By Justin Mofield

We have all heard about how we don’t spend enough time alone with God. We know about the weekly trips to church whether it’s for worship, Sunday school, prayer groups and other events that take place as a congregation. But in these instances, we are speaking more about the daily grind, spending time with God on your own each day. We have heard of lots of ways to do that, from devotion books, to reading scripture and beyond. But how often do we think about why this time is important? Sure, we know about relationship building with God, but there must be more than that.

Recently I took a retreat with my youth group and the theme of our bible studies was centered around the time we spent with God. Our second of three bible studies focused on the why, and we looked at two short sets of verses. We began with Luke 10:38-42, the story of Martha and Mary hosting Jesus. In the story, Martha gets frustrated that Mary, rather than helping her prepare everything for Jesus, is sitting there talking to Jesus doing “nothing.” When she expresses her frustration to Jesus, his response is different from what she was expecting. Jesus commends Mary for her priority to spend time with God.

Mary wanted to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to what he had to say. Mary understood that there was knowledge and wisdom to be gained. The same goes for us. Spending time with God opens a world of knowledge that we otherwise might miss. But there is more than that.

We also looked at Philippians 4:6-7. Verse 6 speaks to the relationship aspect previously mentioned. Prayer, supplication and thanksgiving are ways that we can communicate and grow in Jesus. It provides us an opportunity to cast our cares on him and let go of our worries. Verse 7 is then the final aspect of the benefits of spending time with Jesus. We should spend time with God to find peace. Paul writes that it will “guard our hearts and minds,” and we can find comfort in that.

This is not the limit, it’s just the beginning of all the things that can come from being with God. After looking at these verses, I ask my youth to ponder on one question: “What do you hope to gain from your time with God?” I wanted them to consider what it is they needed the most in their life at that time and focus on that in their time with God. At the end of the trip, after exploring how to be with God, I asked what they found. Some found what they needed, others found something else they didn’t know they needed and still some found more than they were looking for.

Why do you need to spend time focused on God? Even if you are not certain, I encourage you to approach your time with God with curiosity and hope. Whether it’s knowledge, wisdom, growth, peace or something else, we all can come to God searching. I cannot tell you exactly what you will find in that time. But I can tell you this: it will be exactly what you need.

Justin Mofield is a first-year divinity student at Gardner-Webb University pursing a Master of Divinity in Pastoral Ministries. Justin is also serving as the Part-Time Youth Minister at First Baptist Church in Forest City. Justin grew up primarily in both Elon and Durham, NC