[vimeo id=”61304974″]
We all have a desire to leave our mark on this world. We want to our life to count for more than just taking up space on earth. We want families to love us, our friends to be impacted by a heritage and us to be left after our last breath.
I’ll never forget one of the greatest quotes I ever heard about how to make an impact on this world. It was said by my friend Dwight Robertson, and I quote, “The greatest gift you can give the world is your own intimacy with Christ.”
I heard him say that will preaching a sermon, and I’m not sure I heard anything else because that stirred my heart so loudly my physical years couldn’t hear anything else. I was overcome as I thought about what it meant for me to grow so close to Christ everyone else in my world would be affected by my relationship with God.
That is Hard to Do
So from that moment forward I committed to know Christ more than anything else in my life. That is not an easy commitment to make. Let’s face it, there are other things in my life that are easy to spend more time investing in and getting to know better than God:
- My wife
- My kids
- My iphone
- My job
- My favorite sports teams
But if I am going to really make an impact on this world, I must know and love Christ above all things. This is what Paul was getting at when he wrote, “For when I was with you I resolved to know nothing but Christ and him Crucified.”
The top 4 ways to make your time with God more effective
But what does this look like? How can I live my life to know Him more intimately each day? Here are four tips for making the most of your time with God:
- Clear your schedule and your mind. It should be our goal to spend daily “unhurried” time with God. Life is busy and once the day gets going, everything is hurried. So schedule time with God that cannot be interrupted. Maybe this is in the early morning or late at night. I’ve even schedule a “lunch appointment with God” just so that the time is protected in my schedule.
- Stay in His Word. Our time with the Lord is not meant to just be a pace in our schedule to catch up on the latest book we are reading or what is going on in the news. There are other times for that. Your time with God daily should consist of a steady diet of just plain-out reading God’s Word. Find a reading plan, or just read through a book – but make sure you are reading straight from his Word.
- Keep track of what he tells you. I have stack of journals filled with revelations from my time in God’s word. And I am not really a journaling type guy. I try to write one page a day of thoughts that I’ve learned from reading God’s word and praying that day. This record is a sweet place to return when I seem to have lost my way.
- Seek his face not his hand. Finally, make sure that your time is filled with prayer. As my friend says, “don’t be quick to seek God’s hand, but seek his face.” We must pray to know him and love him, not just to get things from him.
So remember, the greatest gift you can give the world is your own intimacy with Christ. Long for Him and meet that longing with an intentional investment each day.
I am not too naive to think that I alone can change the world, but I am not to ignorant to know that together we can change everything we know by loving Christ more deeply.
