The greatest, most important thing you can do as a Christian believer is to have a daily time alone with God to pray and study His Word, the Bible. Out of that will come other things God may ask you to do, but your top priority should always be to spend some time every day to focus on God and find out what He has to say to you.
We know that Satan wants to mess up your life! He will try very hard to keep you from a daily devotional time alone with God. If you let him succeed your life as a Christian will not be a very happy or effective one. Your power to live a godly life - to see God moving wonderfully in and through you to others DEPENDS on a good quality time alone with God every day. If you give that up you will soon see consequences.
"Ah, what could happen," you may be asking, "If I'm too busy, or start and then stop my daily time alone with God?"
A number of things will go wrong;
* you will forget how much God loves you
* you will forget to trust God for your needs
* you will slip into sinful ways
* which means God will not rescue you when disaster and trouble comes
* you may fall prey/captive to sickness and diseases
* any Christian friends you have may leave or ignore you
* wicked people will sense you are open to their temptations and will lure you into further sin.
It just goes on and on! You NEED your daily time alone with God.
On the other hand, if you do spend the best part of each day - mornings work best for most people - for a daily time alone with God, then you will see changes like these;
* you will get to know God better and love Him more!
* you will have a better grasp of what He wants you to do
* you will have the faith to ask for all you need - and see some miracles
* you will have a joy and peace that you just can't figure out!
* you will overcome sickness and diseases and as you obey God, grow strong and healthy
* godly Christian friends will be attracted to you
* unbelieving friends bent on evil will mock and torment you at first, and then leave you
* as you gain understanding of God's will and Word you will have a desire to tell others about Jesus!
This list can go on and on in this direction too. You will be blessed if you have a daily time alone with God.
Early morning works best for most people for several reasons;
* It arms you against the attacks of Satan throughout the day
* You will concentrate better when you are fresh from sleep, rather than exhausted and weary from your days' work
* If you have trouble waking up, do a few exercises, walk while praying, pray aloud.
Of course, remember you can pray at other times too. If you have shift work or others disrupt your prayer time, you can make changes in your schedule. This is a holy time between you and God, and any time suits Him, as long as you try to make it a daily time alone with God.
This is not to say you should only pray at that one time of the day, and ignore God the rest of the day - or somehow muddle through on your own the rest of the day. Ideally, we are suppose to be praying without ceasing. So in the back of your mind, you can have a running prayer or conversation with God all day long. The reason we suggest a block of time, even if only for 10 to 15 minutes that you devote totally to Bible reading and prayer, is so that you will begin to grow in your relationship with God. From this will develop that habit of talking often with God throughout the day and eventually, all day long.
We can pray anywhere, any time, but our surroundings can be distracting. Especially if they are new every time, or change often. By finding a specific place for your daily time alone with God, that place will fade away into the ordinary, and you will begin to sense the Lord's presence whenever you go there. It doesn't have to be a very pretty place, nor very large. In my early teen years, the only private place I could find was on a cushion in the clothes closet, because I shared a bedroom with two sisters. At first I chose to go there at night, after they had gone to bed, but then I found that my head would fall asleep on my knees. It was better to get up ahead of them, and go there early in the morning.
You may have to try out a number of places, and be creative about what you choose to do, before you find the right spot for you. It can be especially difficult if you have young children to look after, or family members that will mock you or torment you for praying to the God they do not know or love. But please keep working at finding a good secret spot where you can pray alone - to God.
Jesus gave us a good example. He got up early in the morning, slipped out of the house, even away from His beloved disciples, so that he could pray privately to God. (Luke 9:19 and John 6:15) Jesus considered it important for the success of His whole day, to spend time to worship and fellowship with God, to renew His commitment to do His Father's will, and to clearly know what that will was for Him. He also interceded for His disciples. There are many things to pray about. (We will cover them in another article).