No fancy title. No catchy phrase. You have to spend time with God. I do not have the words to express how important, how integral, how crucial it is for a follower of Jesus Christ to adopt a lifestyle of connecting with God. Language, as it does quite often, fails me.
Your heart. His heart. Real conversation. Laughter. Real tears. Real questions. Real anger. Being honest about your pride, your hopelessness, your fear. Really talking to Him about other people who desperately need God because of their successes or failures. Time with God that actually means something. Means something? Yea, for God, for you, for people in your life, and against the Enemy. Time that counts, and the only way that time will count is if it is not superficial. Raw. Genuine. Honest. Your heart torn open to His love, word, correction, influence, encouragement, and his guidance.
Earlier this morning I read two chapters in John Eldridge’s book, Wild at Heart, preparing for my men’s life group tomorrow. I have a very set way I spend time with God in the morning. I do not apologize for this. I love my routine. Remember, routine is not the same thing as legalism or religion. It can be, but does not have to be. There is a such thing as a life-giving routine.
However, sometimes I get bored with my method. If you are not careful, Satan will lie to you. He will whisper to you, “See, you are bored with God,” in an effort to shame you and bury your heart. But this is not what is going on. What is really happening is that you, either because you are a creature of habit or because you still have traces of religion controlling you, are simply bored with your methodology. All you need to do is shake things up. You need to ignore the accusatory voice of your Enemy as a Christian and realize that you are human and that as a human, it is so easy for you and I to get bored. Let me help you: You are not bored with God. Take a deep breathe. Satan is trying to make your boredom bigger than it really is.
This is the quote I came across this morning that so gripped my heart that I hand-wrote it in my leather quote journal that only very special quotes make it into. I had to share it with you. If you are a stay-at-home mom, a pastor, a teacher, a mechanic, an artist, or a fisherman, take heed. There is so much life and fun and creativity in the following words. Eldridge writes,
“Time with God each day is not about academic study or getting through a certain amount of Scripture or any of that. It’s about connecting with God. We’ve got to keep those lines of communication open, so use whatever helps. Sometimes I’ll listen to music; other times I’ll read Scripture or a passage from a book; often I will journal; maybe I’ll go for a run; then there are days when all I need is silence and solitude and the rising sun. The point is simply to do whatever brings me back to my heart and the heart of God.” (Wild at Heart, chapter 9)
He goes on to write, “The discipline, by the way, is never the point. The whole point of a ‘devotional life’ is connecting with God.”
There are no excuses. No substitutes. You will or you won’t.
BJ Condrey, Ph.D. 