Length: 5 minutes

Many people want to grow and don’t know where to start. Well, here’s a very simple answer. 

Meditate All The Time

First, listening to the Lord and meditating on what He’s done for you is an all day, everyday thing. Whenever you forget or become distracted, go ahead and acknowledge Him again. Simple as that. Keep doing that over and over again. It’s a beautiful thing. Keeping your attention on the Lord is how you open up your heart for Him to speak to you. And as you meditate on the things you’ve learned, that’s how you grow. 

Psalms 1:2-3 (NKJV) But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.

Never stop thinking about what Jesus has done. You’ll even begin to see the job you’re doing at the time or the circumstance at hand, in light of what Jesus has done.

Private Time

While meditating on the Lord is in all-the-time thing, we still need private, undistracted time to spend with the Lord. Even Jesus did this in His earthly ministry. He would frequently go away by Himself to spend time with the Father or bring His disciples away for a while to pray (Luke 6:12, John 18:2). It’s not because we can’t meditate anywhere we are, but we need time that’s undistracted.

Genesis 24:63 (NKJV) And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening…

Matthew 14:23 (NKJV) And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.

What Does Private Time Look Like?

So, what does private time with the Lord look like? What do you do? Ultimately, we want the Lord to teach us so that we can grow and experience everything He’s provided. Sometimes, you’re just taking time to pray. Either to ask the Lord about something and cast your care on Him, or most importantly, to thank the Lord for everything He’s done. Most of our praying should just be thanking Jesus for what He’s provided at the cross, because Jesus has provided more than you even have needs to ask about (Philippians 4:6).

And of course, the Bible is the truth of the gospel written down, so the Bible helps us immensely in our learning. That’s its purpose (2 Timothy 3:16).

2 Peter 1:19 (NKJV) …the prophetic word [the Bible] …which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place…

Bible reading is something we should take private time to do so that we can glean from the truth of the gospel that’s already been spoken and prophesied before. But keep this in mind: Every piece of the Bible is meant to show Jesus, sometimes plainly, sometimes in symbol, but always the work of Jesus for you! So, rely on the Lord to open your mind to see Jesus in all scripture.

How Much Time?

How much private time should I spend, and how often? There’s no formula to this. In fact, when you start setting timers and make something into a ritual rather than enjoying your relationship with the Lord, it gets very stale and old quickly. This is not about achieving a spirituality badge because you spent a certain amount of time. Never let your relationship with the Lord become that. Make sure you spend private time to speak with Him and hear from Him.

With all that said, of course we want to renew our mind every single day. And if that’s true, then it would make sense to make sure you have undistracted time with the Lord every day. It’s not for the sake of a ritual. It’s because we want to get to know Jesus more every day.

2 Corinthians 4:16 (NKJV) …the inward man is being renewed day by day.

Your private time may lean more heavily with prayer or Bible reading at certain times. And maybe some of it consists of listening to a teaching (although, you need to make sure you’re communing with the Lord for yourself), but regardless, we want to renew our mind every day. And therefore, private time makes sense every day. But that’s not a formula. It just makes sense.

Here’s some great advice about private time with the Lord. If your goal is truly to be meditating on the Lord all day, every day, private time will never be a problem. Some people only give their attention to the Lord for designated times in the day. Or just on Sundays for church. They get so caught up in doing things in this life that spending time with the Lord feels like an interruption to their schedule. But when your goal is to acknowledge the Lord all day long, by the time you’re ready to spend private time, it doesn’t feel like an interruption. You’ve been waiting for it. Make it your goal to meditate on His word day and night, and private time will come naturally.

As a sidenote, if you have children, you should definitely have an everyday Bible reading and prayer routine for them. It’s different with children because they do not know what is good and right. That’s your job as a parent to dictate to them what is important. Just like you’re old enough to know how to eat healthy now, when you were a child your parents dictated what you ate, as it should be with anything that’s important. Your children don’t realize the importance of the Lord. It’s your job to show them this is a priority by enforcing a time for them to read their Bible and talk to the Lord.

You Can Hear From God

When you’re spending private time and not picking up on what the Lord is speaking to you, don’t get discouraged. Notice that I said open “when” and not “if.” We have a God that is able to speak to us, not simply because He is God, but because we have been qualified through Jesus to receive truth from God (Revelation 3:4, 5:12, Colossians 1:12). Nevertheless, as we grow, our receiving is not immediately perfect. And therefore, never be discouraged if you’re not hearing something at a particular time. Everyone who seeks, finds. Everyone. That’s a promise (Matthew 7:7–8). And even if you’re not understanding everything at first, it’s those that continue in the word of God that end up knowing the truth, not the people that give up because they didn’t understand.

John 8:31-32 (NKJV) … “If you abide [continue] in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth…

Already Qualified

And lastly, remember that you’re not spending time with the Lord to achieve some kind of qualification. When you spend time with Jesus, even if you spent more time than you did yesterday, you’re no more qualified before Him than you were yesterday. We don’t spend time with Jesus to qualify ourselves. We spend time with Jesus to realize how He’s already qualified us. We want to realize how perfected we are in Him. We want to realize how well-off we already are. We spend time with Jesus to realize who we are in Him, not to be become something more.

James 1:23 and 2 Corinthians 3:18 express the fact that we look at Jesus in the gospel, not to find out what we should be, but to see who we already are. That’s why the gospel of Jesus is called a mirror. It’s to help you realize as a believer, how much like Jesus you already are.

James 1:23-24 (NKJV) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

So don’t spend time with the Lord as it’s some kind of achievement. You’ve already achieved everything through the One who loved you and gave Himself for you (Romans 8:37). You’re spending time so that you can know and experience who you already are, in Christ.