is waiting to dine with you in prayer and in the Bible. In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says to His church–catch that, to His church: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man [or woman] hears my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” What a wonderful banquet of love and lovingkindness awaits you and me as we sup with Jesus in His word and prayer every day!!!
Below are some songs that will encourage you! The first is “Private Temple” by Karl Kohlhase. I love this song!
Here is a lovely song, “Where Could I Go but to the Lord.” I think going to the Bible is going to the Lord! Enjoy!