“I just can’t seem to find a time to be consistent with God. I know I need it, but I’m finding it hard to do.”

Those words from a friend a couple of weeks ago got me thinking. We all need time with God. For those of us who walk with Jesus, this is a necessary way to draw close to God and stay close with him.

For those of us who may not see Jesus as our Lord and Savior, this could be a time to explore that idea.

Regardless, I dedicate these next couple of posts to those who desire to know God better but struggle with finding the time to do so.

To start, we need to remember why this is important.

What does consistent time with God look like in terms of relationships?

One way to look at it is how we approach relationships. I’m not talking about those we have on social media. I’m talking about those with others around us, be it our coworkers, friends, and family.

What do consistent relationships look like at work?

With coworkers, it’s almost too easy. We see them every day. Many times, our relationships stay on the surface and are all about getting the job done. Then when we leave that job, we leave those relationships. While we’re there, they key to those relationships is consistent contact every workday.

What do consistent relationships look like with friends?

With friends, we have relationships with those who are outside of our family unit. We are usually united by a purpose or reason. For the believer, being saved by Jesus unites us. We can also be united by, say, a love of dogs or exercise. Those friends become our family of choice in a way.

These friendships must be nurtured. Sometimes this can happen at Bible study or in a prayer group. Outside the church, they happen many times by breaking bread together or sharing coffee. In between, technology can keep us connected but should never, ever substitute for interpersonal interaction. The key is consistent communication.

What do consistent relationships look like with family?

With family, it may seem too easy. Families live together, right? But with family, our interpersonal interactions can dwindle to talk about everyday busyness rather than deep, substantive things. It gets entirely too easy to substitute the mundane, such as homework for the kids and what happened at work, for the important, such as what’s going on in someone’s heart or our walk with God.

When we talk about deep things, things that go on in our hearts, something interesting occurs.

Intimacy.

We draw close to one another.

What does a consistent relationship with God look like?

God desires to have that same kind of relationship with us. But God has a curious way of going about it. He waits very patiently for us to come to Him. And when we do, He’s ready and waiting for us. The trick comes and figuring out when and how to do that.

As my friend made her statement, I understood her frustration. It’s so hard to have that desire yet feel powerless to figure out when and how to do it.

She’d already won half the battle. She already had that desire.

Now comes figuring out how to do it. I’ll discuss that in next week’s post.

Question: When in your life did you find having consistent time with God to be difficult?