-P.M.S.-

“Spending time with God puts everything else in perspective” – Anonymous

I don’t know about you, but busy doesn’t even begin to describe my day to day activities. From serving 4 days out of the week at my local church to my general household responsibilities, I never seem to have enough time to do anything (and in some cases, that even includes sleep LOL). In the midst of all my business, I often find myself not prioritizing spending time with God the way that I should and it is, by far, one of the biggest cruxes in my Christian walk. In an effort to combat this, I have come up with an acronym of ways to help me to remember to spend time with God: PMS. Now I know, as soon as I said PMS some of you may have chuckled, but PMS in this case actually stands for Prayer, Meditation, and Study. These three things are the fundamental ways that I spend time with God and I’ve seen my daily life much more enriched by doing these three things.  

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Prayer

1 Thessalonians 5:17

Pray without ceasing

Prayer is one of the most powerful ways to spend time with God, yet, is one of the most underrated. Now, I’m talking beyond the prayer that many of us say before we sit down to eat. To an extent, I am even talking beyond the prayers we offer up to God before a big exam or when a family member is sick. While those prayers are invaluable in so many ways, the prayer I am talking about is those of being in a constant mindset of just talking to God. 

I was talking to a friend of mine a few days ago, and she mentioned that every time she happens to be driving and she sees that sunset, or stumbles upon a flower that she’s never seen before, she offers up a prayer to God, thanking Him for the beauty and majesty of creation. 

Praying without ceasing doesn’t mean spending every waking hour of every day in a constant state of active prayer. It’s having a heart and mind constantly attuned to the things of God so those little things like a sunset or a flower 

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Meditate 

Philippians 4:8 

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

When I hear the word “meditate”, the first thing that comes to my head is someone sitting on the floor with their legs crossed in a weird position making an irritating humming noise while trying to find their chakra or something. It took me a while to detach myself from that misconception and align myself with the biblical definition of meditating. 

To meditate, as it’s used in Scripture, means to intentionally think about something. Meditating is an amazing way to spend time with God because you are in a place where your mind is being filled with nothing but the goodness of Jesus. Meditating on God’s word can look like scripture memorization or even prayer like we talked about earlier. My favorite way of meditating on God is by listening to worship music. There’s nothing like being reminded of God’s promises through a song that fills my mind and heart with the brilliant love of Jesus Christ.  

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Study

Joshua 1:8 

 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. 

Studying the word of God, or reading your Bible may be one of the most obvious ways to spend time with God but probably one of the things we do the least. I don’t know about you, but for some reason, every time I purpose in my mind to read my Bible, something else comes up and I just forget. However, on those days I do remember, I find myself enthralled by whatever part of scripture I read and ready to tackle my day with a renewed energy. 

For a lot of people, reading the Bible might seem like a boring task and I understand that, I’ve been there too, but here are some ways in which you can make reading the Bible more interesting: 

✦ Audio

If you have the Bible app on your phone, you probably have the ability to listen to the Bible through audio. This is a really cool way of reading Scripture especially if you, like me, are always on the go. 

✦ Coffee Shops  

Going to your local coffee shop and doing your devotion there is a great way of creating an engaging atmosphere to read your Bible while enjoying a great cup of coffee. For me, it’s sometimes better than sitting in my bedroom or at my kitchen table, and coffee shops provide a better ambiance. 

✦ Reading Partner

Things are always better when they come in twos, the same can go with reading the Bible. When you read the same passage of scripture with a close friend or family member, you can often encourage each other to pay attention to things that you normally wouldn’t see if you were reading alone. I love it when my cousin reads passages of scripture with me and we talk about it afterward, it makes the Bible come to life so much more. 

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I don’t know about you, but to me, time is this small, unseen, ongoing mechanism that there never seems to be enough of. For the most part, our time is spent doing important things, but there are moments in which we spend our time doing absolutely nothing. Purposing to use some of the time you’ve been given with our Creator will always leave you feeling rejuvenated filled with the Spirit and will never be a waste. Carve out some time to spend with Jesus today, I promise, you won’t regret it.  – JM

This post was written by an anonymous guest writer