Hanging out with God part 2

Let me give us some follow up thoughts to yesterday.

Hanging out with God means that I spend time with him.

Now then, spending time together in any relationship does not guarantee a close relationship.  But it is impossible to have a close relationship with someone without spending time together with them.

It is the same with God.

We need to spend time alone with God.  Every day.

All I am saying is that if the only time I read the Word and pray and sing praise choruses to God or get my spiritual food - is on a Sunday morning - than I am in trouble.

I need to spend time with God every day.

Let me qualify that, however.

A common misconception is that "spending time with God," (hanging out with him) means being entirely ALONE with Him.

Of course, as I have been saying here, and as Jesus modeled, we need to spend time alone with God, but that is only a fraction of our waking hours.

Here is my point:  Everything we do can be "spending time with God" if he is invited to be a part of it and we stay aware of his presence.

The classic book on learning how to develop a constant conversation with God (hanging out with Him) is "Practicing the Presence of God," by Brother Lawrence (who lived in a French monastery in the seventeenth century).

Brother Lawrence was able to turn even the most common place and menial tasks, like preparing meals and washing dishes, into acts of praise and communion with God.

The key to hanging out with God, he said, is not changing what you do, but changing your attitude toward what you do.

What you normally do for yourself, you begin doing for God, whether it is eating, bathing, working relaxing or taking out the trash.

Let's all "practice" the presence of God in our lives.