Tag Archives: alone with God

July 30, 2025 · 5:40 AM

Creating Eremos

When was the last time you got alone and quiet without distractions? No phone, tablet, computer, TV, radio or people. With all the technological breakthroughs of the last century or so we have advanced in so many areas and made life better. However, with the invention of all these things, we have lost our ability to be alone. The quietest place on earth is at the Microsoft headquarters. The anechoic chamber has six layers of concrete and steel. It’s suspended by springs to eliminate ground vibrations and it’s fully padded with foam. It’s designed to absorb all sound. The problem is most people can’t stay in there for more than 30 minutes because it’s so unnatural to the modern person.

In Luke 5:16, and throughout the Gospels, it says, “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray [in seclusion]” (AMP). The Greek word for wilderness that was used each time Jesus did this is eremos. We have translated it as wilderness, but it’s more than that. It’s not just a lonely, quiet place, it describes a place of encounter, formation and communion with God. It was a set apart place from all distractions where He could hear God’s voice without the noise from the world. In this eremos, He met God to get clarity and renewal. If He made it a point to find these places often in a less distracted and connected world, how much ,ore should we make time for it?

In Matthew 6:6 Jesus encouraged us to do the same by saying, “But when you pray, go into your most private room, close the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.” We must find our own eremos where we can meet with God. It may not feel comfortable at first, but keep going to it. The goal isn’t external silence, but internal stillness. Jesus is inviting us into God’s presence where we can be still, know He is God, rest in His presence and find renewal for our soul. Creating your own eremos is critical to your spiritual growth and relationship with God.

Photo by Bruno do Val on Unsplash

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April 22, 2025 · 5:40 AM

Spiritual Effectiveness

One of the draws for Peloton stationary bikes and some treadmills is the screen in front of it. You can choose a city, a trail or woods to bike or run through. As you’re exercising, you can watch the screen and feel like you’re in that environment covering a lot of ground. However, the truth is that you never went anywhere and you’re wore out. That’s about the same thing that happens to us when we try to be spiritually effective in our own strength and abilities. Our effectiveness only comes through our relationship with Jesus. When we fail to spend time with Jesus, our busyness for Him wears us out and is ineffective. It can feel like we’re going places and making a difference, but it’s only an illusion.

In John 15, Jesus was giving some final instructions to the disciples before His crucifixion. In verse 5 He said, “I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him bears much fruit, for [otherwise] apart from Me [that is, cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing” (AMP). He used the example of a branch on a vine. We can only Produce fruit when we’re connected to the vine. Once we’re disconnected, we might appear green for a while, but we’re not receiving the nutrients we need to produce anything. His encouragement to them and to us is to stay connected to Him through prayer and intimacy if we want to be spiritually effective. Otherwise our efforts are in vain.

Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is [not your strength, but it is] God who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energizing, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfill your purpose] for His good pleasure.” Have you been so busy for God that you’ve sacrificed your time with Him? It happens to all of us from time to time. That is a recipe for burn out and spiritual ineffectiveness. When we spend time with Him each day, He refills us, strengthens us and makes us produce fruit. God doesn’t call us to do things in our own strength because apart from Him we have none. He is who makes us spiritually effective in our work for Him.

Photo by Worshae on Unsplash

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December 15, 2022 · 5:30 AM

Stop. Breathe. Pray.

I, like you, have a pretty busy day and week ahead of me. From the moment I woke up I started thinking of all the things I need to do to accomplish everything today. My mind races to find solutions to scheduling conflicts, deadlines, and how to be in two places at once. I’ve got a to-do list a mile long and a very short time to accomplish it. With all of that happening, do I have time for God?

It’s tough not to put God on a back burner on busy days. He’s the easiest one to “reschedule”, but He’s the last one I need to reschedule. “He’ll understand”, I reason in my mind. “I’ll read my Bible and pray later,” I tell myself. The truth is that I won’t have the time later either. If I don’t make Him a priority right now, I won’t make Him one later. If I don’t slow down now and take time to reflect on Him and His Word, I won’t do it.

God told David in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” David was a king and I’m sure he had a lot on his plate too. He would cry out to God in times of need and celebration. He would throw those 911 prayers up to Heaven like you and I often do. “God, I have a lot to do today. Help me to get it all done”, is what we pray. God wants more than that. He wants us to stop, take a moment and spend some time with Him.

In the world we live in, it’s easy to mix up the temporary with the eternal. It’s easy to reverse their importance. Today, stop, breathe, meditate on His Word, and thank Him. Rest in His arms before you do anything else. Give Him more than a 911 prayer and truly thank Him for another day of life. Thank Him that you even have things on your schedule. Know that He is God and really that’s what matters more than anything else I’ll accomplish today.

Photo by Bethany Legg on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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February 28, 2017 · 10:38 AM

Fellowship With God

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A phrase that stands out to me, when reading about great men of faith in the Bible, is they “walked in habitual fellowship with God.” Each time I read that phrase, it calls out to me and dares me to do the same. To walk in habitual fellowship with God is to be in constant communication with Him and to live in a manner that is pleasing to Him. The men in the Bible who did this, found great favor with God.

Noah was one such man. The time period he lived in was like no other. There was no one else on earth who feared God or lived righteously. He had no church find shelter in. He had no Christian friends who could encourage him and pray for him. He was the lone believer in a sinful world. Imagine your life without the help from your church or Christian friends. Imagine having no one you could go to for prayer when you needed it. How long would you last?

This was Noah’s situation and instead of throwing in the towel, he doubled down on his relationship with God. Genesis 6:9 says, “Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God”(NLT). If he was the only blameless person and he could walk in habitual fellowship with God, then you and I can too. We can find the strength within ourselves to be in constant communion with God. We can find time to pray and read His Word.

Merriam Webster defines “habitual” as, “Doing something regularly or repeatedly.” These men of faith regularly and repeatedly met with God and He rewarded them with favor and by making covenants with them. The God who made covenants with them still wants to make covenants with us. He’s simply waiting for those of us who will dare to enter into a habitual fellowship with Him. II Chronicles 16:9 says, “The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” If you will fully commit to Him in habitual fellowship, He will give you the strength you need to live for Him.

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February 8, 2017 · 5:28 AM

The Quiet Place


I jokingly refer to Egypt as the land of a thousand car horns because Egyptians use the horn instead of a blinker. I once tried to count how many honks I heard in a ten second span, and couldn’t do it. There were times when I just wanted some peace and quiet. To get away from the noise, I would rent a sail boat and have them take me to the middle of the Nile. It was my little quiet place where I could stop and think as I watched the sun set behind the pyramids.

Where is your quiet place? We may not love in the land of a thousand horns, but we live in a noisy world. There are so many distractions in our lives that it’s hard to find that place of serenity. It’s that place where our phone isn’t buzzing, kids aren’t vying for your attention, social media doesn’t exist, and no one bothers you. We all need that space in this world or we’ll go crazy!

In Psalm 27, David found it. He wrote, “When besieged, I’m calm as a baby. When all hell breaks loose, I’m collected and cool. I’m asking GOD for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house my whole life long. I’ll contemplate his beauty; I’ll study at his feet. That’s the only quiet, secure place in a noisy world, The perfect getaway, far from the buzz of traffic” (MSG). David found his quiet place in spending time with God.

Each of us needs to set aside time in our day to spend time with God. We need it to keep our perspective so we can remain calm and cool no matter what’s happening in our lives. That quiet place reminds us that God is in control and that He’s got you. Resting in His presence quiets the fears and doubts of the unknown our lives. His Word gives us the hope and encouragement we need. If you’re there right now, take some time to find that quiet place in Him. You’ll be glad you did.

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September 9, 2013 · 8:02 AM

Dealing with Distractions

I always seem to get distracted during my prayer time on Monday’s. My mind tries to think through the week ahead starting with the meetings today. I catch myself going down rabbit trails in my mind when I should be praying. It’s hard to concentrate on what I’m reading in the Bible when I’ve got other things popping up in my mind. When I try to be quiet before The Lord, songs, music, thoughts on how to resolve situations and schedules start to cloud my mind. Not to mention, it would be nice to sleep a little longer since it is Monday and the weekend is officially over.

Do you ever go through this? Do you find it hard to keep your mind focused on God when you’re supposed to be spending time with Him? I think most of us do. Our minds are problem solvers and are constantly thinking through how to fix things in our lives. It happens in our prayer times because that’s the only time we’re still enough to let our minds work. We force ourselves to stop and concentrate on God, but our mind has other plans.

If we look in the Gospels, we see that Jesus made it a habit to get away from everything, go off to secluded places and spent time with God. Many of us would love a secluded place just to get away from the kids, noise, obligations, phone calls, text messages and emails! But to spend time with God, we need to find that place to spend with Him, not just to escape our daily life. As a kid, I remember that any morning I got up early, if I went to the living room, I’d find my mom there with her Bible and a cup of coffee. That was her time.

Each of us have different schedules, different obligations and different situations. There’s no one size fits all approach to spending time with God without distractions. I wish there was. Instead, it takes a conscious effort on our part to find that time and place where we can spend uninterrupted time alone with God. It’s up to us to turn off the phone, get away from noisy distractions, find a secluded place and to get alone with God. I struggled for years with this. I didn’t prioritize my time with Him so I allowed the distractions to take over that time.

Now, I’ve made a decision that I won’t let anything interrupt that time. The only time I found on my schedule to do that was my commute to work. When a thought other than one that is God-centered pops in, I check it, push it out and quiet my mind again. I turn the radio off, keep my eyes on the road and treat it as I would if I were having a meeting. Doing these simple things have helped my spiritual life to grow more in the past two years than the previous decades combined. It all started with the decision to make it a priority above everything else.

I’m curious to see how others have found time in their busy schedules to spend time alone with God. What do you do? What best practices do you have that help you stay on track with your quality time with God? How do you keep other thoughts from distracting you? How do you make time when there seems to be none? Please share so that all of us can benefit and find ways to improve our own quiet time with God. If we learn to spend quality time with God, our lives will have more quality.

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July 29, 2013 · 8:19 AM

The Noise of Life

This morning started like most mornings. My alarm went off and I hit the snooze button. I did that three times before getting up. I turned on the light and grabbed my phone to read the Bible. As soon as I did, I heard music. I leaned over and checked the clock radio in my hotel room. It was off, but the music was coming from right where it was. The walls in my hotel must be paper thin. The person on the other side of the wall was waking up too. I couldn’t concentrate so I turned my clock radio on too. I put it on the AM dial and turned to where there wasn’t a station so the white noise would drown out the music.

It was still hard to concentrate as I read. I managed to get through it and find a verse to think about today. Afterwards, I went on my way to getting ready and started praying. It wasn’t long before I heard an alarm going off. It was my clock radio. I went over, hit the off button and looked or a way to keep it off. I went back across the room to pray. It went off again. I turned it off and returned to praying. As I was praying, I kept hearing all the room doors opening and closing up and down the hall. So distracting.

Jesus knew we were going to face distractions when it comes to spending time with Him because He faced distractions. That’s why He went away from the group to pray so often. It wasn’t that He didn’t enjoy their company, it was so He could get some alone time with the Father. He was trying to show the disciples by example how they should be spending time with God corporately and alone. All the Gospels talk about Jesus separating Himself to pray.

Jesus even told them in Matthew 6:6, “When you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private.” Part of that instruction was so that we won’t be like others who pray so others will hear them and the other part was what I’m facing today. It was to get away from the noise of life that tries to distract us from not only spending time with God, but from hearing from Him too. With all the distractions going on this morning, I had a difficult time hearing His voice. I ended up leaving the hotel to get away from all the distractions so I could have alone time with Him.

Where are you today? What distractions keep you from spending time with God? Kids? Spouse? Neighbors? Friends? Radio? TV? Your phone? Facebook? Whatever it is, find a place and time today where you can just be alone with God. Spend time talking to Him and also spend some time listening to His voice. Read His Word in the quiet so you can really understand what He is trying to say to you through it. Get away from the noise of this life so you can concentrate on God.

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