‘The minister can exchange his time for the divine power and the spiritual blessings to be obtained from heaven,’¹ wrote the Scots South African teacher and author, Andrew Murray.
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Although his context here was church ministry, the same principle applies to God’s ‘ministers’ in every stream of life. You could be a minister for God’s kingdom in business, the media, teaching, the arts, a family or a community.
Minister comes from the Latin for ‘servant’ and one of its older meanings as a verb is ‘to supply.’ If we are to supply water from God’s well to others, we firstly need to draw deeply from Him. This requires regular, dedicated time – the most rewarding time investment you’ll ever make.
Don’t just rely on the ‘spiritual oases’
Over the past month I’ve attended a number of conferences and meetings. These were spiritual highs that refreshed me. It’s very tempting to rely on these occasional ‘oases’ alone to hear from God and quench our thirst for strength and direction. Rather than a feast or famine approach, however, I’ve found ‘a fair bit and often’ works best.
Quality time
Devote quality time to building a relationship with God in the same way that you spend time developing close relationships with a relative or friend. The more involved you are in ministry or management, then the more One-on-one time you’ll likely need to spend with Him.
Tailor
Tailor the ways you cultivate a relationship with God to the life you lead and not always that of a good role model.
Don’t necessarily try to copy someone you read about who rises at 5am every day to spend three hours in prayer and Bible study – although that’s some people’s calling. If you’re starting from a baseline of a quick five minutes of prayer in the car on the way to the office, try getting up at least half an hour earlier and finding the extra time that way.
Set a time
It may help you to set aside a specific quiet time each day. This avoids the temptation to put it off until later and not actually follow through. Don’t guilt trip yourself if it’s impossible to devote the first part of your day to God time. If you’ve been kept awake half the night by your teething toddler, you’ll probably have to find ten minute ‘time-outs’ until the phase passes.
Allow listening time
As Christians we often pray requests like: ‘Lord give us ears to hear’ and then spend all our prayer time only asking, interceding and so on (been there!). Allow time to hear back from the Holy Spirit, perhaps asking Him direct questions on situations or to help you understand – or point out – a particular guiding scripture.
Commit everything
Proverbs 16:3 says: ‘Commit everything you do to the Lord and your plans will succeed.’ (NIV). This is something I especially try to apply to planning sessions. I might say up front: ‘I commit this planning time to you, Lord, and invite you to direct me in each area.’ The language may change, but the main thing is I want to acknowledge that I need His input in every situation.
There’s no set formula for how to spend quality time with God because we’re all unique and have diverse personalities, talents and responsibilities.
What we all have in common, though, is a finite water bucket, which, when sunk regularly into God’s infinite well, gives us a constantly replenished capacity to serve Him and others.
¹From The Prayer Life: Hints For The Inner Chamber, by Andrew Murray
True Vine Time 