What To Do With Your Time In Your Walk With God

What do you do with your time to develop a better relationship with God?

You have to decide what you want to be in life.

I learned that you have to become an, "Alien".

If you are a true believer in Jesus Christ, the Bible calls you an alien. Peter says believers are "aliens and strangers in the world (1 Peter 2:11). When you became a child of God, you began to live between two worlds - this one on earth and your eternal home in heaven. Jesus said you are no longer of this world any more that He is (John 17:14-16). but while you live here physically, God tells you to fix your eyes on the real but invisible life you have with Christ.

How do we as aliens keep our attention on the spiritual realms - the unseen things above - when the seen world is glittering around us? How do we as strangers and pilgrims maneuver while keeping our eyes on heaven? To navigate this challenging terrain, we need to fix our eyes on the truths of God every day.

Quiet time is a place where we can fix our eyes on God and the invisible realities of our lives. Let’s take a look at just some of the many benefits of spending regular time alone with God.

We need a time to Renew.

God calls you to live by faith. What does that mean? It means believing and acting with confidence based on the unseen realities (Hebrews 11:1). All the while, the visible, tangible world exerts its gravitational pull. You don’t intend it, but the compass of your soul is pulled off true north. The Bible strongly warns and urges you:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will. – (Romans 12:2)

God calls you to preside and be in charge over the care of your soul so that it is not squeezed into the world’s mold. Drugs, alcohol, image, how many friends you have on Facebook, etc. He wants you to actively engage in reshaping your mind according to His truth. Quiet time helps you renew your mind. Then you can live by faith, not sight.

You need a time to get to know Yourself

Living between two worlds can create an identity crisis. Who will tell you who you are? If you define who you are based on feedback from the world, you will be accepting misinformation. Don’t look to other to assign value to you, to tell you how you fit into the scheme of things. They can’t. Only God who created and redeemed you can tell you who you are, why you’re here, and where you are going.

In the movie, Ben Hur, Ben is transformed into a prince from a peasant and back to a peasant and then ended up being renewed by Jesus Christ and becoming a leader of of his city. Many books and movies are based on the idea that there is good inside ourselves. One of the reasons we respond to that idea is because it is rooted in truth. The Bible teaches you that you are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). But your new self doesn’t emerge by just singing a song that is about renewal.

This is why quiet time is so important. God is the only one who can tell you who you are because He designed you in the womb and He gave you second birth in Jesus Christ. Just as physical birth is merely the beginning, so spiritual birth is a starting point from which to grow, learn, and develop. In Christ you have a new identity. The trouble is that as you scuff along here on earth, you easily forget that God has chosen you and changed you (John 15:15, Ephesians 1:4) and that you are a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20).

You need to remember

You need to be reminded every day that God loves you (Ephesians 2:4), that His plans for you are good (Jeremiah 29:11), and that He will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). Consider His death in your place and His desire for you to live with Him in heaven forever – and marvel.

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. – Zephaniah 3:17

A you need a place to be whole

You were created for fellowship with God. The words salvation and blessing, which pop up everywhere in the Bible, burst with the promise of good coming to you because you belong to Jesus Christ. You were created for a wholeness that you cannot know apart from a relationship with God. David expressed it this way: “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11).