5 Ways to Get Intentional Time with God Throughout the Day

We live in a world filled with so much busyness and time on the go, so how can we carve out time to get intentional time with God throughout our day to day activities?

I recently wrote a post on reclaiming the time we have in the car by intentionally discipling our kids during the time driving throughout the week using audio Bible resources. Click here to read that post. While much of our travel time is as a family, there are also hours in our day that we are traveling alone. How can we go from frustrated by this waste of space in our day to using this time as intentional time to invest in our relationship to God and to others?

There are a million things we can do to fill this time, but I wanted to encourage you with just a few of my favorites to get you started. And if driving in the car isn’t the thing that seems to suck up all of your day like it does mine, what other times could these ideas fit into your day? Maybe you are working a mundane job with lots of time to think, or perhaps you are a young mom in the thick of changing diapers, nighttime feedings, and endless dirty dishes, or maybe these ideas could get used during your daily workout time. Whatever it is, I hope this encourages you to pursue your relationship with the Lord and others in the everyday moments of your day.

5 Ways to Spend Intentional Time with God in Your Day:

1. Pray!!! This is my biggest encouragement for these pockets of time throughout your day. Spend time praying to our great God! My favorite time to do this is after school drop off. It is the perfect time to pray to get my day going and focused on God. It is also a great chance to pray for others. I love to either have the Bible app read a Psalm to me or listen to a few worship songs before I start praying. Doing this sets my attention on the character of God and gives me words to begin as I praise God through prayer. I also love to have a list handy of people I want to be praying for each day so that I can intentionally pray for friends and family. And don’t forget to encourage others and let them know you were praying for them after you are done praying!
   Read also: Prayer: A Helpful Tool to Get You Started
2. Podcasts. I love podcasts. I can never keep up with all the podcasts that I follow, but there are just so many good ones out there! Some of my favorite podcasts are: Risen Motherhood, Journeywomen, Radical with David Platt, The Ponder Podcast, The Village Church, and the various Desiring God podcasts. All of these are great for diving deep into scripture and are great, gospel centered resources.
3. Work on scripture memory. This one can be hard if you’re driving and you don’t already kind of know what the verse says, but there are ways around that like listening to what you are memorizing or listening to scripture put to music. Hiding God’s Word in our hearts is so vital to seeing God at work in the everyday moments of life, so it is great to find a spot in your day to be filling your heart with the great Truths of scripture.
4. On that note, simply listen to the audio Bible and get some time taking in God’s Word. I particularly love doing this when I’m starting to read a book of the Bible and want to get a big picture overview of the book. It is a quick way to listen to the entire book and then be able to dig into it bit by bit when my Bible is in front of me. I’m not a great auditory learner, but if you are, this can be a great chance to get your daily time with God in His Word while listening to it as you go.
5. Call a friend to encourage them. Maybe you just spent time praying for a friend or maybe they came to mind that day. Often when this happens we don’t let them know we are thinking of them or praying for them. I don’t know about you, but the times that people tell me they’re praying or thinking of me can be some of the most encouraging moments!

I will be the first to say that being intentional with this time doesn’t always ease my frustration for the amount of time I spend in the car, but I can honestly say that I am thankful for the uninterrupted time that I do have to spend in prayer, work on scripture memory, encourage a friend with a quick phone call, or the chance to listen to a podcast as I go.

There are so many parts of our days that may seem mundane or a waste of time, but God calls us to be thankful in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18). My prayer is that as I choose to be thankful in all circumstances, even driving for hours everyday, that I would also choose to reclaim my time as time set a part by God to seek Him and others for His glory. What ways do you use your time intentionally as you go about your daily, mundane tasks in order to draw near to God and to love others well?