Spend time with God – it’s kinda important

New Years – gotta love it, right? The awesome resolutions you make at the start of the year, which you end up having to redo the next year because you never completed them. Sounds about right, eh? Perhaps as a Christian, your greatest resolution was to read the Bible in the year, or to spend half an hour of quiet time with God, or to pray more. But what happens? One day passes by, and then a week and then you realise you’ve spent barely any time with him.

As the pastor’s kid, I think people think I spend all my time in God's word or in prayer. Many jokes get made about us PKs, because whilst it may be a joke, people honestly can believe we are more godly than anyone else (or that we think that ourselves). My family and I always had the joke that we were sprinkled with fairy dust at birth.

But this couldn't be further from the truth.

In fact, I would go as far as to say, that simply because this notion exist (that I am more righteous than anyone else), I can easily become trapped thinking "I don't really need to do this today" - and I end up forgetting to spend time with God. And that, my friends, is wrong.

But after countless sermons, and talks, and books, and even the conviction of the Holy Spirit, I have come to realise that I DON'T SPEND ENOUGH TIME WITH GOD.

And there isn't really a set amount of time for this sort of thing. But I believe that if I am convicted in my heart that I do not know Christ enough, I probably need to read God's word more. If I do not feel like I have a strong relationship with him, maybe I should pray more. I think the Spirit works like that - like how you might imagine a shoulder angel. But now I'm just getting sacrilegious.

But why is it so important?

I think the answer to this question is fairly straightforward. The God who knows our sinful hearts chose to love us so much, that he would send his son to die the most gruesome death the world could offer. He knows us, in spite of ourselves. More than that, he loves us, in spite of our sinful hearts. Wouldn't you want to get to know someone like that?

Imagine there is this person who you really like (romantically), and they are willing to give of themselves so sacrificially, just so you might be saved. And remember, Jesus conquered death. He rose again. And this means that we do not have to suffer the eternal wrath of God in Hell. If anyone is worth knowing on this earth, simply because they sacrificed their lives in one way or another for us, how much more should we want to know the God incarnate who came to save our souls for eternity?

So the Bible, what's so cool about it? How do we even get to know someone in a book?

I mean, its basically a biography. It tells events of various sorts, from sin to saints, from wars to exiles and prophesies, from miracles to the deaths of many different people. But all of these events point to the one true living God. The Old Testament, in particular the prophets, points to the coming of Jesus to save the world from sin. The New Testament is the fulfillment of all these prophecies and offers the promise of Jesus' return when he will judge the world and bring all who love him back home. It's a book all about Jesus. And if you know biographies, you know they help to know more about a person.

But perhaps you know a little bit more about the Bible, and might see some flaws in considering it a biography. Look at these verses:

• "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" - 2 Timothy 3:16

• "The Word [that is, Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" - John 1:14

• "Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that come from the mouth of the Lord" - Deuteronomy 8:3b

Doesn't the Bible seem a bit more autobiographical? Because so many parts of it reveal it to God and his words. It's what we call special revelation, the revelation of God through the words he gives his people to write, with the work of the Holy Spirit. God's word is his story. It is an autobiography. It is not our story (I'm not even sure you can even have an autobiography about multiple people), it is the story of the one God who ever existed.

If this is God's revelation to us, then we can come to know him, because he says exactly all he has chosen to reveal. And just reading the Bible once is not beneficial. In fact, I can read a book one year, and then go back the next and think I haven't read it before. God reveals so much to me all the time.

Okay, okay, but prayer? How does that help?

I must say, prayer has been a constant struggle in my life and still is. I really struggle to focus. I'm a girl who can have multiple things going on in my life which can make it hard for me to focus on talking to God. It is one of those things that you can do throughout the day. I remember a sermon where the pastor revealed that they tried praying before the next task they would carry out. It was always a quick prayer, but it helped remind him that this life was not his own, it was walked alongside God. In fact, God interceded in every part of it.

So short prayers are good. But it is good to schedule time where you talk to him. I know, hypocritical of me to say, because I'm really bad at making time to do this especially. But it is important. Human relationships are built by talking to people. We have God's words to us, maybe prayer could be considered our words to God.

Prayer doesn't have to occur in the mind. In fact, when I pray out loud (usually in a whisper), it really helps me to focus on what I am saying, and to be genuine. Even more effective for me has been prayer journalling: literally writing out the whole prayer in a journal. However, this can take time, but maybe dot points would be handy. Make sure it doesn't just become a checklist - God isn't just your servant, but he loves to hear his people talking to him. Even David or the Sons of Korah wrote out their prayers in the form of psalms. I think that worked very effectively.

In conclusion (cos this could probably go on forever...)

Consider Jesus on earth. He was constantly building relationships. And like I said, he loves us - he's proven that much on the cross. If we are to love like Jesus, we must love our neighbours as ourselves, but primarily, we must "love the Lord [our] God with all [our] heart, soul, mind and strength". And part of that love is seen when we decide we are gonna get to know him. So, yeah, spend time with him....it's kinda important.