How To Spend Quality Time With The Lord?

My thoughts about how to make personal prayer time more fruitful.

When we try to make something better, we likely try to identify what we can measure about the thing that we are trying to make better.

It is in this context that I also tried to identify what metric would indicate the fruitfulness of my prayer time. Though the quantity of time spent with the Lord is important, I was sure that this was not what I was looking for — both from experience and from the fact that-

I was trying to spend a set amount of time in a better way with Jesus.

We can do nothing on our own. The Holy Spirit guided me and helped me understand that the metric with which I could evaluate how well I spent my time with the Lord is “Intimacy with the Lord”.

Intimacy with the Lord

Before I share what the Lord showed me about practically spending a great time with the Lord (which proved to be a game-changer), let me quickly touch upon Intimacy with the Lord.

Let’s use 2 contrasting scenarios to discuss this.

Scenario 1:

Bob spent 1 hour with the Lord. He was listening to worship music. He tried to concentrate but was not able to. He kept trying different songs but it kind of did not work out. He felt getting worn out.

Scenario 2:

Ann also spent 1 hour with the Lord. She was also listening to worship songs. However, she was worshiping the Lord from the depths of her heart. Tears streamed down her face. She felt every cell in her body worshipping the Lord.

When we take a look at the above 2 scenarios, it becomes evident that Ann had an intimate time with the Lord. This is the metric, that the Holy Spirit showed me, that can be used to check if our time with the Lord is spent fruitfully.

How to worship from your Heart?

The Lord in his mercy taught me a powerful way of entering an intimate time with Him.

I have struggled many times as Bob in scenario 1 above. I would be speaking in Tongues and listening to worship songs, but many times had difficulty entering into an intimate time of worshipping and Praising the Lord ( as Ann in scenario 2 above).

However, using the key — that I am about to discuss- I witnessed a dramatic change. So, let’s discuss this key:

“..Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.”(Psalms 80:18)

As you can see in the scripture above, the key to worshiping from your heart with concentration is to be quickened by the Holy Spirit.

For us to be quickened by the Lord, it is very important to learn to Wait upon the Lord in silence.

From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

The above verse guarantees that if we wait for Him, He will work or act for us. Let us look at a few more scriptures and then I would like to share my experience of waiting on Him and what He has taught me in His mercy.

Psalm 62:5 — For God alone, my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

My Experience of waiting on Him

When I want to spend time worshipping Him, He taught me, not to rush into putting effort into worshipping and praising Him. Rather I put a few nice worship songs and listen to them, and I stay silent — I don’t sing or pray.

When we wait for any other person, notice — how it’s different from just doing nothing. For example, when we wait for a doctor, we have to wait outside his or her room, not somewhere else.

It’s similar when we wait on the Lord. What He taught me is to be silent and I listen to beautiful worship songs. At this time He gently helps me to meditate on His goodness. On how kind He has been to me and how patient He has been with me in dealing with various areas of my life and the Spirit takes me gently deeper.

When I reach a state of being quickened by the Spirit, I speak in tongues along with having my mind focused on Jesus in praise and worship and thanksgiving.

And this time even when I speak in tongues and worship it’s easy to focus on Jesus and worship Him from my inner being. And I feel much more close to Jesus.

So the key — is not to try to worship the Lord from your heart by your strength — but rather His strength which He graciously imparts when you wait on Him.

When He quickens you, you will notice tears flowing down your cheeks, you will feel praise and thanksgiving and worship erupting from your inner being — because He is so worthy of all our praise and thanksgiving and worship.

Follow our publication “Sacredscript Insights” to get notified of the articles about Biblical insights.