If you spend time with God daily, praying regularly will become a way of life for you.
Would you like to know something personal about me? I am addicted to spending time with Jesus! The word “addicted” means “devoted to, delivered over to, surrendered to habitually or obsessively.”
In other words, I live a lifestyle of communing with God.
I’ve learned that you can create good habits in God the same way you can create poor habits. If you spend time with Him daily, praying regularly will become a way of life for you. You won’t even have to think about doing it. It will come naturally to you—and it will change you!
That’s what has happened to me. I have developed such a habit of making time with God my first priority that I don’t think, Should I pray this morning? I just do it. Even when Ken and I are traveling, if I have to get up at 4 in the morning to do it—I do it.
You might think I’m the only one around who is that committed to spending time with the Lord every day, but I’m not. I’m just one of many.
I have one friend in particular who is very diligent. No matter how early she has to get up, no matter what else her schedule may hold, she puts her time in the Word and in prayer first place in her day. That’s because many years ago she found herself dying of liver cancer. The doctors diagnosed it and told her she had only a few months to live.
Medical science couldn’t help her, so she turned to God’s medicine. She began to spend time reading and meditating on Scriptures about healing every day. As a result, she is alive and well with no trace of cancer in her body. My friend knows she owes her life to God’s Word.
Certainly such faithfulness requires time and effort. It is not easy. But if believers fully understood the blessings it brings, they would be willing to do whatever is necessary to make their time with God their first priority every day.
There are great rewards for that kind of faithfulness! The Bible says, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him” (2 Chr. 16:9, KJV).
“Perfect” in that Scripture doesn’t mean “without a flaw.” To have a perfect heart is to be “faithful, loyal, dedicated and devoted.”
God will pass over a million people to find one who is loyal to Him. He scans the earth looking for a person who will put Him first.
God wants to help us. He wants to move on our behalf. He wants to meet our needs and work miracles for us.
The Bible tells us that we are God’s children. And even more than an earthly father would, God cares about us. He loves each one of us as if we were His only child. He has a wonderful ability to treat each member of His enormous family as if that member is the only one.
But God can’t bless us as He wants to if we won’t let Him be God in our lives.
He can’t pour out His provision upon us if we keep clogging up our heavenly supply line by putting other things before Him. He is restrained by our capacity to receive. If He is to show Himself strong on our behalf, our hearts must be turned wholly toward Him.
Perhaps you’ve grown busy and lost your appetite for the things of God. Don’t be discouraged; you can turn yourself around. You can rekindle your fire for the Lord. Before long, you will find yourself addicted to God instead of the earthly pursuits that have been consuming you.
I know this from experience. At one time, other things were more important to me too. But I turned my attention to the Word and spent time in prayer until I became addicted to the things of God. I lost interest in many of the other things that had so engaged me before.
Turn to God. Give yourself wholly to Him. Become addicted to Jesus—and make spending time with Him your No. 1 priority every day.
