With life so busy, our relationship with God sometimes seems like just another “task on our list.” Do you dedicate enough personal time with God, getting to know Him and seeking His counsel and direction? Or, an even better question is: Do you teach the importance of spending time with God to the kids you serve?
I once heard a pastor say, “I have such a busy schedule today, I will have to double my quiet time with God to make sure I get everything done that I need to.” What a different mindset! Too often, we relegate our quiet time with God to a simple and quick prayer, “God be with me today.”
I was a fortunate that I had a mother who taught me as a 12-year-old the importance of reading God’s Word and saying my prayers before I went to bed. I learned as an adult that it was better for me to get up a little earlier in the morning to make sure I started my day with time with God. I was 36 years old before I truly realized that not only did I need to read God’s Word and pray, but I needed to spend time listening to God. While my daily quiet time was a regular habit, I failed to grasp that it was as important to listen to what God had to say to me as it was spouting off all the things that I wanted to say.
How do you spend your time with God? Yes, you need to prepare your lesson for the kids. And yes, you do a lot of righteous things while serving God in ministry. But you can’t get to know God and share in His wisdom unless you get to know His Word, and spend time meditating and communicating with Him. I love the thought of communicating because when we are communicating, there are times we talk and times we listen.
So, in addition to your personal quiet time with God, how do you help children understand the importance of quality time with God?
Encourage them to:
- Begin or end each day with God
- Read His Word
- Spend time meditating
- Share their needs
- Lift up the needs of others
- Listen for what God wants to share with them
Yes, teach the children that God will speak to them.
Have you ever heard God speak to you? Taking time to listen is particularly difficult for me. When mediating quietly in my chair, my mind races in many directions. As a result, I struggle to hear what God has to say to me. I never knew God would answer specific questions until a preacher told me to ask God a simple question, “Do you love me?” While I heard no audible voice, I surely felt an overwhelming presence of God’s love. It so confounded me that I was shaking. It further emphasized the importance of listening.
I have learned that God most often speaks to me through reading His Word. You have to find your source and find your time and place to get away from all the worldly distractions and seek and hear God’s wisdom, counsel, and advice.
The writer of Hebrews expressed all of this in chapter 10, verse 16, “I will put my teachings into their hearts and write them in their minds” (GW). Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to be our guide. God is not a God from a distance, watching you. God is near and dear to us, and He abides in us. While it may not be with audible words, He does speak to us — we just have to learn to listen.
Children should be taught that Jesus is always there for them — not only when they have a fire (problem) in their life. Jesus is not just a firefighter, but He is also their Savior and wants to participate in all times of their life, not just our difficult ones. He is also there when friends and neighbors have needs and we should know how to call upon Him to lift up their needs and seek God’s intervention.
However, what God wants most is our heart, not just some of the time, but our whole heart, all of the time. That is why children should learn from an early age that our daily time of getting to know our best friend (Jesus) is so important. I’m sure even in our ministries while we’re diligently serving God, we give Him too much of what He does not want, and not enough of what He does want — our heart.
If we dedicate much of our time listening to/hearing from God and teaching the children to do the same, we may not have so many unanswered questions. And while there’s no promise of freedom from difficulties, we may better understand His plan for us and know that God is with us, even if there are times that we feel lost and alone.
The comfort and understanding we seek will not happen unless we consistently spend time with God!
You can access this entire magazine for free here: Edition 39
