Seek God

If you were to ask a number of the people that I have had the opportunity to lead about my leadership style, I would imagine they would say that I often focus on goals and the most efficient way to accomplish them. I have had a lot of success by stating where I want to go and how I want to obtain the goal and then to strive after it. One way in particular is to chart how I spend my time.

In an article I read long ago, the author mentioned that we all have the same 168 hours in a week. The author suggested to guesstimate the amount of time you took to do the majority of your tasks each week: 40 hours of work, 10 hours of commuting, 21 hours of meal time, 5 hours at the gym, and so on. He encouraged being generous with the amount of time you think you spend, and more times than not, you won’t add up to 168 hours for the week. That begs the question: what are you doing with the extra time you have?

A couple months ago, I attended the Southern Baptist Convention and had the opportunity to hear Donna Gaines speak. She took this idea a step further. If you were to break a day down into 15-minute increments, you’d have 96 blocks of time. She then posed the question, “Are you willing to give God 1/96^thof your day?”When she presented this, it was convicting. How much of my day am I allotting to spend with God?

In this blog series of walking through the Discipleship Pathway, we are now at the sixth signpost of a maturing disciple. The research conducted revealed that a maturing believer spends time Seeking God.The research found that believers are actively striving to prioritize God in activities in their lives. Spiritual practices and disciplines are important. Prayer, tithing, fasting, and confession of sin are a few of the areas that lead to this maturity. In Michael Kelley’s book, Transformational Discipleship, “spending time reading the Bible was one of the most likely indicators for spiritual growth.”

Romans 12:1–2 tells us that it is the renewing of your mindthat leads to transformation. Paul is urging the Romans to reshape the way they think, to focus their attention, to offer themselves as living sacrifices to God, to seek God. It is in this renewing of our minds that leads to maturity.

It’s reported that Martin Luther would spend an hour each morning studying Scripture, but on days that were especially busy, he’d spend three. It’s this kind of perspective that we should be striving toward. I tend to check my calendar several times throughout the day. Most of our days are jam-packed with meetings, errands, or even fun things to do with the family—but are we carving out time throughout our days to spend with and seek out God?

What are some ways that you seek God? What steps do you take to make sure that every day is grounded in the truth of Scripture?