Quality Time With God.

When we hear people mention spending time with God, we find our minds bottled. Spend time with God? How? I used to ask these same questions. How is it possible to spend time with God, when He isn't physically here. But as I began to walk with God, and really and truly develop my relationship with Him, I discovered that spending time with God has absolutely nothing to do with what we conceptually perceive as spending quality time with people. It is a spiritual dwelling in the presence of God. It is setting aside time to just be in His presence, to talk to Him, to pray, to read the Word, to sit quietly and commune and fellowship with the Holy spirit. Spending time with God is not hard, it does not require much of you, and is one of the most precious moments in your day. It's the time that you set aside to really get alone with God, to tune out the world, to quiet your mind, and to for that time, simply love on God and let Him love on you in return. And we see throughout scripture Jesus telling us that He wants to spend time with us, that He wants to be one with us, so that we can dwell in Him and know the fullness of Who He is and how much He loves us. He says in John 15:5 "I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, He it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." So what Jesus is saying here is "Look, I am your vine, I am your connection, your source, your well to draw from. Nothing that you do in this world will you be able to do without me." And it's so true. I can't tell you how many times I have tried to make major decisions in my life without sitting down and talking to Jesus Who is the love of my life, Who is the author and finisher of my story, Who is my strength, only to watch them fail because not once did I sit down and get before Him and spend time seeking His counsel on the matter. But the moment that I began to involve Jesus in my life, to inquire of Him as to His opinion, His say, and to seek His guidance and His will, things in my life began to prosper. Still don't understand what I'm saying? Let's try it this way. Let's say (for example's sake) that you are married. And one day you're out shopping while your husband is at work. Now, as a married couple, you all have one joint account, and have agreed that no major purchases will be made without you both being in agreement. And because you are married, it is essential that major decisions are made between the both of you, not just one. Baring all of this in mind, you see that new couch that you have been dying to have, but you also remember that as the head of the house your husband must be included. You know that you have not consulted Him, and that without his agreement you can not buy the sofa. Well, do you go and buy it anyway? Or do you honor your husband according to the word as both the leader of the house, and as the other deciding half? You include and honor your husband because you know that first and foremost, this decision can not be made without his consent as you are both one flesh, but also because you respect and honor the role that he has been given by God as the head of household and as your husband. And so now looking back at what Jesus said in John 15:15, you realize that there is an intimacy that God seeks to have with us. There is an honor that we must have in His inclusion in every part of our lives because He is the husband, and the church is the bride. You are one with God, which means that you can not outside of His presence and outside of His will go making decisions and moves, and think that He will bless them, and stamp them with His approval. We must dwell and abide in Christ, who is the true vine, and the husband of the church. In order to understand this dynamic, we must first have a proper and intimate relationship with God.

Now, again, I know what you're thinking. I want to spend time with God but I have no idea how. I don't know what it means, what it looks like, what it feels like, what I'm supposed to do. It's actually not as difficult as we make it, nor is it as complicated and complex as we would like for it to be. Setting aside time to spend with God is simple. Think about it, how do you make time for someone that you are in a relationship with? You adjust your schedule, you set up dates, you put aside time where you give your full attention to that person in that moment. You send calls to voicemail or put your phone on do not disturb. We go out and pick up movies, make dinner, or go on outings. And as silly as it seems, these are all way that we can learn to spend time with God as well. Because at it's core, spending time with God is building and cultivating a relationship with Him. It is saying, "God I desire You. I desire Your time and attention, and I desire to give You mine. I desire to get to know you. To hear your voice. I desire to spend time finding out Who You are, and what makes You God."

Think about it this way. When we first me someone, we find ourselves infatuated with them. If they are away from us for too long, we are seeking them out. We want to call and hear their voice. We miss the way it feels to just be in their presence. Our hearts beat and jolt at the thought of seeing them, being around them, feeling them near. In essence, this is what you build, and take away, and gain in learning to spend time with God. You begin to fall in love with Him, you begin to yearn for Him. It's not about the physicality of a relationship, because the truth is a lot of our earthly and carnal relationships stem from physicality, and still end in failure. We pour ourselves into meeting physical needs, into physical presence, but where is the spiritual component. The fact is, learning to spend spiritual alone time with God will actually begin to spill over into every other area of your life. And so if you can give yourself spiritually to God, set time alone to connect with Him on that level, you will see His love manifest in every other area of your life so strong, that it fills you up, and it becomes a real relationship. It becomes a true love and a true commitment. And when you learn to love God in that way, and to allow Him to love you in return, when you can begin to build on your relationship with God, you are also allowing Him to prepare you for relationships with people. But you must first be whole, and have a blooming, vivacious, steadfast, passionate love relationship with God first. And it all starts with learning to spend quality time in the presence of the Father. Here are some of the very simple, but powerful ways that I spend time with God. They are simple moments, but they yield so much bonding and quality time with The Lord.

COFFEE & WALKS AT THE PARK WITH GOD

The park can be so relaxing. This is one of my favorite places to go and spend time with God. Often times, I just walk the trails or sit on the park benches admiring the scenery and talking to God. Yes, I said talking to God. So many people have the misunderstanding that the only time you can talk to God is in church, or at home. But God wants us to talk to Him every moment of every day. He is with us always, and so we can talk to God whether we are in the grocery store, at church, in the car on the way to work, at work at our desks. Any place any time. The Bible says in Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." And so what He's saying is that I want to hear your voice. I want you to call out to me, to speak to me. I want to hear your voice and know that you need me and love me. And so in these moments, I sit or walk, and I just have conversation with God. I talk to Him as if He's sitting right next to me, or walking with me. I talk to Him about my day, I talk to Him about the things that are bothering me or hurting me. And in those moments, I feel so close to God because I know that He is listening to me. I know that He hears me, and I know that He cares. We see this to us in 1 Peter 5:7 when Peter tells us to "Cast all your anxieties and cares on Him, because He cares for you." So we see here that God cares about us, and for us, and He wants to have that intimate communication with us.

DINNER DATES WITH GOD

Dinner dates with God are amazing. They are such a fun twist on truly building and learning how to be in a relationship with The Lord. I mean we go out to dinner in our carnal relationships right? We sit down across the table from someone, we share a meal, and we talk and engage with one another. We have conversations that range from how our day was to our goals to our beliefs. Well, this is exactly what a dinner date with God is. I do this regularly. I find at least one day in my week, to go and sit down and have dinner with God. Now before you say it, I KNOW this sounds crazy! But it is the most amazing, fun filled, freeing feeling in the world. Now I know, I know God is not physically with me. But He resides IN me, which means no matter where I am at any given time or day, He is with me. So what I like to do is get dressed, pick a new restaurant every time, and go and have dinner and just bask in the presence of The Lord. So whether I'm having dinner and just reflecting on my day or my week, and thinking about the goodness of God in my life, or whether I'm sitting and reading my Bible, I'm having dinner with Him. Sometimes, I just sit and smile as I eat thinking about how good He is to me. Sometimes, I sit and just have a conversation with Him while I eat. I tell Him how much I appreciate Him, or if He's done something new in my life I share my feelings with Him about that. Other times, I just sit and silently pray while I eat. And there are no words to describe the joy that I feel knowing that the God of the universe cares enough about me to listen when I speak. To even reside in me, and to sit and have dinner with me. Or to have a conversation with me about something as small and simple as my day. He tells us in Jeremiah 31:3 "I have loved you with an everlasting love, and so I will continue my loving Kindness, and my faithfulness to you." And I don't know how that makes you feel, but it just sends shocks through my very soul to know that God loves me so much, that He takes the time to tell me this throughout His word. So in these moments, when I'm having dinner with God, it's just me bonding and reciprocating the very love that I feel emanating from Him daily.

These are just a few but there are SO many ways that you can spend time with God. We make it more complicated than it has to be. Spending time with God is beautiful and therapeutic. To be in His presence is to be loved, and to be whole. Give it a try, and I pray that it blesses you!

-Amanda Hill, Founder of Queendom Peak.