The idea of spending time with God can be hard to understand because it looks different than spending time with our friends and family here on earth. We don’t get to see God walk past us in the hallway, and we can’t just shake His hand and say, “Let’s get coffee tomorrow!”
Instead, He is with us, in us, and all around us at all times. While that is an incredibly comforting reality, it might also be one reason we’re not sure how to spend intentional time with Him.
Why Should I Spend Time With God?
There are two very simple reasons why spending time with God is so important:
- Because you were made to love and be loved by God.
- Because God wants to develop an ongoing relationship with you.
James 4:8 says if you come near to God, He will come near to you. And not only does He promise to be near to you; He also wants to, because He loves you.
Spending time with God is allowing yourself to really see and experience His love for you.
Spending time with God, in its simplest form, is allowing yourself to really see and experience His love for you. God’s love is there whether or not you acknowledge it, but God is always hoping that you’ll slow down enough to open your eyes and see it.
5 Ways to Spend Time With God
I want to help you build a habit of spending time with God. So here’s a list of five simple ways to spend time with God that will hopefully allow you to see His love for you as you grow in your relationship with Him.
1. Talk with God
Prayer at its simplest–and most powerful–is just talking with God. I’d even go so far as to say it’s also answering God. He’s always communicating with us in a million different ways (some of which we’ll mention later), and prayer is our response to Him.
1 John 5:14 says,
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 1 John 5:14 NIV
You can talk with God about anything, at any time, and know that He hears you.
Prayer looks different for everybody. Some people pray silently in their heads while they work or study. Others pray out loud while they drive or kneel beside their bed. Some pray sporadically throughout the day, talking with God at random times about random stuff. Others have set times and specific places where they pray, no matter what.
There are lots of different examples of prayer in the Bible. Some are songs or poems, others are celebratory shouts, and others are humble confessions or desperate cries for help.
I think God made sure to include all these different versions of prayer in the Bible so we would feel comfortable enough to come to Him with anything, in any way, no matter what. He wants us to.
How to start a prayer habit: Spend two minutes before bed telling God about your day.
2. Read the Bible
If prayer is talking with and responding to God, reading the Bible is a big part of hearing from Him. The Bible is often called the “Word” of God because that’s what it is: words God gave to us to teach us about His heart, our own hearts, the world, love, pain, sin, and redemption.
Reading the Bible is a great way to spend time with God, no matter how you feel. If you’re too tired to worship or too overwhelmed to think of things to pray about, or you’re not sure how God wants you to act in a certain situation, you can go to the Bible.
It’s not a book of rules meant to discourage you. It’s not a list of ways you’re messed up and reasons you’re broken. It’s evidence that God loves you and demonstrates His grace, kindness, and mercy, again and again.
How to start a Bible reading habit: Find a Bible Plan that interests you and get started. Set a regular reminder on your phone to alert you when it’s time to read your Bible.
3. Admire His World
This section honestly could’ve been titled “Just Live.” Psalm 24 says,
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths. Psalm 24:1-2 NLT
Everything you see was made by God: the ground, the sky, the squirrels, all of it. Everything you hear—laughter, rain, and birds chirping—and the wonderful things you smell, taste, and touch are all God’s handiwork.
Taking a moment to experience those things and appreciate them with intentionality, knowing that God made them all, is a great way to spend time with God.
Think about it this way: you can learn a lot about an artist based on the art they create. Based on one painting, you can guess if the painter is an optimist or a pessimist, if they like music or TV, and if they were looking at a cityscape or the countryside.
When you look at the world, the art that God the Artist has made, you can know Him better.
Similarly, when you look at the world, the art that God the Artist has made, you can know Him better. You can look at the sky full of stars and realize God is so much bigger than you’d thought. You can hear a bird chirp and know that He likes music.
In fact, Jesus actually tells us to admire God’s world in Matthew 6:
“... Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. …” Matthew 6:28-30 NLT
How to appreciate God’s creation: Use your five senses. Think about what you see, hear, taste, smell, and touch, and thank God for His provision and creativity.
4. Learn About Him
If you didn’t like school, you’ll be relieved to know that learning about God doesn’t have to look like that at all.
It can look like a game night with your small group or asking your friends and mentors questions over coffee. It can look like reading interesting books or Finds articles that grab your attention. It might even look like listening to music that describes something about God, His people, or His world.
The goal of this practice is to discover new sides of His love, character, power, or goodness, and there is an endless list of things in the world that demonstrate these characteristics of God.
When you find avenues of learning about God that genuinely interest you, you will find a new, deeper love and appreciation for who God is and what He’s done for you.
How to learn about God: Read a few Finds articles that interest you or teach you something about God you didn’t know before.
5. Remember What He’s Done
The writers of the Bible might have titled this practice “Meditate on God.”
… O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. Psalm 48:9 NIV
I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. Psalm 143:5 NIV
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Isaiah 26:3 NIV
You can practice this in moments when you are able to focus your mind entirely on God. I like to meditate on God before I go to sleep. I usually just stare at the wall and let my mind roam. I remember specific things He’s done for me, my family, and my friends, and I recall the powerful things He did in the Bible stories I read.
Start training your mind to remember who God is, what He’s done, and what He’s doing now.
There are no rules for this practice. You can do it whenever, wherever, and however you want. The goal is to just start training your mind to remember who God is, what He’s done, and what He’s doing now.
According to Isaiah 26:3, your trust in God, fostered by your memories and meditations, will keep your mind in “perfect peace.”
What’s interesting about this habit, at least for me, is that it almost always has me circling back to our first practice, prayer. Thinking about who God is and what He’s done will always make me want to talk with Him.
How to meditate on God: Identify a moment in your day that’s usually quiet (for example, your commute to work or your nighttime routine) and use that moment to just think about who God is and remember what He has done.
It Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
You don’t have to dive headfirst into all five of these practices today. Instead, choose the one you think is the most beneficial for you in this season, and start slowly building an enjoyable, maintainable habit of spending regular time with God.
God is ready and excited to spend time with us. All we have to do is show up.