Pay Attention to Your Relationship with God

Scripture — Philippians 3:8 (NRSV)

More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

Devotion

If you want to receive, clarify, craft, and live your purpose in life, pay attention to your relationship with God.

Why is this so crucial? First of all, since our purpose in life reflects God’s purpose for all things, including us, then knowing God better will help us know our true purpose better. A deeper and truer knowledge of God leads to a deeper and truer knowledge of God’s purpose for us.

Second, and even more important, knowing God is central to our purpose in life. In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul writes, “More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3:8). Paul understands that having an intimate, truthful relationship with Christ has a value that surpasses everything else in life. Thus, as we seek to discern and live our purpose, we would be wise to pay close attention to our relationship with Christ.

If we affirm that our relationship with God through Christ is an essential facet of our purpose in life, what might we do to pay greater attention to this relationship? Before I suggest three things we might do, I must emphasize the fact that all of this depends on God’s grace at work in us. Spiritual activities are not ways to earn God’s favor. Rather, they are ways to let the favor of God touch and transform our lives. I do believe, however, that certain practices can help us access God’s grace so that we might know God better. In this devotion, I want to briefly mention three of these.

1. Time with God

Several times in the gospels Jesus takes off on his own to spend time with his Heavenly Father in the countryside. For example, Matthew 14:23 says, “And after [Jesus] had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.” If Jesus, the unique and divine Son of God, found it helpful to spend time alone with his Father, surely you and I would benefit from imitating this practice.

Having said this, I recognize that in certain seasons of life, it can be challenging to get alone time to pay attention to God. A friend of mine, as a young mother, could only get quiet time with God while taking a shower. Nevertheless, we all need to figure out how, in our busy lives, we can sit quietly as we spend time in conversation with the Lord.

2. Practicing Daily Reflection

I grew up in a Christian tradition that emphasized having a “daily quiet time.” Yet most people I knew struggled to live up to this standard. As I suggested above, it’s hard to have regular time with God when our regular lives are so full.

If you’re looking for some specific practices to do daily, I’d like to suggest three. First, take time each day to express your gratitude to God. Think about the good things in each day and tell God about them. If possible, record them in your journal. Ample scientific evidence shows that this practice enriches the lives of older adults, by the way. (See my article, “Gratitude and Lifelong Flourishing.”)

Second, many Christians find it helpful to engage in what is called the Examen or the Prayer of Examen. This practice includes giving thanks while adding several other ways to pray. With a simple structure, the Examen guides us to reflect on our lives with God. If you’re interested, you can learn more here from an article on the De Pree Center website: “Examine Your Life Carefully . . . Each Day.”

Third, pray a psalm each day. For centuries, the people of God have used the biblical psalms to inspire, shape, and inform their prayers. Many have found that reading a psalm as a prayer to God each day enriches and deepens their relationship with God. This is a practice you may wish to adopt in the third third of life.

3. Growing in Community

The spiritual practices I have mentioned so far are ones we might tend to do by ourselves, though they could certainly be shared with others. Time alone with God is both necessary and wonderful if we’re going to go deeper in our relationship with God. However, the Christian life is not something we should do alone. Remember that God created us in community with others (Gen 1:27) and saved us into community with others (Acts 2:41-42; 1 Cor 1:2; 12:12-13; Eph 2:1-22). We need times of corporate worship and fellowship. We also need more intimate relationships that happen in small groups or one-on-one relationships.

Fellowship with other Christians helps us pay closer attention to God. We learn from each other. We are encouraged by others. We can be held accountable. We are strengthened as others pray with us and for us. As we engage in Christian community for the sake of our own attentiveness to God, let us also remember how we can support and encourage others.

Conclusion

You may very well do other things that help you pay attention to your relationship with God. That’s great. Remember, however, that it isn’t just the doing that counts. It’s the motivation behind the doing that matters so much. I would confess that sometimes I rush through my daily time with the Lord more to check off my quiet time box than to pay serious attention to God. Yet, even then, there are times when God’s grace breaks through my hurry, helping me to encounter the living God in a surprising and transformational way. What a wonder! What a gift!

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: 3 Examples of Following Christ as Ordinary Christians (Philippians 2:19–3:21).