Spending time with God, nourishing that relationship with Him, is not a waste of time. It is the best and most important use of our time, with the greatest payoff. Spending time and deepening our relationship with God will pay off in every other area of our lives: our character and personal growth, our relationships, our health, our work, our purpose in life, our finances … everything. It is through cultivating a deep, intimate relationship with God, hearing His voice and obeying His words, that we cause our lives to rise up above the circumstances of life, to transcend the natural limitations of the physical world with its natural laws, and live in a higher realm, a higher plane that is not subject to this natural world, its laws and circumstances.
“Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.”—Romans 8:1-3 (AMPC)
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”—2 Peter 1:3-5 (NLT)
“But as the Scriptures say, ‘No one has ever seen, no one has ever heard, no one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.’”—1 Corinthians 2:9 (ERV)
This is one of the reasons that God made it the greatest commandment of all to love Him with all of our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. He didn’t command us to love Him first because He is some kind of egomaniac. That is completely contrary to His character. He commanded us to love Him first, in part, because that will produce the greatest payoff, the greatest blessings, the greatest good for us and for our families.
Neglecting this relationship is like athletes neglecting their nourishment, which is the source of their strength, and only focusing on the performance. It would be like a businessman throwing his whole life into his work and losing his family through neglect. After losing his family, he suddenly realizes that his family was the reason he was working in the first place. In losing these vital relationships through neglect, he has lost his reason for working, and his reason for living. Then his work is empty and meaningless.
Making Jesus Christ the first and most important love of our lives is the most important key to finding your place in life. Jesus warned us in His letter to the Ephesian church that if we neglect Jesus as our first love, it could cause us to lose our place in life and in His Kingdom.
“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”—Revelation 2:4–5 (NKJV)
We cannot even begin to be discipled by Jesus unless He is the first love of our lives.
“You cannot be my disciple, unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot come with me unless you love me more than you love your own life.”—Luke 14:26 (CEV)
The ability to hear God’s voice is linked to your relationship with God. The closer you are to God, the easier it will be to hear His voice. Developing a relationship with God is a lot like developing a relationship with anyone else. It happens as a result of spending time with each other, sharing experiences and communicating often. As you prove to your friends that you can be trusted, they may begin to share deeper secrets with you. It is the same with God.
“Yet when we are among the full-grown (spiritually mature Christians who are ripe in understanding), we do impart a [higher] wisdom (the knowledge of the divine plan previously hidden); but it is indeed not a wisdom of this present age or of this world nor of the leaders and rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing and are doomed to pass away. But rather what we are setting forth is a wisdom of God once hidden [from the human understanding] and now revealed to us by God—[that wisdom] which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification [to lift us into the glory of His presence].”—1 Corinthians 2:5-7 (AMPC)
When you become a friend of God’s, He shares His secrets with you. He tells you what He is doing. He shares things with you that He does not share with everyone who serves Him. He will give you insights that are not given to others.
“I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you [My] friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from My Father.”—John 15:14-16 (AMP)
Becoming a friend of God is a journey that comes with many tests and high costs, but for those who are willing to pay the price, it is well worth the sacrifices.