Finding Time for God

It Shouldn’t Be Hard, But Sometimes It Is

Why is it that when life gets busy, we skip spending time with God? We love going to church unless there is something else we have to do. We want to pray before work, but we also need to work out, and we don’t have time for both. Whatever the reason, life gets busy, and we only fit God in if we can.

It sounds terrible, and in our hearts, we know that it is not right that we have to try to squeeze God into our daily schedules. It’s even worse when we don’t squeeze Him in. As followers of Christ, we do not want to think that we are who Jesus talks about when he says, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:23)

Reading the Bible, praying, worshiping, and meditating on God’s word are all things we know we should be doing regularly. And they shouldn’t be a chore, either. If we have been set free and chosen to follow Jesus, then these are expected of us. There should be a hunger welling up within us to pursue further intimacy with God.

But what happens when there is not?

Peaks and Valleys

We live in a fallen world. Someday, we will be with God, but for now, we have to pursue Him to experience Him. In our relationship with the Lord, we go through many peaks and valleys of desire to pursue Him.

There are times we relish every moment spent meditating on His Word and praying and singing to Him, when our free moments are spent thinking about Him. But, unfortunately, there are also times when it feels like more of a chore to spend time with the Lord. It feels like we are only seeking Him out of obligation. These ruts are easy to fall into, as they are comfortable and require nothing from us.

Relationships Require Effort

This is the same as any close relationship. All relationships require our time and attention. Close relationships require even more of us. This is not a burden, but it is part of the beautiful arrangement that we have with others.

We lift each other up and push each other to be better. But this does require time and, more importantly, attention.

We may not want to go to a graduation, or driving somebody to the airport messes up our plans for Saturday. But we do it anyway because the relationship is more important than the inconvenience.

Just as our relationship with God requires time and attention.

The easy path is the one that ignores God in our daily lives. It is one where we go to church when it is convenient and ask for prayer when we are hit by tragedy.

The Beauty of the Cost

When our desire is there, and we want to pursue God fervently, we need to take advantage of that and lean into it. We need to grow as much as we can in that growing season because we know that those feelings will leave at some point, and pursuing God will become more challenging.

But we can still pursue Him, even when we do not want to. That is when the discipline developed when we are hungry for Him bears fruit. Sometimes, all we have left is discipline, and we have no genuine desire to sit in God’s presence. And then, once we are there, pursuing God, most of the time, we will be glad that we did. We will remember our heart’s desire for Him, and our discipline carried us there.

But what if we force ourselves to spend time praying, reading, and meditating but still feel nothing? What if our discipline is the only thing carrying us forward, and more often than not, it feels like a waste of time? What can we do then?

First of all, this happens to everybody at one point or another. Secondly, this becomes a beautiful opportunity in our lives. At that moment, we can choose to love God when we feel we are getting nothing in return.

Most of the time, we pursue God, and we receive many intangible blessings from Him, sometimes even tangible ones. But if we feel we are not receiving anything from God, that we are only talking to the ceiling and wasting our time, then we can recognize that and choose to love God and pursue Him still. We have the opportunity to show God that we do not need anything from Him and that we only want Him.

It is easy to sing the words in a worship song that He is our portion. But that means that we expect nothing else. It is much harder to continue pursuing Him when we are receiving nothing else.

The vows at a wedding are not for when everything is going well. When all is great and easy, staying committed to one another is not hard. The vows are for when things go wrong. We promise to be together in the good times and the bad, but it might be more appropriate to promise to love each other even when the other behaves unlovablely. That is when, as a spouse, we have a choice. Our spouse behaves in an unlovable way, but we choose at that time to love them despite their behavior.

God is never unlovable. But there are times when it can feel as though He is unreachable. And to us, that will feel the same. It will feel as though God is ignoring us, not caring for us, or withholding His presence from us.

That is when we can choose to pursue Him despite this. When we know His words in the Bible and His promises, we can recognize that those feelings are deceiving us. We can choose to trust in His words and pursue Him still when it is uncomfortable and inconvenient.

What a fantastic opportunity to show God that we love Him still and want Him as our portion!

How to do it?

It is simple but not easy.

• Should I do it? Yes.
• Do I want to do it? No.
• Then I have to do it.

We can lean in and make the conscious decision to show our love for God by pursuing Him (praying, meditating on His word, reading the Bible, worshiping, etc.) when the feelings are not there.