I've been going through the Morph devotional from Gateway Church and I read from week 2 about all the ways people experience God.
I think we've been so caught up in this picture that spending time with God, is you sitting on a desk somewhere with a Bible and a journal reading and writing; but for a lot of people this doesn't work for them and they quit after a while. As a Church, we believe that people have been wired differently for a specific reason, yet we don't give them space to be themselves in their relationships with God.
The Morph notes speak of all different kinds of people, like an athlete would probably get a clearer conversation with God on a run, or an artist would connect more with a sensory devotional time like painting or cooking, a music lover will almost always feel a resonance deep in their spirit when they seek God through music, a writer finds God in the beauty of the words of the Bible.
For me, in High School, my devotional times would be reading the Bible before preps every morning and every night, although that was a lot more about procrastinating studying than connecting with God. We also had these little woods on either side of our school where people would go pray or hold prayer meetings. We called them, "Holy Woods" and "Geevangee" After I left boarding school and came home, for a while it became watching pastors and speakers on TBN and taking notes and following along with them. Then, it just fizzled out.
I've never really understood scripture that well, probably up until last year and more so this year. What changed is that last year, I stopped waiting for people to feed me the Word and I started reading for myself. What's really changed this year is appreciating that I am a writer, I connect through words, and I am a music lover, this relationship is cemented through music. That's who I am. There are amazing times when the two connect and a poem or a song comes up as I read this book, but these are not as often as I would like ;-)
My devotional time now, never looks the same. A few days, music might spur me on, after that writing might turn my crank, after that, studying and taking notes might be what I need, after that watching pastors and speakers might grow me.
The three things that have consistently so far worked for me though are:
1. Schedule time.
I always get frazzled and my days get more stressful and my fuse gets shorter when I haven't had a devotional time. I try to keep 7 p.m to 8 p.m open for that, but I have classes some nights, so its not set in stone, but I try and make sure I have 1 quiet hour a day, even if its me with my earphones on walking to the bus stop or waiting for a bus home. I may not always get an hour but whatever I get I try and do my best within those minutes. Definitely though is Friday nights (when everyone's at their small groups) or Sunday afternoons (in case my family doesn't visit) that's when all my focus is on quiet time. Friday also works for me because most events/concerts/worship nights are on Fridays so it kinda fits in.
2. Have something to look forward to.
To be honest, if all I had to look forward to was a bible and a notebook, I'd do everything I could to avoid doing this, I'd even offer to go clean the dishes and I hate cleaning the dishes. What's worked so far for me is buying books, or downloading free e-books, or buying music that I like and not listening or reading them until Friday night and kind of building the anticipation for quiet time.
3. Just go with it.
Like I said, it never looks the same for me. One day music might not be what I need, so I read, reading gets dull so I write, writing gets tiring so I sing. Even within singing, sometimes singing gets boring so I dance (I'm not a good dancer so I should say I jump up and down) This week even, none of these worked so I went with my music on my treadmill and I ran as I sang. Whatever you feel led to do, whatever you can do to build that connection, do it.
We have to know though that God doesn't expect us to come to him with loud prayers and quoting scriptures. We may not always have the words to say and that's o.k.
One of the people I look up to is Bill Johnson who pastors Bethel Church, he said,
"Give place to the silent prayers, sometimes your situations can't be represented by words, but by the travail of your heart. Through this you know God is birthing something and you have to be willing to lock eyes with him knowing that something is being birthed."
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