There’s a story my friend showed me that a pastor once told his church in America. It was about a successful advertising executive who told his pastor he struggled to find time to spend with God.
His pastor gave him an important message: you will always find time for the things you value.
The guy proceeded to spend his early mornings sitting with a coffee, reading the Bible and praying. The time he spent there, having coffee with God, changed his life.
We can often feel super busy, super tired or just super unwilling when it comes to setting aside time with God. Reading the Bible can be difficult and confusing, and often we end up running through our to-do lists or thinking about something completely different when we set out to pray. In Psalm 62:1, David said “Earnestly I seek you God”, and that’s what we should be aiming to do, seeking to know and love God more deeply and profoundly.
In Luke 18, Jesus told the parable of the unjust judge, who eventually listened to an old widow, merely because she was so persistent, and kept bugging him! Our prayers are not only the main way we communicate with God, but also a way of seeking justice in an unjust world;
“And will not God bring about Justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?” – Luke 18:7
God will and does listen to us, and taking that time to pray, to dig into his word, to listen, is absolutely crucial if you’re serious about deepening your relationship with Jesus. This might mean getting up 20 minutes earlier (a heavy task I know!) or heading to bed a bit earlier and just taking that time to be with God.
Having some guidance in your Bible reading is great, SheReadsTruth is fantastic app with daily devotions you can access, some for free and all really great. The Bible In One Year is also fantastic, there’s both a book and an app for that, or the daily devotional book ‘Heart of the Matter’ by various authors, which I’m going through now, isn’t too heavy or long and provides some wonderful insights into the passages.
A final tip I would suggest is, change location. Have a specific place that you go to every time you have that time with God. I have a big green armchair that I sit in every morning, and I’ve started to associate that chair with spending time with Jesus, which helps me to focus when I am sat in that chair. It might be a coffee shop on your way to school or uni, it might be a specific chair or sofa in your house, a park bench, a desk, wherever!
God wants to meet with you, is desperate to speak to you and spend time with you, if you are willing to “Be still and know that I am God” – Psalm 46:10, then believe that God will change your heart and draw you closer to him.
