Remember getting a new toy as a kid – a video game, a Hot Wheels, a Barbie – and spending all day playing with it? Even though it had been hours, it felt like mere minutes and you were never ready to put it away when mom called for dinner or when dad said it was time for bed.

Remember spending hours talking to your special someone long after the date was supposed to end? Again, minutes quickly turned into hours as you both lose track of time, lost in the conversation and joy of each others’ company.

Or how about picking up a new hobby? It is effortless to spend hours researching anything and everything related to the new interest and a day spent devoted to enjoying the new activity flies by.

The principle is simple: we spend time, money, and energy on the things that we love.

Which got me thinking…

If I love God more than anything else in my life, why do I spend so much time on so many other things? I spend more time at work, sleeping, eating, watching TV, working out, and even walking my dog then I do with God most days. Now, I’m not suggesting we should quit our jobs, pull all nighters or stop eating! But I am suggesting that in order to have a genuine, life giving relationship with God, I need to spend time with him. If I want to know how God feels about me and my life, I have to spend time so he can speak to me. I’m suggesting that if I love God more than anything else, my thoughts should be consumed with him, I should long for the work day to end so I can meet with him, and I should be longing to say good morning to him as soon as I wake each day!

Spending time with God often starts as an act of discipline and unfortunately it often stays there. My prayer is that discipline turns into desire, that an act of obedience becomes an act of love.

I was reading Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young and the devotion for January 2nd said, “Do not skimp on our time together. Resist the clamor of tasks waiting to be done. You have chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from you.”

May I no longer “skimp” on time spent with Jesus! May my daily discipline to spend time with the Lord become a desire that burns deep within. And may the sweet time spent never feel like enough!

“The one thing I ask of the Lord – the thing I seek most – is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his temple.” ~Psalms 27:4

“As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.” ~Psalms 42:1