{"id":1337,"date":"2015-08-21T15:27:26","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T20:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/?p=1337"},"modified":"2015-08-21T15:29:06","modified_gmt":"2015-08-21T20:29:06","slug":"time-with-god-shouldnt-be-a-chore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/2015\/08\/21\/time-with-god-shouldnt-be-a-chore\/","title":{"rendered":"Time with God Shouldn’t Be a Chore: An Article for RELEVANT Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

[This is from my newest piece at RELEVANT Magazine. Click here<\/a> to read the entire\u00a0article!]<\/p>\n

Quiet time, devotional time, prayer time, personal time\u2014whatever you want to call it, most of us are referring to something similar: a regular time when we seek to meet with the Lord, read his World and worship Him, love Him and know Him better.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a wonderful value and a beautiful aspect of our relationship with Christ\u2014that we can, actually, have a personal and meaningful relationship with the King of the Universe. When you think about it, it\u2019s fairly unfathomable that the biggest power in the world has time for each of us, especially if, like me, you\u2019re not a foreign dignitary, a millionaire or a superstar. It\u2019s pretty incredible that God wants to have an intentional relationship with each of us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s incredible that God wants to have an intentional relationship with each of us. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

And as with anyone we want to get to know, we need to actually spend time with that person in order to grow in friendship.<\/strong> Thus the idea of regular time with God. Often, this time is spent reading the Bible, praying, perhaps journaling or singing. But do our quiet times actually need to be, ahem, quiet? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

Here are a few ways, other than Scripture reading, we can get to know God in unexpected avenues.<\/p>\n

The Arts<\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re a creative at heart, consider adding in an artistic element to your devotional time. Paint your prayers, doodle your thoughts, pen a poem to God. As you participate in the creative process, consider God\u2019s creativity in the world, and ask Him how you can partner with His creativity at work.<\/p>\n

Paint your prayers, doodle your thoughts, pen a poem to God. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Music<\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re musical, consider writing songs that focus on what you love about God. Put Scripture to song, or sing to Jesus about whatever bubbles up out of your heart. God, who sings over us (Zephaniah 3:17), welcomes our songs of praise and thanksgiving back to Him.<\/p>\n

Nature<\/h3>\n

If being outside makes your soul come alive, set aside intentional time to connect with God in the great outdoors. The One who called the earth into existence is the same God who died on the crossbars of a tree to save us. The whole earth is full of God\u2019s glory (Isaiah 6:3)\u2014so go and encounter Him there. Sit by a river and meditate on Scripture. Go on a hike and let the beauty of the earth remind you of God\u2019s beauty.<\/p>\n

Friends<\/h3>\n

There is a long and biblical history of God\u2019s people gathering together to worship Him\u2014and weekly church is a wonderful thing. But what about spending \u201cquiet time\u201d together with a friend or two? You can pray for and with one another; you can read Scripture to and with one another. You can eat together and share your hearts over a shared meal. The early church was meeting together daily (Acts 2:42-47); we can too.<\/p>\n


\nRead more over at RELEVANT Magazine<\/a>!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This is from my newest piece at RELEVANT Magazine. Click here to read the entire\u00a0article!] Quiet time, devotional time, prayer time, personal time\u2014whatever you want to call it, most of us are referring to something similar: a regular time when we seek to meet with the Lord, read his World and worship Him, love Him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,21,5],"tags":[573,574,578,572,571,575,576,569,577,277,313,570],"class_list":["post-1337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-god","category-guest-post","category-life","tag-devotional-life","tag-devotional-time","tag-devotional-time-fun","tag-getting-my-kids-to-have-quiet-time","tag-how-can-i-make-quiet-time-more-interesting","tag-how-do-i-know-god","tag-how-do-i-meet-god","tag-quiet-time","tag-quiet-time-fun","tag-relationship-with-god","tag-time-with-god","tag-why-is-quiet-time-boring","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/How-to-Keep-Quiet-Time-with-GodEngaging.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1337"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1343,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions\/1343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}