In this article, I continue detailing the 20 practical lessons I’ve learned from 20 years of seeking to know the Lord intimately. In case you missed Part 1, you can read it here.
6. Use your best time to seek the Lord.
The Lord rebuked Israel for giving Him their leftovers (Mal. 1:6-8). What, exactly, were they doing? They were taking the best animals for themselves and giving the Lord the blind, the lame, and the sick.
If we are honest, we do the same thing. We use our best energy to work out, do our ministry, work, or spend time with our families.
But if you truly want to know the Lord, use your best time to seek the Lord.
If you are a morning person, seek the Lord in the morning. If you are a night person, seek the Lord at night.
Use your best strength and energy to seek the Lord.
7. Find a place where you will seek Him.
I used to lay down in front of the fireplace in my den to seek the Lord. That worked well until I had a puppy and he would try and play with me.
Now I seek the Lord at the kitchen table. This works well for writing down what the Lord speaks to me as I wait on Him.
8. Be consistent no matter how you feel.
If you wait to seek the Lord when you feel like it, you will not seek Him often.
Typically, when I first wake up and began to seek the Lord, I will feel exhausted, dry, down, and dead. But I’ve come to realize, if I will press through these feelings, I will be filled with the Holy Spirit’s presence, peace, and joy when I am finished. Then, for the rest of the day, the Holy Spirit strengthens me inwardly and lives through me.
Discipline is a key to intimacy with God. Do it no matter how you feel. Do it no matter how tired you are. Do it whether you feel dry, discouraged, or dead. Discipline leads to consistency and consistency is where true spiritual fruit begins to be produced.
Nick Saban, the legendary football coach at Alabama, who has won seven national titles, said, “There are two pains in life. The pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, you’ll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment.”
Applied to intimacy with the Lord rather than football, if we will embrace the pain of discipline—waking up earlier, forgoing other activities, waiting on the Lord for Him to direct us and speak, or resisting the urge to scroll through social media—then we will not experience the pain of disappointment when we see Him face to face.
Spiritual discipline is worth the price, for discipline and consistency are required to know the Lord deeply.
9. If you are super busy, use your off days to seek the Lord.
Jesus didn’t seek the Father every single day, especially during His ministry. Yet He would often break away and spend hours, sometimes whole nights, in prayer.
If you have a high pressure, time-consuming job, make your off days the days you “catch up” in your time with the Lord.
10. If you are married and have younger children who demand your attention, work with your spouse to help each other seek the Lord.
If possible, you and your spouse should establish your life vision of knowing the Lord together. Then, when necessary, you can help each other have time seeking the Lord. You can work together to fit this into your schedule.
For example, the husband can watch the kids on Saturday mornings while the wife seeks the Lord. And then the wife can watch the kids on Sunday mornings while the husband seeks the Lord.
Work together to help each other establish a regular time of knowing the Lord in the secret place.
11. If you miss your set time with the Lord, don’t condemn yourself.
In the past, when I went through busy seasons and didn’t have time to seek the Lord regularly, I would constantly condemn myself.
When I finally had some time to seek the Lord, I would spend about 30 minutes repenting and confessing my sin of being too busy to seek Him. I repented for my lack of hunger and thirst for Him, for losing my first love, and for my apathy and lukewarm heart.
After what seemed like 30 minutes of penitence, the time I did have to enjoy the Lord, hear His voice, and commune with Him was gone. I spent the few precious minutes I had wallowing in self-condemnation. This cycle would continue until I realized that it was not the Lord who was condemning me. I was condemning myself.
Please learn from my mistake and don’t waste the precious time you have to spend with the Lord staggering around in condemnation, guilt, and shame. You are wasting the precious time you have.
12. Don’t try to copy someone else.
Noel Mann, who was like a spiritual father to me, used to spend the entire day seeking the Lord.
When he would minister at our church in the mid-1990’s and early 2000’s, he would go into my dad’s office and lay on the floor with his face on the ground for four hours or more, simply praying and listening to the Lord’s voice.
Though I have tremendous respect for Noel, I could never do that. If I tried to copy Noel and lay face-down on the floor for four hours, I would burn-out quickly. Even the thought of doing that sounds like a heavy burden. Why? Because I am my own unique person. And so are you.
The Lord doesn’t want me to copy what Noel did, but to establish my own unique relationship with the Lord based upon my personality and circumstances.
And the same is true with you. God doesn’t want you to copy anyone else. Be yourself with the Lord and seek Him in the way that works for you. You are fearfully and wonderfully made and the Lord wants you to be yourself when you are with Him.
Apply These in Your Life
If any of these lessons were helpful, act on them and apply them to your life. Stay diligent and you will grow in your relationship with the Lord.
In the next article, I will talk about more lessons I have learned on my journey to know the Lord deeper. If you missed Part 1 of this article, you can read it here.
