Time ALONE With God

We've been venturing on a series in NMC Student Ministries called TAWG. Each week, we break apart one word. Last week I was reminded of just how much time I spend on everything and everyone but my Savior. It's sobering to look at my schedule of things that are good things but I often place them as far more important than God things.

Last night, Alison Gingrich focused in on the word "ALONE" and really drove home this idea of making your relationship with Christ your own relationship- not your parents, not your friend's, not your pastor's relationship that you vicariously live through...but having your OWN personal walk with Christ. Essentially, if you don't OWN it, you don't have it. If we're not spending time on our OWN with God, can we really say we have a relationship with Him?

Yesterday as I was continuing a study in the book of John, I came across a very familiar verse. It's probably the first verse many of us ever memorized as a little kid. The verse was John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

I've heard the verse enough times in my life that you'd think there would be nothing left to draw from it. But as I just sat there reading it over and over again, two phrases of the verse jumped out at me.

"For God so loved...that He gave"

God loved us so much that He gave that which was most precious to Him. He wanted to pursue a relationship with us so much that He made the ultimate sacrifice. God so loved...that He gave.

So, I began thinking...what if I so loved God that I gave? What if I stopped just singing about how much I love Him and talking about how much I love Him and actually showed Him how much I love Him by giving to Him what is already His? What if I gave God my time not out of obligation or religious duty but simply in response to how much I love Him? What if I gave God my dreams, desires, and goals for no other reason than that I love Him? What if in everything I did and said I was to glorify God not because that's what He wants me to do but because it's what I want to do because I love Him?

I'm on this journey just like everybody else. I don't have a perfect relationship with Christ. I constantly struggle to prioritize time alone with Him. But I love Him, and it's because I love Him that I want to give my time and myself to Him.