The Requirements for Spending Time With God
A Sincere PrayerTo get to know God, you must have a desire to know Him. That begins with a sincere prayer, "Lord, I want to know You." Moses prayed to the Lord in Exodus 33:13, "If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so that I may know you..." (NIV) You began a relationship with God by saying a simple prayer. God saved you and became your heavenly Father, and you became His child. But that relationship must deepen.
It's easy to have a very shallow relationship with someone. You can know their name, age, and where they live, but not really know them. Fellowship is what deepens a relationship. You can't have fast fellowship. In a world of fast food and fast things, you must realize that you can't have fast fellowship with God. It won't happen. If you want to really get to know somebody, you've got to spend time with them. To really get to know God, you need to spend time with Him and ask Him to teach you about Himself. It begins with a sincere prayer from your heart.
A Pure Heart
A pure heart is a cleansed heart. As a believer you've been forgiven by the grace of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His blood has cleansed you of all your sins, and God now sees you as pure and spotless. But a pure heart also means single-mindedness. The best example I've heard to illustrate this point is a particular brand of soap. I loved it as a kid. It's the soap that floats - IVORY SOAP. They say it's "99-44/100% Pure®". In other words, it has no added ingredients to make you smell better or sweat less. It's just plain soap. Now you can use Irish Spring to make you smell better. You can use Dial to keep your sweat in check. But Ivory is just pure soap with no added ingredients. The added ingredients aren't necessarily bad, but they do add to the soap.
Like Ivory Soap, a pure heart is one without other "added ingredients." It's a single-minded heart, a single-minded life. It means your number one ambition in life is the same as that of the Apostle Paul, who said in Philippians 3:8, "...I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." (NIV) And by the way, that's the definition of eternal life. Jesus said in John 17:3, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (NIV) Eternal life is not something you have to wait for until you get to heaven. You can experience it now. It's knowing the living God, and the Savior (Jesus), whom He has sent. As someone has wisely observed, knowing God on a personal basis is the privilege of all and the unceasing experiencing of but a few.
We have the privilege of getting to know God. He already knows us - backwards, forwards, and inside out. Now we have the privilege of knowing Him. But we must make it our life's number one ambition.
Read Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI or Part VII.
