17 Easy Ways to Make More Time For God
August 17, 2020 | Jamey Escamilla
What’s the number one thing that keeps you from spending time with God?
In my opinion, probably the most common answer will be that we’re too busy.
There’s just no time anymore.
People are dominated by the clock, while desperately trying to figure out how they can have more time to do the things they love.
The struggle is real. Believe me, I know.
We wake up and rush off to work.
We stay over time, and run home to pick up the kids as quick as we can.
But not before getting stuck in traffic or getting an unexpected phone call.
Then it’s time for dinner and making sure everyone else in the house are good.
There’s barely enough time for our favorite TV show.
But you can barely stay awake for that.
Then your eyes open, and we do it all over again.
The question I want to ask you today is:
As a Christian, how do you make time for God?
Because I think we’ve made Him a part of our life, but we don’t access Him until we desperately need something.
So I want to give you 17 ways you can make time for him.
But first, I have to lay out a couple of truths.
What does “spending time with God” even mean?
To me, it means building a relationship with him.
I think that having a relationship with God is a lot like our relationships with our loved ones – it has to be built up to become stronger.
If you’re in a marriage, and you never build the relationship, then you’ll never really know that person and it won’t be beneficial.
And how do we build these kinds of relationships?
With communication, time, listening, and learning.
So, spending time with God is anything we do to engage Him and strengthen our awareness of Him.
We do this by communicating with him, listening to him, learning about him and who we are to him, and giving him the actual necessary time.
Spending time with him might be praying, reading or listening to the word, attending church or spiritual gatherings, studying the Bible, giving to someone, volunteering.
These are just a few examples of some things you can do to spend time with God, but we’ll talk about more soon.
Why do you need to spend time with God?
Because you need faith.
Faith that God loves you. That he’s for you. That he’s real.
You can’t do anything without faith.
If you don’t have faith, you might as well stop reading this article, because nothing in here will help you.
So, how do we get faith?
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God.
And we hear the Word of God by spending time with Him.
So we need to learn how to spend time with Him, and how to make time for it.
You have to want it
Spending time with God has to be something that you want in order for you to go after it.
You don’t go after things that you just don’t want.
Why do we go through all the trouble to buy tickets to a game online, stand in line, endure the weather, take the time, and go to that ball game?
Because we want it.
When the day of the ball game comes around, we won’t forget.
We won’t make an excuse to not go.
We won’t be sick that day. We won’t let anything stand in the way of that ball game.
Do we do this when it comes to spending time with God?
If not, our priorities are wrong, as Christians.
Just be honest with yourself, and say, “I just don’t usually take the time to pray or get the Word in me somehow. It’s just kind of boring to me.”
Once you’re honest with yourself, then pray about it.
Ask God to put a desire in your heart for it.
But in reality, the desire to spend time with God will only come by spending time with God.
Doing it no matter how you feel.
Good results come when we take care of business, no matter how we feel.
You have to decide to take action
Spending time with God has to be something that you consciously, actively, and strategically plan to do.
You have to decide within yourself that you’re tired of being the way you are.
Once you come to that realization, you have to take action to change it.
“I’m not going to put it off anymore. I’m just going to do it.”
Mature Christians show up to God’s presence because they decided to. They needed to.
Even if they didn’t feel like it.
Immature Christians only come around when there’s a need.
Ouch.
It takes sacrifice
Spending time with God will take sacrifice on your part.
You have to create a bubble in your life, and fill it with God.
This means saying no to other things that demand your attention occasionally. Because it takes actual, physical time to spend time with God.
Real minutes and hours.
These other things that demand your time might be important, but what’s more important?
What you get out of it is better than anything else you can get
You might be thinking, “Man. Spending time with God sounds real hard! No fun!”
It might be hard at first to create a life style where you actively make time to spend with God.
But then it gets easy and life changing.
What you get from spending time with God is better than anything else.
You grow as a Christian, able to weather anything that comes your way.
You won’t walk around anymore feeling empty, lonely, depressed, swayed by every obstacle.
You’ll begin to walk around like a king or queen, understanding the power you have in you.
So here are 17 ways you can make more time for God
1. Wake Up Early
This one’s kind of a no brainer.
I know it might be hard at first, but set your alarm to wake up an hour early.
45 minutes early. 30 minutes. 5 minutes.
Set you an alarm, get up, get you some coffee, splash water on your face, whatever you have to do.
To me, this is probably the easiest and most effective way to spend more time with God.
I know not everyone is a morning person, but you can become one if you tried.
But it’s not even about becoming a morning person, but it’s about finding any available time to give to God.
In the morning, everyone else is asleep, and it’s just you and God.
People usually say that doing what’s more important first in your day is setting yourself up for success.
I believe that.
2. Set An Alarm On Your Phone to Remind You
Believe me. You’re just going to forget to take some time out for God somewhere in your day.
You have this thing in your pocket called a phone. It has something on it called an alarm.
I use them all the time to remind me of things.
If I need to remember to send an email or call someone, I already know that I’m going to forget, because I got a hundred other things on my plate.
I’m just a forgetful person.
But if I set that alarm, it works. Every. Single. Time.
I don’t even struggle to remember what it was that I was supposed to do.
I hear the alarm, and I immediately remember, “Oh yea. Let me call that person back.”
Use this to remind yourself to take 5 minutes or however long to talk to God.
Maybe you want to talk to God for 10 minutes on your lunch break.
Set that alarm for 11:45. Start praying when it goes off. Be done at 11:55. Go back to work.
3. Know That You Can Talk to Him Anywhere
People often feel that they can’t spend time with God because they’re over here or over there.
They’re doing this or doing that, so they can’t.
But God is everywhere, and wants you to talk to him so bad.
You can talk to him at the ball park. On a boat. At work. In your car.
Use time in these areas to spend time with God.
I used to pray in my car on my way home from work.
I’d be driving home from work in Sugar Land (a 45 minute drive), staring at the sun setting in front of me, sharing that time with God.
4. Commit Your Saturday Morning to Him
A lot of people like to sleep in on Saturdays.
I get it. Work killed you this week.
But what I like to do is get up an hour later on Saturdays from the time I normally wake up throughout the week to work.
You’re going to trip, but I get up at 3:30 AM. So on Saturdays, I get up at 4:30-5:00 AM.
Jamey, you’re crazy.
Maybe a little.
I just think that it’s best not to disrupt my normal sleeping pattern anyways.
I’m usually just as tired on Friday night as I was on Thursday night, anyways. So I go to bed about the same time, or a tiny bit later.
I hate waking up early throughout the week to work, but sleeping extremely late on Saturday mornings.
I always get up with a headache when I do.
But what’s good about Saturday mornings is that I don’t have to get up early to work.
I can spend that entire morning with God, and then float off to make breakfast, run to Home Depot, mow the yard, whatever.
You get more time on Saturday morning. Take advantage!
5. Start a Weekly Bible Study
A lot of people in churches get together some time during the week at someone’s house and have a Bible Study.
I’ve always liked this, because it’s a time to eat and fellowship with people in your church and just have honest discussions.
If you can’t find any of these small groups around you, start one yourself.
Have some friends come over for dinner and have an hour long Bible Study.
Dive into the scriptures and spend time with God together with others.
If you’re part of a church and want to do this with other members within it, I would also recommend letting your pastor know that you want to try this.
That way, he can give you his blessing, help you, and be in the loop.
6. Start Going to Church
If you don’t do this already, I encourage you to.
Getting yourself to church is a way to spend time with God, because when you’re there, you get the Word.
It’s just more of a corporate experience. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
I’m a big advocate of the local church. I think every Christian should have a church. A building that they go to.
“But we are the church!”
I’m really tired of hearing that.
First off, the “church” is actually an assembly. A congregation. It’s a gathering. That’s what it means in the Greek language.
Yes, you carry God with you everywhere you go.
But you’re a temple, not a one-man congregation.
The Bible emphasizes the importance of gathering with other believers.
So if you don’t already, get yourself into a church.
Don’t feel like you have to change everything about yourself first.
If they don’t accept you the way you are, then it’s not the church for you. Jesus don’t even go there.
Don’t get offended if someone gives you a strange look. They’re not God.
Start going for yourself. Because you want to spend time with God.
And He will honor it.
7. Listen to Podcasts and YouTube Videos, Follow Facebook Pages
I love the age that we’re in.
You can get the Word in you and spend time with God with a click of a button.
Start searching for great podcasts to listen to that you really enjoy. They’re free!
You can play them in your car or on your phone.
Even YouTube videos. Find someone that makes great content.
Teaching videos. Inspirational ones. Sermons from some of your favorite preachers are there, too.
Follow a Christian Facebook page that posts regular content that encourages you with the Word.
Remember, you have to hear the word.
And these are just some easy, common sense methods to do it.
There’s no excuse to not get the word in you.
8. Find a Different Job, If Necessary
I know that this one seems a bit extreme, but just think about it.
If you’re unhappy with your job because you don’t get a lot of time to spend with God and your family, or do the things you truly love to do…
… then go get happy.
Our job could very well be holding us back and taking too much of our time.
But you have to think about this real carefully before you make a decision here.
This isn’t an excuse to quit your job just because you feel you work too much or don’t like it.
We all need to work, and we all need to learn to find peace within our workplace.
We should be shining examples of Jesus at work, and you never know – God could have us there for a reason.
But there are special circumstances where people do work too much, and it makes it real hard or almost impossible to make time for God.
If you honestly feel like your work hours are the problem, try these tips:
Try other techniques on this blog FIRST to see if it’s possible to make time for God while keeping your regular work hours BEFORE you shorten them.
Pray about the situation. Tell God that you feel your work is keeping you from spending time with Him. Ask Him to guide you in this area. If He knows that your job is hurting you, He’ll make a way for you, somehow.
If you can’t attend church on Sundays, ask if you can start having Sundays off. The worst thing that could happen is the boss man tells you “no”.
If possible, work with your boss to adjust or shorten your hours. You have to communicate with them… they won’t magically know that you want more time for God.
Consider going part time, and then supplementing the hours you’ve lost with flexible work from home opportunities. Check out VIPKID, Appen, and Lionbridge.
If all this fails, and deep down you really feel that your job is hurting you, and you feel God has given you a green light, then find a new job BEFORE quitting. One that’s better for your schedule. Don’t be scared. God will take care of you.
9. Block Out Time On Your Calendar
In one of my favorite books, The One Thing by Gary Keller, he talks about something called “time blocking”.
And it works.
Here’s what you do.
Pick a time that you will aggressively block to spend time with God, and do it.
A blocked time is a time where you do what’s most important to you, and nothing else.
Why not your time with God?
No emails, no grocery shopping, no cleaning, no work, no Facebook, nothing.
This is a sacred, “blocked” time that you reserve for God.
For example, some people time block Friday nights. On these days, they go on a date with their spouse. Religiously.
You might time block every Sunday for church. EVERY Sunday is church, whether the kids like it or not.
Do the same thing with your personal time with God.
10. Prioritize It
This might seem like a “Yea, duh” moment.
But from what I’ve seen, most of us just don’t do the important things first.
We do what we want to do first.
And this might play into the waking up early one.
But if you don’t wake up early, at least learn how to prioritize what’s most important to you.
And if you’re a Christian, your most important thing is God.
When I used to work in retail, we used to make daily task lists, and organize them as priority A, B, and C’s.
A’s get done first, no matter what. Don’t even think about touching a B until you have all the A’s done.
Think of your daily life and your time with God along these same lines.
If God is an A to you, you’ll spend time with him before you watch Netflix.
11. Watch Less TV
Speaking of Netflix…
When you get rid of TV, or cut back on it, you’ll be amazed at how much your life transforms.
Go spend time in your garden, talking with God, rather than Jed, Granny, and Elly May.
I know this is hard. Believe me, I have my stories that I watch.
The Bold and the Beautiful, Judge Judy, and tons more.
But Judge Judy ain’t gonna save me.
You don’t have to go cold turkey all at once. Try cutting back 30 minutes first. Or an hour.
You’ll find time when you look under every rock and tree.
12. Learn to Let Things Go
What are some of those B’s and C’s?
Learn to get rid of things in your life that you could do, but leave the things you should do.
Life is more about letting go of things rather than accumulating things, anyways.
What things have you been putting off? What’s causing you stress?
What extra activities could you leave behind to make more time with God?
Writing a book? Coaching? A side hustle that you can’t get off the ground?
Whenever I have too much on my plate, even if they’re things I really, really want to do, I always feel better when I let them go.
Maybe they’ll come back to me one day.
13. Delegate Things To Others
You don’t have to do everything yourself.
Maybe it’s time your kids learn to wash their own clothes and mow the yard.
Ask your spouse to help. Ask your coworkers to take things off your plate. Buy them lunch later for doing it.
Delegation is the key to being a great leader.
It shows that you can take things to the next level, because we need others to do that.
There are even great websites like Fiverr.com where you can get literally anyone to do literally anything for you.
I use this site to make logos, flyers, photos, all kinds of stuff. For only $5.
Like me, my goal in working is so I don’t have to work anymore.
I’d much rather let other people do the work and get paid themselves, as long as I can still get paid somehow.
Because that frees me up to do the things that really matter to me.
Like spend time with God.
14. Limit Social Media
Get out your iPhone, go to Facebook, and click the three little bars in the bottom right corner.
Scroll all the way down, and click Settings and Privacy.
Click Your Time on Facebook.
Scroll down, and click See Time under the menu, See Your Time.
My average DAILY time on Facebook this week is 1 hour and 14 minutes.
Geesh.
That’s an hour a day I could be giving to God. Or at least 30 minutes.
I think you see my point.
Just like TV, when you reduce social media, it’s life changing.
15. List Things That You Do Daily and See If You Can Limit Them
Since we’re talking about all these things that you should try to reduce, let’s make a list.
Get a piece of paper and write down what your life looks like in a day.
I wake up, get coffee, go to work, come home, water the plants, watch TV, cook, eat, sleep.
Now, what on this list can you reduce time wise?
Can you take off 15 minutes off TV or work?
Do you have to water the plants everyday? Can you eat out like twice a week instead of cooking a meal that’ll take you 2 hours to cook?
Go to a nice Chinese restaurant and make some friends.
The point is that it helps when you write things down and make a plan.
16. Go For a Walk
I don’t know what it is, but when I go for walks, it’s just me and God.
It clears my head, gives me exercise, and gives me time for God.
Walking 15-30 minutes is great for these reasons.
It could be your time to talk to God and tell him how you feel.
Work this into your schedule and see how you like it.
Plus it’s free.
17. Volunteer
Jesus said when you bring a cup of water to someone in need, you’ve actually done it for Him.
I don’t know why people haven’t thought about this sooner.
Time with God doesn’t just have to be you in your prayer closet.
When you do some type of volunteer work that blesses someone else, God sees that.
Are there any organizations around your home that you could get involved in?
Feeding the homeless? Talking to youth?
Does your church have anything going on?
Try committing yourself to helping others, and this could be some time that you spend with God.
Try these things out and let me know how you feel!
Because spending time with God is the most important thing we should do.
