As a pastor for 33 years now, I have seen a trend in America that answers why we don’t see God moving in our lives like we would like Him too. We want God to move in our lives, and I have great news, God wants to move in our lives too.

I tell people all the time that I hate religion. I want to have a relationship with Jesus. A relationship with God is key!

Religion is you A, B, C, and God then must A, B, C. It is like a formula, contract or a box. A relationship is when you do something for the one you love because you love them and then they are free to show that love back to you however they want. God wants to be in a relationship with you, and God really wants to move in your life in ways you never expected, to surprise you with His love.

The key in the relationship is deciding to spend time with Him. Time is something we all hold dear, and we don’t want to waste it. God wants to know what we will do with the time we have.

The so-called experts say that one hour is the best length of a church service. When it lasts over an hour, people are wondering when it will end.  Out of 168 hours in a week, we are only giving God one hour of it, and if it gets close to that hour and we are wondering when the service will be over, we are actually giving God less than an hour of our time.

On top of that, many people think it is okay to arrive 15 minutes late to church.  Wow, now we are giving God less than an hour of our time, and we are saying, "God, you are not important enough to be on time for".  

Yet, we want God to move in our lives when we need Him, but our actions in the relationship don’t say, "God, we need you", and worse yet, our actions don’t tell God that we actually love Him.

God said that He wanted one day a week set aside for Him, and we have boiled that down to an hour, and in many cases less than an hour.  We even think that it is okay to skip that date for weeks or months at a time. Then we wonder why God does not show up in our daily lives.

In the early church, God moved mightily, and they spent that one day, not just an hour, a week together. Those two things are directly related.

In any relationship, time together is what proves love. Can you give up your time to the one you love? You can’t buy love. You can’t just say you love them; you need to show it, and that is why God gave us church. Not because we need church to learn about God, but because when we go and we choose to spend time with Him at His house, God realizes that we really do love Him, and then God is motivated to move in our lives, just like He did in the Bible.