4 Habits for Connecting with God

Goal for this year: Live for God out of a deep relationship with God.

We tend to let everything else in life tell us how to live our life instead of letting God tell us.  We let the urgent crowd out the most important. And then when we get the urgent done, we settle for lesser things rather than seeking after God.  Here's an exercise to seek deeper connection with God this year.

What are you going to keep doing?  Take some time to celebrate how you are already pursuing relationship with God.  Some examples: Bible, prayer, meeting with other Christians, attending Sunday worship, going on spiritual retreats.

What are you going to stop doing?  To start something new, we have to remove something old. For many of us, we would say we are busy or have no time. The reality is that we have chosen how to spend our time.  If you want to start a new habit of connecting with God, you need to make space in your life for that. 

What are you going to start doing?  Start one new habit this year to increase your connection with God.  New habits are like trying to learn a new exercise.  When you first start trying to do a squat or a deadlift, it takes time to get good at it and to see the results.  You have to get the form down.  You might feel awkward at first.  It might feel a bit unnatural.  You won't look in the mirror right away and see a transformation.  The results aren't immediate.  They are cumulative.

Here are four practices to build connection with God:

1. Scripture with prayer response 

If you don't read your Bible at all, try to read it at least once a day for any amount of time.  Try at least 5 minutes a day.  If you have been reading the Bible for a while, perhaps try a Bible reading plan through the YouVersion Bible app or some other.  The F260 plan isn't more than 10 minutes of reading a day and will take you through much of the Bible in 260 days while skipping over some of the really hard parts to read.

Read the Bible then respond in prayer.  God speaks to us through the Bible.  If we want to know him, we have to listen to him (the Bible) and we need to talk to him (prayer).  We don't want to just be reading the Bible and not responding.  We want to engage with what we read.  That's what pleases God and that's what works it into our hearts. 

Pray about what you read.  If the passage talks about someone or something positively, ask forgiveness for the ways you fail to be that way and ask God to change you to be that kind of person.  If the passage talks about someone or something negatively, ask forgiveness for the ways you fall into that and ask God to keep you from acting that way.

2. Silence  

¹² And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. (1 Kings 19:12)

Silence is quieting ourselves before God.  So often we don’t take time to quiet down, listen to, and discern what is going on inside of us but that is where the Spirit of God dwells.  Jesus said he would send the Spirit to be inside of us.  But we stay so busy and surround ourselves with so much noise - radio, TV, phone - that we never listen to what's inside of us - what we are feeling, what we desire, what the Spirit is saying.  Trying setting a 1 minute timer at the start and end of your day and just sit for a moment in silence.  Breath deep.  When you park the car in the driveway after work, before you go in the house take a moment of silence.

3. Solitude

¹⁶ But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. (Luke 5:16)

Solitude is getting alone with God.  We set aside time to go out to dinner, to go see movies, to take naps, and to do all kinds of things but we have trouble setting aside extended time to be alone with God.  Take an hour or two or an evening or a morning or a half day or a day or a weekend and go be alone with God.  Do it once a month or once a quarter or whatever feels appropriate.  If you've never done a day alone with God, maybe make it a goal to do one day alone with God this year.  It's just one day with the best person to spend it with.  What an investment.  Read your Bible.  Write down prayers.  Read an enriching book.  Walk and talk aloud to him.  Reflect.

4. Sabbath

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)

Sabbath is a 24 hour period of time where, as Pete Scazzero says, we Stop our work, Rest, Delight in God and the goodness of his creation, and Contemplate God.  We work six days.  Then we stop.  We trust God that six days are enough.  Whatever we didn't get done will still be there after we are done resting.  The world won't fall apart.  It will be ok.  God is still running the world.  God is great so we can trust he's still in control.  God is glorious so we don't have to be afraid of people thinking we are lazy or disappointing them.  God is good so we can trust him to provide for us and that our lives won't come crumbling down if we stop for a day and because he's good that means there is reason to stop and enjoy the good things he's given us.  God is gracious so we don't have to constantly work to prove ourselves to him or others.

Pick one of these practices to start this year.  Remember, it's about pursuit and progress not perfection.  Pursue God through one of them.  Make progress.  You won't be perfect.  That's ok.