When Jesus was on the earth He was was sinless, and He constantly spent time praying to God the Father. “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” - Mark 1:35...Today's blog entry deals with spending time alone with God.
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30
Regardless of how busy our schedules are with things such as: family, friends, careers, etc. We should make sure that we are consistently spending time alone with God. There are definitely benefits to studying the Word with others, and listening to teaching/preaching by others, but we also need to study the Word for ourselves. We need to spend time in prayer, and we need to spend time alone worshiping God. “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” - John 4:23-24
It's important to realize that the Christian walk is about more than just avoiding sin. Now don't get me wrong avoiding sin is very important, but what I mean is that if person only focuses on avoiding sin, yet they don't spend time alone with God, they are missing the big picture. Here's an analogy to illustrate the point. There's a married women that is determined to never cheat on her husband. She also wants to make sure that she doesn't say anything disrespectful to him. When she's around other people, she says great things about her husband, and she never cheats on him. The thing is, she barely spends any time with him. She's very busy with her career, friends, etc. In her mind she's being a great wife because she hasn't committed adultery. In the husband's mind, he's thinking, man I wish she would spend more time with me. The Bible likens the relationship between Christ and the church, to that of a husband and a wife. (See Ephesians 5:22-23).
It's important that we don't just focus on what we aren't doing wrong, we should also take steps to continue to grow in our relationship with Jesus. If a person has been delivered from drugs and they no longer do drugs, that's definitely a good thing. However they shouldn't stop there. They should spend the time that they use to spend doing drugs, to do something productive for God. “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour. - John 12:26
So as we grow in our walk with Christ, let us continually spend time alone with Him. There comes a time where we need to turn everything else off (TV, computer, music,etc) and focus on Jesus. Christian entertainment (Christian based movies, music, etc) can definitely have benefits, but our walk as Christians needs to go deeper than just watching, and listening to Christian based material. We need to go directly to the source, Jesus Christ.
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” - Mark 12:30
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30
Regardless of how busy our schedules are with things such as: family, friends, careers, etc. We should make sure that we are consistently spending time alone with God. There are definitely benefits to studying the Word with others, and listening to teaching/preaching by others, but we also need to study the Word for ourselves. We need to spend time in prayer, and we need to spend time alone worshiping God. “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” - John 4:23-24
It's important to realize that the Christian walk is about more than just avoiding sin. Now don't get me wrong avoiding sin is very important, but what I mean is that if person only focuses on avoiding sin, yet they don't spend time alone with God, they are missing the big picture. Here's an analogy to illustrate the point. There's a married women that is determined to never cheat on her husband. She also wants to make sure that she doesn't say anything disrespectful to him. When she's around other people, she says great things about her husband, and she never cheats on him. The thing is, she barely spends any time with him. She's very busy with her career, friends, etc. In her mind she's being a great wife because she hasn't committed adultery. In the husband's mind, he's thinking, man I wish she would spend more time with me. The Bible likens the relationship between Christ and the church, to that of a husband and a wife. (See Ephesians 5:22-23).
It's important that we don't just focus on what we aren't doing wrong, we should also take steps to continue to grow in our relationship with Jesus. If a person has been delivered from drugs and they no longer do drugs, that's definitely a good thing. However they shouldn't stop there. They should spend the time that they use to spend doing drugs, to do something productive for God. “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour. - John 12:26
So as we grow in our walk with Christ, let us continually spend time alone with Him. There comes a time where we need to turn everything else off (TV, computer, music,etc) and focus on Jesus. Christian entertainment (Christian based movies, music, etc) can definitely have benefits, but our walk as Christians needs to go deeper than just watching, and listening to Christian based material. We need to go directly to the source, Jesus Christ.
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” - Mark 12:30