Preached by Calvin Jones on 28th July 2009 in Cregagh Congregational Church, Belfast.(Apologies to the preacher if these words are not exactly what you said - they are what I heard through God's voice.)
Many Christians live in the presence of God but without knowing Him deeply.
Psalm 42:1-2 tells us that God desires our friendship and we should always be ready for the prospect of meeting with God as we pray and read His word.
Psalm 34:8 tells us to "Taste and See" - it is an invitation to experience God - we should be dying with thirst to meet God.
Hebrews 10::19, 20 and 22 - says we can enter the Holy Place, into the very presence of God. This was unavailable to those in the Old Testament.
"What profit is it that we dwell in Jerusalem if we do not see the King's face." - do we experience God in this way, do we experience Him in this way?
Why are we here on earth? The shorter catechism says we are here to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. This is the very essence of our Christianity. Why did God create? If God is love ,in His very essence then He must have something to love, we we can have a relationship with Him. This underlies our very existence - the relationship we choose to have with Him or choose to ignore.
A QUIET TIME WITH GOD:
Mark 1:35 records that Jesus rises early and goes to spend time in meeting God. Despite all that is going on is his life, Jesus takes time out. Verse 37 tells us that everyone is looking for him, so in verse 38 Jesus says, let's go somewhere else.
Reading our Bible and prayer and slience is a means to an end. The end is our relationship with Christ, it is a seeking of God, not in a mystical experience. We seek to talk to Him and know we have experienced His presence in a real way. Our Quiet Time is not a tick in the box, it is a discipline but it is relationship building. A relationship that needs to be nutured using time and effort so that we feel we are getting closer and closer to God.
THE SPIRIT OF OUR QUIET TIME
This is a time set aside and guarded - a time to be with our heavenly Father. It is also a time to be enjoyed and looked forward to. It is about relationship and not religion.
So we can find that using Bible Notes or reading the Bible in an unstructured way or even just reading the Bible without God's help can mean we do not get the most out of our relationship with Him.
PRACTICAL POINTS
Matthew 6:6 - Jesus referring to the hypocrites who pray out loud in public. Jesus says we should go into our room and close the door, ands pray to our Father who is unseen.
In our world we have no place for a daily Quiet Time, so we will never just find the time. It becomes all about priorities - so we may need to make a sacrifice to spend time with God.
When should we make time? In the morning - good reasons for the start of a day. People are usually fresher in the mornings. Perhaps the evening?
There are no rules of course BUT how longf should we spend in meeting God? We need both quality and quantity of time.
Where? What place - quiet and free from distraction.
Beginning a quiet time - we remember that we are making time to be with God. So we begin with a period of silence asking God to meet us within our innermost being. Psalm 46:10 says "Be still and know that I am God."
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