Have you ever wondered if it's a sin not to spend time with Jesus?
I assure you I am not writing this to condemn you about the consistency of your quiet times, but I do want to make you aware of how vital time with Jesus is and equip you where you may struggle to meet with Him. We'll start by looking at human relationships.
People inside and outside Christianity who know anything about human relationships will tell you that the most important part of a healthy marriage is spending time together and investing in one another. With almost every couple I have had the privilege of pastoring out of conflict, there has been a breakdown in their communication. They have failed to talk about and recognize the importance of spending time together. In premarital counseling, couples are told that when they are married, they should continue to date. Even after the kids come, and the bills pile up, and schedules get full, time with each other must still be a priority.
If my marriage, as the second most important relationship in my life, needs to be nurtured over time, this is even more true for the most important relationship in my life: my walk with Christ. This reality leads to what I believe is by far the most committed sin among Christians: the sin of omission.
When Christians talk about sin, we are usually referring to actions that are in conflict with Christian teaching: behaviors such as adultery, stealing, greed, or being mean-spirited. Sins are things that people do that they should not do. As the body of Christ, we tend to focus on the sins of commission. Rarely, do we talk about the greatest sin of omission: omitting time with the Lord.
In John 8:31-32, Jesus tells us, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Likewise, Jesus says in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
During this closing discourse with His Disciples, at a time of great, intimate connection, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that there is no spiritual growth, no spiritual fruit, no eternal impact with our lives unless we abide in the Lord. To “abide” means to “remain in.” It is an ongoing verb of constant attention and intention.
Sadly, I believe most Christians struggle to be consistent with their time with the Lord—even though the very practice defines our identity as Christ-followers. Who you are is determined by who you know. The primary way to know God is through Scripture. As Christians, we are called to abide in God’s Word—because living a life worthy of the Lord involves consistently growing in Him by being with Him.
When we continually cut ourselves off from being with the Lord, we become spiritually anemic. As the demands of the day drown out His voice, we can begin to think we can't afford to stop and take time to be with Him. Our propensity to give into the demands of busyness is not the only reason we struggle to have a regular quiet time. I believe there are two other reasons the sin of omission is so rampant.
The first reason is misguided motives. If spending time with Jesus is a religious task, it will be about as fruitful as a husband looking at his watch every time he is with his wife, counting the minutes until he can go on with his day and do whatever he wants to do. The motive for being with Jesus has to transcend religious obligation. Really, the difference is in one letter: whether spending time with your Savior is something you’ve got to do or something you get to do. Only if your time with the Lord is motivated by a love and desire to foster a relationship, will devoting this time be something you get to do. By getting to do it, you discover the real motive behind Christ asking to spend time with you: He loves you. The more you bask in His love, the more He will give you a love for Him. Just like two people who love each other can hardly be kept apart, when we understand the full, true gospel, we want to be with Him.
The second reason I believe the sin of omission is rampant in Christianity is that we have missing methods. The nature of a personal devotional time or quiet time is that it is personal. This time is private worship, private prayer, private journaling, and private Bible study. You don’t share it with a group of other people. No one else gets to see it. You don’t have to be around a church very long to see how people worship, serve others, or share the gospel. There are many parts of our faith that we can learn by example. But we don’t get to peek into someone else’s quiet time. As a whole, the Church just assumes that we all know what to do, but in actuality, many Christians don’t know how to spend one-on-one time with their Savior.
That's why I created the CAMP method - a method of studying God’s Word that demystifies the practice of daily communing with God and makes it accessible to anyone and everyone. With several different books to choose from, these CAMP resources are designed to provide a reading plan and a journaling guide to help you pursue a closer relationship with God through consistently spending time in His Word. When you sincerely commit to meeting with the Lord daily, you will never be the same. Find the right guide for you today in the Living Worthy Ministries online store.