In every Christian’s walk, there are times when we are thriving and spending time in prayer, scripture reading, and reflection. However quite often, as life gets busy and our schedule gets crowded, it is easy to lose sight of time spent with the Lord. It is easy to get involved with a new routine that doesn’t include chunks of time carved out for communing with the Lord. Our prayer lives can get reduced to mealtime and bedtime prayers. That is when it is good to take time and recalibrate our priorities. Below, I would like to share a few things that help get our focus back on the Lord.
Take a Small Retreat
Spiritual Retreats are not mini-vacations. They are times to get away from the normalcy of life and focus more intently on the presence and communion of the Lord. It is a time to drown out all the competing agendas in your schedule. A time to say “No, not until I have spoken with the Lord.” In a sense we sanctify the time to only be with the Lord. Retreats need not be these elaborate trips across the country to encounter a new culture or landscape. It can be a simple 2 night getaway in a hotel an hour away. Just enough to get out of the normal, everyday atmosphere.
Engage in Meditation
The New Age movement into the West in the last 50 years has left a bad taste in people’s mouths regarding certain terms. Meditation is one such term. Such a reaction is a travesty to fully understanding our worship of God as a spiritual being. Meditation is simply training our mind on scriptures, aspects of God, characteristics of God, the Presence of God, and many other things. In essence, we focus our mental energies on God-related things. Meditation is designed to quiet our mind from the noises of life and “Be still and Know that [He] is God.” That stillness is not lack of motion, it is calmness of spirit and silence of mind. It is in the presence of God that we encounter the changed life.
Sometimes using focal points helps. The Orthodox use icons and prayer ropes. Catholics use rosaries and statues. The point is to create an environment conducive to focusing on God. When we can engage as many senses in the process, we enhance the experience of being in God’s presence. The use of prayer ropes engages the sense of touch. Looking at a crucifix or cross engages the sense of sight. Burning incense engages the sense of smell. Voicing prayer engages our vocal chords and our sense of hearing. Reading scripture engages the sense of sight.
When we engage many senses, it helps reinforce our efforts to meditate on God, His presence, and our relationship to Him. We are able to make our experience of the intangible more tangible, and therefore more relate-able. Meditation is a powerful discipline in reconnecting with God. As saints throughout history have attested, it is an act of prayer.
Engage in Journaling/Reflecting
Journaling/Reflecting on scripture and devotional works engages our mind through writing. It touches the creative power of God because we are creating words on a page. It causes us to delve deep into our hearts and examine what is there through the words we write. Journaling/Reflecting gives us a better sense of the self.
In a world all to busy with schedules, technology, and passive information, taking time to journal/reflect helps us regain a personal center in which only self and God inhabit. Many of us may find this difficult, impossible, and even painful because when we get to this point, we find that we dislike or even hate parts of our self and do not want to be found alone with it. Nevertheless, the act of alone-ness with God through journaling/reflecting is a key to confronting self-rejection and self-hatred. It forces us to realize what that it is there. Naming the enemy is the first step in defeating it.
For others, there is a healthy self-acceptance to which journaling/reflecting greatly enhances. One is able to commune with God through the use of words and thoughts. As we write and reflect, we are able to focus on God for longer periods of time, since we have written words to anchor our thoughts as the tend to wonder. If our minds drift, we can look at the last thing we wrote and bring our minds back into prayerful focus.
Listening Prayer
Listening Prayer seems like one of the most neglected forms of prayer. I remember in my upbringing, communication was a simple formula. “When you pray, you are speaking to God. When you read your Bible, God is speaking to you.” True as that statement is, as well as sufficient for a baby Christian who knows nothing about spiritual discipline, it is a good concrete starting point. Over the years, however, I have learned that it is not the fullness of a thriving relationship with God. Jesus said “My sheep here my voice.” That is more than reading scripture and feeling bad about committing a sin. Hearing Jesus’ voice must include an act of listening. We hear the voice of the Lord when we turn the ears of our mind and heart toward Him.
“Speak for your servant is listening,” is the phrase young Samuel was instructed to pray when He heard the Lord calling His name. Posturing our heart and mind to hear what the Lord is saying is one of the most profound ways of communing with God.
It is easy to be suspicious of listening prayer, because how do we know the difference between our own internal voice and the voice of God. Yet that suspicion should not prohibit us from engaging in this wonderful discipline. As we pursue God more, we will hear his voice more clearly. As we read and understand scripture more, we will have a better idea of God’s character and heart. Having done so, we will know when the words in our minds are in line with God or not. The good thing is, it’s ok if we don’t hear clearly. It is just like learning to practice any other form of communication. We won’t be perfect at it. But the more we practice, the better we will get. And as with all things in the Christian faith, it is a work in progress.
What are some of the ways you connect with God? Was this article helpful? Let us know!