What does spending time with God look like?
February 16, 2010 by Bob Regnerus
As some of you might have caught in my Facebook updates a week or so ago, I got a generous 40th birthday gift from my parents. My dad spends 2 winter months in Florida every year and he flew me down to spend 5 days with him. For whatever reason, this was the first time we’ve ever done something like this alone – meaning not with my mom, my wife or kids, or any of my siblings. Just the two of us.
With a great amount of turmoil going on in my business, it was both the worst and perfect time to step away for 5 days. Looking back, it was 5 days well spent.
Getting 5 days alone with your dad at age 40 is really a gift. My dad is still young, in his early 60′s, but nearly lost his life in his 50′s to heart issues. It was a struggle for many years – in and out of hospitals, lot’s of tweaking of medicines, and advances in medical technology – finally leading back to a new normal lifestyle, one that involves travel, golf, fishing, and playing with grandkids. God is good. Of course, with my recent heart scare and realization of my handling of stress, I’ve discovered through my medical tests and appointments that I indeed have the same genetic makeup of my father. Basically we share the same kind of heart. you might see where I am going with this. I might have to expand on that in another post sometime.
As we spent time eating (I mean, a lot of eating), walking the beach, playing golf, and just sitting down and talking about our lives, it struck me how simple and wonderful that is. Spending time with your dad – very loose agenda, no scripts, no routines – just time. As I drifted off to sleep one night, I was thinking about this and I began to recall the thousands of times I have heard my fellow Christian brothers and sisters, and many teachers and leaders say, “I (or YOU) need to spend more time with God” and to no one’s surprise, what they meant was, “I need to find more time to sit down and read the Bible and find out what he wants me to do”. Perhaps this also means they need time to sit down and pray as well.
For the longest time I’ve believed spending time with God was exactly that. Reading the Bible and closing with prayer. Badda bing, badda boom. Now, on with my day.
As I sit here now, I can attest that a “devotion time” is useful for learning truths, being inspired with new ideas, and being convicted of thoughts, actions, behaviors that might need to be changed. But how intimate can devotions really be when your whole goal in the process is “to learn what God wants from me?”.
As Christians, we believe that God the Father is alive – he’s real. Jesus – he’s alive. The Holy Spirit – he’s inside of us. So with these 3 living beings desiring to be close to us – How offensive is it to ignore God and only spend time reading about what he did hundreds and thousands of years ago in a book? How silly would it have been, for me to spend 5 days with my dad who was sitting with me, eating with me, walking with me, and enjoying time with me by sticking my nose in a book about him and trying to learn what he wants from me? In most societies, this would be considered RUDE and offensive. It would be especially offensive to do this to your dad, your wife, or your kids. All my dad wanted to do in those 5 days was to enjoy being with me. And that’s what we did! Wouldn’t our heavenly Father really want the same thing?
I’m not saying stop reading the Scriptures, but what I am saying that we need to realize that spending time with Father cannot be accomplished by Bible study. Yes, we can learn more about him, but when he’s sitting beside you constantly, and is always speaking, by getting your nose out of the book and realizing he’s actually a very nice companion, who loves to sit with you when you work, when you relax, when you are active, when you are walking, when you are eating – you actually start to LIKE God and get to know who he is first hand! Not what you learned about him in a book, but actually experience a relationship with him and get to know him personally!
I’ve discovered that a Christian lifestyle is not a set of routines – daily devotions, weekly Bible study group, pray before meals, devotions after meals, church twice on Sunday, volunteering at church, doing ministry, etc. All these are disciplines, but they lack intimacy. Until we can embrace the concept of spending time with God is literally every second of the day, we’ll never really relax and enjoy the person that he is. After all, the Scriptures are only meant for one thing – to inspire us to discover who the Father, the Son, and his Spirit are. Don’t miss it like the Pharisees did – all they did was read and obey the Scriptures, but totally missed Jesus right in front of them.
My prayer for you is that you experience this for yourself like I have. Learn to simply enjoy time with your Father. Laugh with each other, cry with each other, walk with each other, work with each other, love with each other, and even eat with each other. It’s not a routine, it’s life. I hope you learn like I have that God’s goal for me is not to do a bunch of tasks for his kingdom. That’s meant for slaves or employees. It’s to have a relationship with each other and as my Father, his desire (like my earthly father) is that I live a life of joy, fulfillment, peace, and love. He’s there with you every step of the way.
I’d love to hear what you think, please leave your comments here or on our Christian Business Daily Fan Page on Facebook.
Peace.
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Thank you for this article. It has really opened my eyes to the fact that spending more time with God does not have to be a history lesson. It’s a great thing to dig into the scriptures, but it’s also a great thing to live your life with God by your side!
Thanks Bob, I can’t agree more with you. I remember many years ago in Namibia there was an ad on TV that said: ” There’s a man behind the book.” Well the problem is I last my job 9 months ago and for the life of me I cannot get God to say anything to me. He is so quiet. I’m losing hope.
Thank you so very much for sharing this with the world, It really touched my spirit and open up my eyes. Continue to be encourage and allow the Holy Spirit to use you, because there’s no doubt in my mind that the Holy Spirit revealed this to you.
In your blog you state –”I’m not saying stop reading the Scriptures, but what I am saying that we need to realize that spending time with Father cannot be accomplished by Bible study. ”
Taken literally I suppose so, and spending that time is called worship, probably in the most God-pleasing sense of the word. But I would hasten to add as a constant companion statement that KNOWING God cannot be accomplished WITHOUT Bible study. The scriptures are not just a tool to inspire, but through the work of the Holy Spirit, they reveal.
I haven’t had the chance to watch all of it yet, but I encourage you to check out this John Piper video. What I have seen has certainly stirred in my soul. Now if I can just get it to change my behavior.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOkLP6VHtWk
Father, I ask for Jacob that he continue to seek your kingdom first, and as he does so, Lord, that always faithful to your Word, you add all the other things
of his need unto him, to the glory of the Father and the Son, Jesus. May it so be.
[...] The trip was amazing in so many ways, both on a personal and spiritual level. A few weeks ago I shared an experience here on the blog where God showed me a picture of what spending time with him looked like. It was so cool. (If you didn’t read it, I invite you to – here’s the link). [...]