How to Spend Time with Your Lover

Christ is the lover of our soul yet He is probably the one person that we most inconsistently spend our time with. Now if you are pretty diligent in your QT (quality time) with God, BRAVO……. this devotional just serves as a reminder to continue spending time with the Father daily. If your one on one time with God looks like this: in and out, up and down, high and low, be encouraged all it takes is a decision to do better that will put you on the right path to being consistent with Christ. For my newbie’s in Christ I recommend finding a great devotional and begin committing to reading it before your day beings…(such as this one). Each devotional has some scriptures included; make a effort after you read the devotional to read those scriptures as outlined. As this becomes normal practice venture out and read the whole chapter of each scripture provided. For example if the scripture included in the devotional is Psalms 12:3, do not only read the 3^rd verse of Psalms 12, expand your relationships by reading the 12^th chapter instead. This way you are constantly feeding your spirit with positive words from on high, and allowing yourself to know more about Christ. I would suggest following this regime until you become comfortable navigating through the Bible and desire to want to know more about Christ. In order to do so it requires some element of discipline, if you are undisciplined it’s ok. Set an alarm to remind you, use sticky notes, make a commitment not to eat breakfast, lunch, etc until after you have read your scriptures to help discipline yourself.

We are always reminded to say our prayers and everyone’s prayer life is reflective of their relationship with God. However I do want to address this……. What is the number one issue in most relationships…..communication! Prayer is your form of communication with God. The more you pray to God, the more you share and are transparent with Him, the more open you are to constructive criticism and reproach the better your relationship with God will be. How does it feel to be in a relationship with someone who always talks about them self and never listens to what you have to say, never cares much about your feelings or your day, they just talk, talk, talk about themselves their problems, their hang-ups etc. Well be careful not to be that person to God. Prayer is not one sided, where you talk God’s ear off about your problems and what you need, prayer is a time for communication between you and God. The way God speaks differs from person to person; sometimes His voice is audible to some(typically to those who are really fixated on the things of God or those who spend an abundant amount of time with Him), for some He speaks through circumstances, or various confirmations etc. The only way to determine if God is speaking to you is your ability to backup what was said in the Word. God will not tell you to move back in with a man or woman you are unmarried to, it simply goes against His value system. The best outline for prayer that I have read is to start with thanksgiving following with prayer for others, and ending with prayer for yourself. This way you are sure to cover the all the bases. All of your prayers don’t have to follow this outline, actually you never have to follow this outline if you don’t desire to, however it just helps keep your prayer life in prescriptive so that it is not one-sided.

Lastly gospel music. Some gospel music is crap and has nothing to do with God; I can boldly say that because I have been blessed with the ability to hear and the desire to seek God….by simply listening to the lyrics of the song I can say, its crap. Be careful the gospel music you listen to, the more you spend time with Christ the more you will be able to decipher what’s quality gospel music and what’s not. There is a difference. I know some people that say they hate gospel music but we live in a new era where there are some really great gospel artists that have up to date beats and relatable lyrics. My best suggestion for newbie’s is to get in where you fit in. We pump all that other junk into our systems via music, tv, etc so we can make a sacrifice to listen to uplifting music that worships Christ through song an hour or so a day. My best resource for that is Pandora. I choose a gospel artist and listen to that station while I work. Whether you are paying attention or not that positive music is being deposited in you and it really changes things. Another best practice is to listen to gospel music every morning on your way to work. I promise you it sets the tone for your day. You can start with a gospel station on the radio or take some time with your music selection and create a cd or mp3 playlist and listen in your car as you ride. All of these are ways to boost your relationship with Christ and enhance the quality of your life. There is no strategic method to spending time with Christ, just start somewhere. The more you spend time with Him the more He will direct your path and encourage a deeper relationship with Him.

It backed in the Word

Hebrews 4:12-14 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Matthew 12:22 Philippians 4:6-7 Joshua 1:6-9 John 1:1-5 Ephesians 6:10-17 Matthew 6:5-16 Mark 7:6-23 Hebrews 11:6