Alone Time with God
Did you know that the Lord wants to spend time ALONE with you? Do you remember when you accepted the Lord and became part of His family? As a “child” of God, we call the Lord “Father.” A good Father wants to spend time with his children; sometimes He wants to spend time with them all together. God wants to spend time alone with us because that is how we get to know Him.
Someone asked, “How do I get to know the Lord?” There is nothing hard about it or magical about it other than you need to spend time with Him. The Lord has made it clear to us that He is interested in us!
1 Peter 5:6-7 says, “So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to God for he cares about you.”
The simple way we can get to know the Lord is by spending time alone with Him by reading His Word (the Bible) and talking to Him (praying). We can pray to the Lord any time of the day while driving to work, baking, washing clothes, studying, but if you want to know Him, then we need time alone with Him, giving Him our total attention without any distractions.
For some of us, the morning is best when we are fresh before our day gets going. Or perhaps the evening is best for you to spend time with the Lord at the close of your day as you consider the day behind you and the day in front of you. You may want to consider taking a walk with the Lord. A prayer walk is an amazing way to get some exercise and get alone with the Lord for some of us. You might want to go on a bike ride, kayak, take a hike in the woods. Whatever you do, whatever the time, we need to be consistent in meeting with Him. Jesus rose early to pray, and He went somewhere that was quiet. What a great idea for us!
Mark 1:35, “Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.”
There is no need for a specific ritual to your time alone with God any more than there would be in spending time alone with your earthly parent. It can be “organic” in nature. We can start by saying good morning or good evening to the Lord, have a short prayer to the Lord asking Him to bless your time together, like when you ask Him to bless your meal before you start to eat.
Then we can read a passage from the Bible. Where do you start? One of the best books that are interesting and insightful is the book of John. It is a great book to open up your day and get acquainted with God and His word.
Psalm 119:18 says, “Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions.”
After reading John, you may wish to continue in the book of Acts to see how the early Christians shared their faith with those around them. Sharing our faith is one of the important things we can do for the Lord.
You may want to take time to read a Psalm. These are an amazing collection of prayers, poems, and hymns that focus the worshiper’s thoughts on God in praise and adoration. You may want to read a proverb. This is one of the “wisdom books” of the Old Testament, containing instructions on many of the practical matters of daily life. The Book of Proverbs points the believer to God with instructions on living a holy, upright life.
While we are reading, we can meditate on what we can. To meditate means to think seriously about spiritual things. To meditate on what you are reading is to think quietly, soberly, and deeply about God, how wonderful He is, what wonderful things h has done for you and what he is going to do for you.
Philippians 4:8-9 says, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
Don’t read too fast or try to finish too much at one time. Take time to look for all that God has for you in the portion you are reading and reviewing. We don’t need to rush through our time alone with God, especially if we spend some time with Him every day.
After we have read and meditated, then talk with the Lord in prayer. Talk to Him as you would to your earthly parent who loves you and wants the best for you, who wants to help you in every way possible.
What can we talk to God about?
We can Praise Him for who He is: Psalm 150:1-2, “Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven! Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness!”
We can thank Him for all He has done and for all He will do: Philippians 4:6 says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”
We can tell Him about the things we have done, said, and thought for which we are sorry. This is a confession of our sins. He tells us in His Word that He was able and faithful to forgive sins: 1 John 1:8-10, “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.”
We can pray for our family, others, friends, and neighbors who need physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual needs. We can ask God to work in the heart of someone we hope will come to know Jesus as Savior. We can pray for new believers, government officials, your pastor and church staff, missionaries, and other Christian leaders. We can pray for ourselves. Ask His guidance for the new day, ask him to help you with problems, ask Him to help you do His will for the day, ask Him to arrange opportunities to serve him through helping others using words or works.
Philippians 2:3-4 says, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.” James 1:5, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.”
Remember that we can pray to Him anytime, anywhere about anything: 1 John 5:14-15 says, “And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.”
Blessings on your time alone with the Lord!
Pastor Steve