Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1)
One thing that must be of greatest priority to any child of God is to spend time daily to have quality fellowship with God. While prayer and God’s Word are very important aspects of our quiet time, it is not enough to just read the Bible and pray hurriedly; there must be a fellowship.
The purpose of any quiet time or devotion must be to have fellowship with God – to commune with God, to hear the voice and instruction of God, and receive fresh impartation of life from Him. No matter how many seconds or hours you spend in your quiet time, if there is no fellowship between you and God, you have only marked attendance. And to be honest, having fellowship with God will be impossible if we do not slow down and create time to prayerfully meditate on God’s Word.
All of us seem to be in a hurry to do the next thing – we all seem to have a very busy life. But that has never been God’s plan for us. He expects us to work during the day and reserve the cool of the day for Him (Genesis 3:8). We all must learn not to do too much or get overly ambitious at the expense of our walk with God. If we are into too many activities, we might soon get stressed up and unable to have quality time with God. Yet that is where our strength comes from as people of faith in God.
The question I like to ask you is, what are you chasing after that is chasing you away from God? Talk to God about it no matter what it is, even if it is ministry. Nothing must come ahead of God in your life. We clearly see that exemplified in the life of Jesus.
And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach (Mark 3:13-14).
And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. (Mark 6:46)
There are many dangers I have seen in boycotting fellowship hour with God. You don’t want to have or remain in such state, yet many are in such state in the church – dryness of spirit, emptiness of spiritual life, leanness of soul, meanness, lack of revelation and light, sickness and tiredness, stress, fruitlessness, trouble and lack of peace, fear, doubt, debts, wrong decisions, regrets, weaknesses and loss of joy.
I prefer to stay in fellowship with God. I have experienced both and I really don’t want to have the terrible experience of poor fellowship life with God anymore. It is a terrible life. Ensuring a consistent fellowship with God comes with a price but the prizes outweigh the cost – the joy of the Lord, the peace that passes all understanding, revelation and strong faith, divine instruction, direction and guidance, help from above, divine empowerment and fruitfulness, health and wellness, freshness from the Lord, divine strength, divine presence, protection and provision, knowledge of the things of God, word of wisdom about things to come, spiritual leadership, happy home, and lots more. The one I enjoy most is the peace of God that comes with fellowshipping with God.
We all need to really withdraw from certain activities that are of no significance to our eternal value with God. I don’t want to bog down myself with anything that will not matter to God when I stand to give account of my stewardship. I want to focus only on what really count and matter to the reason God saved and called me to serve Him.
