Are You Spending Quality Time With God?

Each day do you set aside quality time to spend in God's word and a time of prayer? Just as a car has to be refueled, we need refueled in God's word and spending time with Him.

Matthew 26:36-46 N I V
* Then Jesus went with His disiciples to a place called Gethsemane and He said to them, Sit here while I go over there and pray.

* He took Peter and and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him and He began to be sorrowful and troubled.

* Then He said to them My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.

* Going a little farther, He fell with his face to the ground and prayed,My Father, if it be possiable may this cup be taken from me.Yet not as I will, but as you will.

* Then He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping.Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour? He asked Peter.

* Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the body is weak.

* He went away the second time and prayed Father if it is possible for this cup to be taken from away unless I drink it, may your will be done.

* When He came back he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.

* So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time saying the same thing.

* Then He returned to the disicples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Look the hour is near and the Son Of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners

* Rise let us go! here comes me betrayer.

Luke 5: 15-16 N I V

* Yet the news about Him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.

* But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed

Luke 6:12-13 N I V

* One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

* When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and choose twelve of them, whom He also desinated apostles

From reading this portion of the Word of God we can see that Jesus gave us examples of Him spending time with the Father and praying. And even tho their were times that He had crowds of people seeking Him for healing Jesus still needed time alone with the Father. Just as then, today we need to spend quality time with God. We are not spirtually strong enough to make it without spending time in the word and in prayer.

I think how Jesus must have felt when He was there in the garden to pray and His friends could not even stay awake for 1 hour, and spend that time with Him. Is there any difference today? Can we tarry 1 hour? Are we taking time to spend quality time with God? Jesus spent a entire night on a mountainside praying to God. It is very important that we keep continual contact with God. There are decisions that arise in our life each day and we need to be able to pray and have that closeness with God to make the right choices.

Just as Jesus faced stress and trouble, we today face stress and trouble within our life, and we should run to God for the help we need.

Are You Spending Quality Time With God? ask yourself these questions.

1 - What are some benifits of spending quality time with God?

2 - What part can our prayer life play, when a hard decision is put before us?

3 - How can spending quality time with God change our charcter?

Answers......

1 - spending quality time with God helps us to depend more on Him. It also can allow us to get to Know God better

2 - As we pray God can guide us by seeking Him first

3 - the more quality time we spend with God, the more like Him we become. Through quality time we gain strength and godly influence

I challenge you today, to spend quality time with God

4-Given Ministry
Deb