Pray and study are the means of communication with God. I have come to realize one of the greatest needs I have in my own life is to spend more time with God. I think about Him all day long. In every situation, it seems my first thought includes him. For instance, when I look at nature I think of my Creator. When new people move into the neighborhood, my first thought is are they saved, or do they have a church they attend regularly? I think of Him when I stand behind people in the grocery store. I wonder if they are saved. He is at the forefront of my mind all day. However, there is a difference between being in my mind and purposefully spending time with Him.
I believe when we love someone we don’t just think about them we spend time with them. Thinking about them should make us want to spend more time with them. I remember when I fell in love with Ron, my husband, going on 49 years, I could hardly function without thinking of him, and the more I thought about him the more I wanted to be with him. That’s the way our emotions work! With that being said, we need to take that same application and use it in our spiritual lives. Think it through. If you love the Lord with ALL your heart, soul, and mind, shouldn’t you have a desire to spend more time with him? Shouldn’t you want to get to know Him better?
Matthew 22:37 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
So how do we do this? We must spend more time in the Bible. We must read and study what he has told us through His inspired word. The Bible is not a suggestion for us to read, it is God speaking to us. How are we going to know how to act, how to speak, what to think, or even how to pray, if we don’t know God? All the Bible is His inspired word to us.
II Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”
II Timothy 2:15 “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
A great example to us is the saints at Berea in Acts 17:11.
Act 17:11 “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
Our study time is also vital to our salvation, and survival to resist temptation. It helps us to stay on the right track if we follow what we read. In the armor of God, it is our protection and our weapon to fight evil.
Ephesians 6:17 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”
Next, to know him better there needs to be communication from us. We need to pray! God knows all, but he wants us to come to him for everything. He wants to hear our praise and our needs. We need to tell Him how much we love Him, not because he doesn’t know, he knows us better than we know ourselves, but so that we come to grips with the reality of our love. We are to stay in a mindset of talking to him all day.
I Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing.”
Philippians 4:6 “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
We need to talk to Him through prayer, and He talks to us through His word. I have come to a point in my life where I desire to meet with Him each morning. It’s like getting up and hearing from my best friend.
