Use these Bible verses on spending time with God to see what the Bible says about quiet time, worship, prayer, and ways to connect with the Lord.
One of the deepest joys of the Christian life is beginning to understand how much we are loved by God and that He knows us intimately. He longs to reveal Himself to us as we get to know Him through His word, spend time with Him in prayer, learn to listen to His voice and enter into times of worship.
However, whether you are a new Christian or have been walking with Him for years, there are times when it is just such a struggle to focus on God and spend quality time with Him.
Do you long to connect with God and just don’t know how to take that first step? Have you heard others talk about their amazing “quiet times” but you feel like you must be doing it wrong? Do you know that your relationship with God could be better but you just need a little extra motivation on how to seek God more fully?
Know that God longs to connect with you and give you the desires of your heart.
If you are feeling guilty about not spending as much time with God as you would like, please know that you are not alone. God hears the cries of your heart and will give you the grace you need to grow deeper with Him.
These Bible verses on spending time with God will help you understand ways that you connect with God and truly place Him first in your life.
Bible Verses On Spending Time With God
1. James 4:8 – God Will Be Near
Come near to God and He will come near to you. James 4:8
As we make the effort to come near to God, He promises to draw near to us. If you take the first step, God will do all the rest. Trust God to meet you where you are at and provide everything you need.
2. Psalm 1:1-2 – Delight in God’s Word
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. Psalm 1:1-2
This psalm focuses on the importance of delighting in the law of the Lord, which is just referring to God’s Word that has been given to us. In order to truly delight in God’s Word we have to spend time reading the word of God and allow it to penetrate to every part of our soul, mind, and spirit.
This verse talks about meditating on it day and night. I don’t think this means literally sitting and pondering the entire Bible day and night. But as we set apart time to read and reflect on what God’s Word is saying to us, it will be with us throughout the day– through thoughts that we have, changing our emotional reactions, feeding our spirits and giving us joy.
Journaling about a Scripture or praying it over yourself or someone else are excellent ways to meditate upon God’s Word so that it saturates every part of your being.
3. Psalm 46:10 – Be Still With the Lord
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10
One of the hardest parts of living in our culture today is the busyness that consumes our lives. Whether it is trying to take care of our children or keeping up with the demands of a stressful job or responding to all the emails and texts on a daily basis, it feels like we are constantly being pulled in a million directions.
But God knows exactly what our hearts and spirits need. He knows that we need to take time to breathe and just be still with Him, allowing ourselves to remember and acknowledge that He is God.
This is one of the greatest rewards that having a regular quiet time can have in our lives: it forces us to take some time to be quiet before the Lord, focusing on His Presence and allowing Him to speak into our lives in the ways we so desperately need to hear Him.
Taking the time to be still requires an act of faith because you must trust that God will allow everything else to get done while you spend time with Him, but God will always be faithful to reward you for making sacrifices to prioritize your relationship with Him.
4. Matthew 6:33 – Seek God First
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33
There are many things that are competing for our attention each day, but we are reminded that if we seek God first in our lives then everything else will fall into place. The righteousness of God is sometimes referred to as right thinking, right motivation, right speaking, and right acting.
In essence, it is living out our lives based on the character of God. In order to allow God to transform our lives so that we reflect the image of Christ, we must prioritize spending time with Him and fully submit our lives to His love and grace.
5. Mark 1:35 – Follow Jesus’s Example
And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He departed and went out to a desolate place, and there He prayed. Mark 1:35
While Jesus walked among us on earth, He got up very early in the morning and sought a place of solitude where He could be alone and talk to His Father.
If Jesus, who is the Son of God, understood how important it was to find a quiet place where He could pray, how much more important should it be for us to follow His example?
Jesus loves us and wants us to follow in His footsteps.
Jesus came to earth to engage in a powerful ministry of teaching and preaching, but He knew that His spirit needed to be nourished in order to pour out His life to serve others.
He has also called us to do great things with our lives, but we need spiritual nourishment to live these lives of faith. He lovingly calls us to spend time alone with Him as we read His word and pray to Him, allowing Him to pour out His Spirit into our lives in greater ways.
6. Romans 12:2 – Renew Your Mind
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
God wants to completely transform the way we think about God, the way we think about ourselves, and the way we think about others. As our minds are transformed, we will be able to overflow with the love and joy of Jesus like we never thought possible. However, we have to renew our minds with the truth of God’s Word to allow this transformation to take place.
Spending quiet time reading and meditating on God’s Word will change your life. You might not immediately feel a sense of spiritual renewal, but God will reward your obedience to Him and He will be faithful to allow His truth to take root in your life. Not only can we resist being swept away by the ways of this world, but He will equip you to discern what the will of God is in your life.
Let us seek to walk in the will of God for our lives and anticipate the beautiful transformation that is taking place as God brings His word to life in our journey with Him!
7. Deuteronomy 6:5 – Love the Lord
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5
I know that as we grow in our faiths we want to live the best Christian lives possible.
Unfortunately, sometimes the things we feel like we are supposed to do to be “good” Christians becomes more like a checklist that we are required to do: go to church each week, memorize Scripture, pray for friends and family, deliver meals, go to weekly Bible Study, and give generously to every charity’s request.
While all of these activities can be blessings, God wants us to be motivated by love not by guilt that obligates us to grudgingly comply. When we reflect on how extravagantly God has loved us and poured His grace into our lives, it allows us to love God with all our hearts and soul.
As a beloved child of God, He longs to spend time with you and just enjoy being together.
Whether it is humming verses of a praise song to Him, pouring your heart out to Him in prayer, or just sitting in silence reflecting on His goodness, God just wants to spend time with you and pour His blessings out into your life. Let us love God together as we spend time in His Presence.
8. John 15:4-5 – Abide in Me
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5
I actually prefer the ESV translation of this verse in which it says “Abide in me, and I in you.” To abide means to live, dwell, or “to make yourself at home.”
I love thinking about how God calls us to rest, to abide, to make ourselves at home in Him, where He pours His love and His life into us.
He knows that we cannot face this world on our own, but as we dwell with Him each day He will allow us to bear much spiritual fruit in our lives as the love and joy and peace of Jesus overflows from our lives.
What a joy to see how God changes lives through us! All we have to do is stay connected to Jesus, and spending regular time with Him is a wonderful way to do this.
9. 1 Peter 2:2-3 – Grow Up in Christ
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 2:2-3
God is delighted when we receive salvation and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, but He loves us too much just to leave us as we are.
He longs to give us an abundant life filled with every spiritual blessing, but in order to see this fulfilled in our lives we have to grow up in our salvation. We need to grow and mature in our faiths and go deeper in our relationship with Christ.
Peter talks about first tasting that the Lord is good, which causes us to crave spiritual milk and more nourishment just as a newborn baby longs to be fed. By getting to know God’s Word and seeking the Lord in prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit will help us grow and embrace the life of faith to which we are called.
As we worship the Lord and rely on His truth, we will fall more in love with Jesus and our lives will be transformed by His grace.
10. John 4:23-24 – True Worship
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24
One of the most important parts of our lives as believers in Christ is worshiping God. Although praising God through song and music with other believers at a local church is a wonderful way to worship God, we also worship God in thought and deed with the way we live our lives.
To worship simply means to honor or show reverence for another. Romans 12:1 talks about worship as offering our lives, holy and pleasing to God, before Him. The verse above speaks about worshiping in the Spirit and in truth.
This just means that the Holy Spirit within us enables us to worship and we do so based on the truth of who God is. As you spend time with God, consider writing a prayer of thanksgiving to Him or meditate on a specific name or characteristic of God.
Journal about the lyrics to a favorite hymn or worship song. These are amazing ways to include worship in your quiet times!
A Prayer for Your Quiet Times
Dear Lord Jesus, thank You that You have chosen me to be Your child and love me with an all-consuming love. I long to place You first in my life and glorify You with all that I am.
Please show me how to spend more time with You each day, allowing Your Word and Your Spirit to transform my life into the person You created me to be.
Give me the faith to take one step at a time, trusting in You to work all things for my good and Your glory. May my life be a living testimony to the power of an amazing and gracious God.
To God be the glory! Amen.
More Bible Verses To Help You In Your Time With The Lord:
34 Scriptures on Hearing God’s Voice
40 Inspirational Bible Verses on Being Faithful:
