The last couple of weeks I have been more busy than usual: the blessing of visitors, new extracurricular clubs for the boys and one of the core families in our team leaving the country. I have been working on some writing projects behind the scenes; visiting with friends across the city and feeling exhausted at times. Every morning I need to start my day with God (for the sanity of everyone who I come into contact with in the day!)- but a couple of weeks ago I was finding I was going through the motions, but not making the connection. I was reading my Bible daily, but felt like it was washing over me rather than saturating my soul. I would pray, but I felt like I was just poking my head around God’s office door to give him a quick update rather than sitting on my Father’s lap by the fire, enjoying His company.

My husband, Mark and I have both been in and around the house all week - in and out at different times. We see each other regularly throughout the day, but when things get busy, the quick hello hugs and kisses come with a longing to just slow down and be together for a moment without rushing onto the next thing. My relationship with God felt the same. Mark articulated it best: ‘I miss you.’

Ruth Haley Barton mentioned something similar in this book. Through the busy-ness of everything, she felt distant from God and poured out her heart to Him. Suddenly she realized what her soul was longing to say: ‘I miss you’.

When I stopped and said those words myself, something in me melted. The heaviness and burden of trying to climb the mountain to get with God suddenly melted like wax and instead I found myself laying beside Him a moment, totally relaxed in His presence. My days didn’t get any less busy, but suddenly the added burden of trying to find time to be with God morphed into walking out the day with Him. I had too many responsibilities to drop everything, but if I could walk them out confidently knowing God was on my side and that His presence was with me, I suddenly had peace.

Perhaps you, too, feel like your life is so busy and you feel so disconnected with God that the time you do spend with Him feels like a drop of water which vaporizes as soon as it hits the desert sand. I wanted to share with you today three simple things you can do to reignite that relationship again:

1. Stop and say something simple.

Close your eyes a moment and tell God you miss Him. Tell Him you love Him. Tell Him you are sorry. Prayer is about connection, not complication. Just connect.

2. Choose silence.

There are moments in the day when you can choose silence over sound - you don’t have to have music playing whilst you are in the shower; you don’t have to listen to a podcast whilst you are cooking; you don’t have to have the radio blaring in the car. Embrace some silence to just remind yourself of God’s presence with you as you are carrying on with the essentials of the day.

3. Turn stress into thanks.

The children are bickering again, the phone bill needs paying, you have a meeting in 10 minutes and the kitchen is a mess… we all have moments of choice in our day when we can choose to believe the lie that now is too much or to stop a moment and give thanks. Thank you, Lord, for the children you have given me who are going to use their strength of opinions to be bold for you. Thank you, Lord, for the money to pay the phone bill and the technology to connect. Thank you, Lord, that there is no mess that can’t be cleared up and that no one is going to die if the kitchen remains a mess for a couple more hours.

I once read how we can feel so guilty about not connecting with our friends and family that it holds us back from connecting. We fool ourselves into thinking that if we cannot give them a huge chunk of our time, we should not connect. We feel we have left it too long that it feels embarrassing. But really, just reaching out and connecting - just a quick ‘thank you’ or ‘how are you?’ is often enough to maintain a relationship until we can connect for longer. The same is our relationship with God. We cannot have 24 hour quiet times, but we can allow God to accompany us through our day and to choose to offer our crumb of time to Him in connection.

Take 5 minutes now. Read the following quote from the Passion Translation of Psalm 63:1-5 and let it be your prayer today:

“O God of my life,
I’m love-sick for You in this weary wilderness!
I thirst with the deepest longings to love You more,
With cravings in my heart that cannot be described.
Such yearning grips my soul for You, O God!
I’m energized whenever I enter
Your heavenly sanctuary to seek more of Your power
And to drink in more of Your glory.
For Your tender mercies to me
Mean more than life itself!
How I love and praise You, God!
Daily I will worship You
Passionately and with all my heart.
My arms will wave to You like banners of praise.
I overflow with praise when I come before You,
For the anointing of Your presence
Satisfies me like nothing else.
You are such a rich banquet of pleasure to my soul.”

— Psalm 63:1-5 The Passion Translation

To help you further to connect simply with God this week I have created a 60-second guide to 8 fresh, practical ways you can connect with God in 10-minutes or less. I hope it blesses you - let me know and let others know about it too! Click the image below to get your free guide now.