How To Have A Meaningful Time With God (Part Two)

When it comes to pursuing God in our private lives as God's children, we can all benefit from receiving helpful input to get us off in the right direction. The following two articles are designed to provide highly practical help for anyone who desires to have a meaningful time with God, day by day. This is the second article, and it aims to provide a basic outline or format to guide you in your daily pursuit of God.

Part Two: Meeting With God Day By Day

Having considered some important aspects of planning which contribute to a flourishing walk with God (first article), let us now consider the rhythms which may helpfully govern our daily practice. It is important to say that what follows is not meant to be received rigidly. There are certainly wrong and unhelpful ways of pursuing a meaningful time with God, but it is also true that there is not one right way. Receive what follows as pastoral counsel which can be thoughtfully adapted according to varying needs and seasons.

1. Prepare

There are a few very basic points that are worth mentioning concerning our daily preparation to meet with God. First, if you are a coffee or tea drinker, plan ahead to have this ready so that it does not end up eating away your time with the Lord. It is easy for 10 minutes of oversleeping, plus 10 minutes of coffee preparation to turn our time with God into a rushed and unsatisfying religious box-checking session.

Second, be jealously concerned to keep the focus of your heart and mind on God. I want to cover two basic distractions here but this applies broadly to many types of distractions:

Children  — It is good for your children to know that your daily pursuit of God is more important than their interruptions. They can wait, and when you lovingly teach them to wait, you simultaneously communicate to them the superiority, worth, and glory of the almighty God. They will remember who you showed them, day by day, was more important: either themself or God. Sometimes we disciple with our words, other times we disciple by our example.
Electronics  — The TV should be off; your phone or computer should be put away; your notifications of texts, emails, etc. can wait. Many arguments have been made about the help which technology can provide in our pursuit of God. There is certainly a case to be made for this. However, I find that in my daily pursuit of God the old path is still the best path. Read a physical copy of the Bible and keep notes in a paper journal. While we may wish our hearts were not still so easily prone to wander we must be honest about the fact that they are.

2. Pray For Help

I find that on most occasions, I am more inclined to a deeper and more meaningful prayer time if I wait to have an extended time of prayer until after my soul has been fed with the Word of God. However, we must always approach God with humble reliance and remember that a spiritually edifying understanding of God’s Word does not come natural to the sinner’s heart. We read the Bible by faith, with dependence upon God the Spirit to work through God’s Word to nourish our soul’s as God’s children.

There are two prayer requests which I believe are especially helpful to offer to God as we approach him:

Prayer for Conviction in Our Heart of the Blessedness & Necessity of Pursuing God 
I believe it is very good for us to ask God to convince us more and more of the goodness of seeking his face with all diligence. This is especially true on those days when we feel our heart to be sluggish and cold, or distracted by other things which (wrongly) seem to have a greater interest to our mind. It is a good and blessed request to ask God to fill our hearts afresh with love for him.
Prayer for the Spirit’s Illumination of the Word to Our Mind 
The Scriptures teach us that we are dependent upon the light which God must supply in order to rightly understand and receive the holy truth of God’s Word into our heart and life, (I Cor. 2:10). For this reason, we must not come to the Bible thinking that the exertion of our flesh will accomplish the desired end. Our effort, stemming from faith in Christ, must be met with the blessing of God’s Spirit in order to be truly profitable to our soul. Thus, we come, day by day, with open hands before the Spirit in a posture of continual dependence.

3. Pursue God

Our pursuit, in its simplest terms, means reading the Bible. However, I don’t like to call this section “reading the Bible” because reading alone is not our goal. It is possible to read the Bible often and not be truly pursuing God, just ask the Pharisees, (John 5:39-40). The goal of Bible reading is not reading words, but knowing God. God has revealed himself through his Word and thus as we read the Word of God we are in pursuit of a deeper and more satisfying relationship with the God of the Word.

In our pursuit, there are three points of advice I believe will be especially helpful:

Go Directly To God (Not Man) 
It can be tempting to turn to devotional materials (or other books) as we pursue God. These books have their place and can certainly be a blessing to God’s people. However, they are not a replacement for going to God himself. In materials produced by men, men speak about God, but in the holy Scriptures God is revealing himself. Even the best men may err, but God’s Word is perfect, timeless, and pure. In our daily pursuit, let us go to God himself and drink deeply of the revelation which he has provided for the souls of the children whom he loves. Other sources are helpful supplements, but the Bible should be the main course in every Christian’s spiritual diet.
Stick With Your Plan 
The importance of selecting (or creating) a good plan for what we will read each day is so that we have a clear course to follow in our pursuit of God. Reinventing the wheel day by day is not only tiring, but we often end up going ‘round in circles. I encourage you to trust that everything which God has revealed in his Word is purposeful and useful to your soul and therefore to stick with your plan even when you find yourself in sections of holy Scripture where the benefits may not be as immediately discerned or felt. God knows what we need far better than we could ever hope to. Like the prescription of a good doctor, we can trust that God has given us what is best for our good as we walk with him day by day.
Receive Help 
“Going directly to God” does not mean ignoring or refusing any orthodox helps. As noted in the first article, context is very important for rightly understanding, interpreting, and applying the Bible. For this reason, I recommend using a trusted study Bible as a companion to your daily reading. Within a study Bible you will find brief introductions to each of the books which will help you better grasp their unique purpose and function in the Bible. You will also find selected notes for some of the verses which may shed light where certain concepts can be difficult to understand.   As a pastor, I find the following three study bibles to be most commendable:

The Reformation Study Bible (from Ligonier Ministries) 
The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible (from Reformation Heritage Books) 
The ESV Study Bible (from Crossway)

4. Process What You Have Read

You cannot rightly know and pursue God without pursuing him through his Word. Yet, reading the words alone is not the same thing as the pursuit of God. When we read the Bible, we are seeking to know and enjoy God, to be progressively conformed more and more to his will for his glory in every part of our life. We do this by daily receiving, comprehending, and applying the truth which God has revealed in his Word. But of course, this does not merely happen from a cursory reading, but rather through thoughtful reflection, study, investigation, and prayerful dialogue with God himself. If you desire to have a meaningful time with God, the beautiful disciplines of study and meditation must become part of your daily pursuit. This can take many forms, but prayerful journaling in response to God’s Word has been one time-tested means, available to all, which has blessed the souls of many saints.

5. Pray In Response

As we finish our reading of God’s Word (or sometimes even during), we want to respond to God in humble prayer. One of the most important, and yet often neglected aspects of a meaningful time with God, is learning to pray responsively to his Word. As we read and reflect upon God’s Word we can allow the very content of that Word to cultivate prayer in us.

For example, in the passage(s) that we read, is God teaching us who he is? Let us marvel at the Lord and adore him through prayer; let us praise him and allow God’s revealed character to give deep and abiding peace to our soul! Is God showing us what he has done for us in Christ? Let us rejoice and praise him with a heart of thanksgiving! Let us rest deeply in the finished work of our Savior! Is God teaching us how he calls us to live in holiness as his people? Let us repent of our sin and ask for the Spirit to help us put to death the deeds of the body and renew our minds in truth. Has God spoken promises of comfort and blessing to his people? Let us lay hold of them by faith and order our lives upon them, knowing that God is ever-faithful. Is God explaining the brokenness and corruption of the world? Let us pray for the lost, and learn how we may reach them with God’s appointed means. Have we read something which was very difficult and hard to understand? Let us tell God that we do not understand and ask him to teach and instruct us more.

As we close our personal daily time with God in prayer, we ought to pray in response to the revelation which God has given to us. We let the Word inform and guide our prayers so that we are taking the Word of God more deeply into our own heart and life. As we do so, of course we also offer those prayers which are more general to our everyday lives as well. Yet, it is very wise to allow the Word of God to lead us to prayer first and not always our immediate circumstances or felt needs—though there are certainly times when we simply run to God with these because we are facing great difficulties. Even still, the reason I encourage you to allow the Word to have priority in shaping your prayers is because the Lord knows what is most important and needful to us. As we continue to grow, day by day, we want our hearts and minds to reflect the heart and mind of Christ more and more. Like a lump of pliable clay in the hands of a master sculptor, we do not aim to press the sculptor into our image, but rather be pressed into the image desired by the sculptor. For every Christian we know that the desired (and promised!) image is the image of Christ, (Col. 3:10).

Conclusion: Live Coram Deo For the Glory of God

Above all, what we long for in our daily pursuit of God is to know him, enjoy him, obey him, serve him, and gladly live to glorify him more and more day by day. Our private pursuit of God is a fervent and zealous pursuit born out of love, because he has first loved us, (I Jn. 4:9-10). May the Lord teach us, his chosen people, to gather our heavenly manna day by day, as we learn to trust him as our ever-faithful Provider.