Alone with God | Jason Janz

Jason Janz. Alone with God: A Practical Plan for Dynamic Devotions. JourneyForth, 2006. 156 pp.

Chapter 1: It’s All about a Relationship

During my college years, I took a year off to travel. During that year, I took a trip that changed my life. My best friend and I planned a three-month missionary trip to Africa. We spent six weeks in the jungles of the Congo and six weeks in Kenya, a more modern African country. Plans developed smoothly until just before departure. I fell madly in love with a girl named Jennifer.

I knew that I wanted to marry her; I even knew when. I was going to propose on Christmas day of that year, about seven days after my return from Africa. Before I left, I told her for the first time that I loved her. My friend Will and I boarded a plane to go to a land about which we knew nothing. We landed in the center of the continent and headed upstream. Our five-day journey was on a speedboat the missionary had just purchased. We took jungle trips by bicycle, Land Rover, and motorbike. What an experience! All I had to remind me of Jennifer was a gold-framed picture in my suitcase and memories. We left the Congo after six weeks of no contact with America. We flew to Nairobi, Kenya and went to the home of the missionary with whom we would be staying.

When I arrived in my living quarters, there on the pillow of my bed was a stack of letters from Jennifer. Wow! Nothing else mattered. I had not had a piece of chocolate in six weeks, and the missionary had loads of it. I didn’t care; I wanted to read those letters. The letters had a soothing effect on my soul. Miraculously enough, the letters seemed to portray that she still loved me.

The missionary had hooked up his computer so that this new thing called an e-mail could be sent via computer to anyone else who had a computer with Internet access. I was able to find out Jen’s address, and I sent her an e-mail. Sure enough, the next day, I received an e-mail from her. There was one problem. E-mail was in its infancy, and mine was garbled. Words were out of place and scrambled. Strings of letters that made no sense were between her real words. However, if I took my time, I could figure out what she was trying to say. It was like trying to decipher code. But you know what? It didn’t matter. Words from her were what I wanted. The cryptic search actually made the experience more enjoyable.

I still have those letters, and they are some of the mile markers on the road of our relationship. All I wanted was a relationship with the girl I loved. Deciphering her letters wasn’t a chore; it was a fruit of a good relationship. Now, after marriage, several children, and years of spending every day together, it’s nice to look back and remember. As I read over those old e-mails, it is obvious to me how our relationship has matured over the years. The depth of communication then cannot be compared to the level enjoyed as a result of a healthy, ten-year marriage.

This is a book about a relationship: not a relationship with a friend or a lover or a co-worker but a relationship with God—the God of the universe. He created you to have a relationship with Him. Many times when individuals think about their deepest relationships, they think of a spouse or a best friend. In reality, they should think of God and feel closer to God than to any human. When individuals begin to develop a relationship, they want to spend time with those people to learn more about them and vice versa. The difference between that type of relationship and a relationship with God is that God already knows everything about your past, present, and future. The only one who needs to grow in the relationship is you. You need to learn everything you can about God—His past, present, and future workings. Learning more about God will be accomplished only by spending time with Him. Yet many believers seem to struggle through “deciphering the words” of the Bible because it seems difficult to understand. At first glance, God seems difficult to understand. We naturally run from things we do not understand.

John 15 explains that God desires to have you graduate in your relationship to Him to a higher level. Many believers see themselves as servants of God. However, according to John 15:15, there is a deeper, more meaningful relationship than being a servant. You can be God’s friend. The Bible says the servant does not know what his master does, but Christ says you are His friend because He has made known to you everything that God has communicated to Him. God desires for you to graduate from simply a servant mentality to a friend mentality. This book is written to help you do that. The depth of your relationship with God is what is going to matter. When you are in love with someone, there will be times when you will struggle through understanding their words and you may feel distant from them; these should seem like small obstacles in comparison to your desire for a strong relationship.

The Status of the Relationship

George Barna, a Christian pollster, says that seven out of ten Americans (Christian and non-Christian) say that having a close, personal relationship with God is a top priority in their life.¹ However, all you have to do is look around, and you will see that the desires and the actions of the average American do not match. According to one survey, the average American prays less than five minutes a day, and the average Bible reader spends less than eight minutes a day in the Word of God² —hardly stuff to write home about. Worse yet, only eighteen percent of born-again Christians read the Bible every day and twenty-three percent never read the Bible at all.³ So there is a major disconnect between what people want and what people do. What’s new? The same condition exists in people’s exercise programs, diet plans, career paths, and family time. The good news is that most believers don’t want their relationship with God to be this way stagnant. They are dissatisfied with their spiritual walk; they have a strong desire to make changes, but they are discouraged at their lack of success.

My “Aha” Moment

By the time I began college, I had grown weary of cold Christianity. I wanted more. I wanted to know God. Our Christian college president continually encouraged us to know God intimately, not just intellectually. Part of our college requirement was to spend thirty minutes a day with God before classes. For the first time in my life, I began to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). Until that time, I had never truly had a taste of what a dynamic relationship with God could be like. I would like to say that because of this “forced habit” in college, I have not struggled keeping my daily quiet time with God since graduation. The reality is that consistency has been an issue since the day I left. I was just like the average believer—I wanted it, I had tasted it, but I wasn’t following through.

My journey to finding a satisfying relationship with God took an unusual path. It happened as a result of “working out.” Since graduation from college, I have married, started a family, and entered full-time ministry. My wife and I were content with many things in our life, but one area was constantly weak: physical fitness. We talked about working out consistently and had gone through different fits of bike riding and jogging; I even stooped so low as to try an aerobics video with my wife. But I gave it up when I tripped over my feet twice in one workout. My dream of having the lean, mean, muscle machine I had on my wedding day was over.

One day a good friend told me that I needed to change. He said, “Your body is running on your youth, but it won’t last.” I knew he was right. He had worked out for years and encouraged me to try a program called Body for Life. I thought, Hey, I could at least buy the book and feel good that I investigated it. However, when I finally got the book and read it, I was motivated. I gave the book to Jen and she experienced the same motivation. I bought a weight set to put in our garage. We already had a treadmill that was serving as a clothes hanger. I moved the treadmill into the garage and began to work out.

My wife and I began the program and within three weeks we were completely sold! I began to see that I did have muscles in my body. They were just “visually challenged.” I’ll never forget when I looked in the mirror and saw a line of indention running down the middle of my stomach! Unbelievable! I was well on my way to a coveted “six-pack abdomen.” My clothes began to fit again, I woke up refreshed, and I just felt better about my body.

The author had written about one of the greatest needs in America today: physical fitness. As a pastor, I thought, What is the greatest need of people today? The answer rang loud and clear in my mind: spiritual fitness.

On the Road to Spiritual Fitness

Why is it that our culture is so concerned with the outside and not the inside? Why does the body get so much attention and not the soul? We are conditioned to pay so much attention to what people see and so little attention to what God sees. Clement of Alexandria, an early church father, said, “Those who adorn only the exterior, but neglect the inner man, are like the Egyptian temples, which present every kind of decoration upon the outside, but contain within, in place of a deity, a cat, a crocodile, or some other vile animal.”⁴ Could it be that we spend so little time with our God that our view of God is simply of a being who has only the power of a cat or crocodile?

The Bible says in Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me.” A higher goal than physical fitness or earthly wealth is to know God. My mind began to churn as my experiences in college and my most recent experiences began to meld. How could I make spiritual fitness a priority in my life? Could a plan be developed that would facilitate the development of a transforming relationship with God?

I needed a plan to get me going. The methods I had used before left me frustrated, bored, and eventually in despair. Every New Year, I resolved to get up earlier to spend more quality time with God. I had purchased the Bible memory packets that were supposed to revolutionize my memory habits. I had experimented with various Bible reading plans. I even tried to salve my conscience by listening to Christian radio or tapes on the way to work if I slept too late. The truth of the matter is that I was in as bad shape spiritually as I was physically.

I was motivated beyond thinking about it. I felt I needed a Bible-based approach centered on developing a relationship with God. I began to experiment with a plan for myself. I went back to look at how I had planned my workout every day and incorporated some of the same concepts into my personal “spiritual fitness plan.” Wow! What a difference! I began to experience a regular, fulfilling, refreshing time with God. Over the next months, I began to share my thoughts with close friends and family. I mentioned it when I taught classes to high school and college students. Without exception, people asked me for more details on the plan. I began to see that the hunger for a tangible devotional plan was immense.

The Hunger for a Relationship

Over the last several years, I have come to believe the average American believer does not lack the desire for a stronger relationship with God but does lack the motivation, the know-how, and the structure to help along the way. We know believers who seem to have tremendous walks with God: we desire it and thirst for it. J. Oswald Sanders says, “It is an incontrovertible fact that some Christians seem to experience a much closer intimacy with God than others. They appear to enjoy a reverent familiarity with Him that is foreign to us.”⁵

For example:

• Enoch walked with God so intensely that God did not let him see death; He took him straight to heaven (Genesis 5:24).
• Abraham was called the friend of God (James 2:23).
• Christ recognized Mary as having her relationship with God as her spiritual priority (Luke 10:42).
• Moses was so close to God that God spoke to him face to face as a man speaks to his friend (Exodus 33:11).
• David was known as a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).
• John was the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 21:7).

I have yet to meet a Spirit-filled believer who would not love to have this type of relationship with the God of the universe. Yet we should not look at these believers with a dreamy-eyed I-could-never-do-that mentality. Every believer has the same capacity as these Bible heroes to know our great God.

What’s Out There?

I went to the local Christian bookstore to peruse resources available to help individuals develop this relationship. On one end, I found books written about the philosophy of Christian growth, how to study the Bible, the pattern of discipleship, the need for a passionate walk with God, and the need for a God-centered life. These books seemed to be strong on philosophy but short on practicality.

On the other end, I found daily devotionals that endeavored to make the Bible simple to understand. However, these devotionals not only interpreted and applied the Bible passage but also left the individual with no need to open the Bible. I also noticed that prayer was missing as an integral part of these plans. Often only a short written prayer was included at the bottom of the devotional for the reader to recite.

My greatest concern about these plans was the lack of an emphasis on biblical meditation and the character of God. It seemed there was more meditation on a short illustration or a cute story than on the passage of Scripture. The trend seemed to be letting gifted authors think for you. Their efforts were well-intentioned—to help people walk with God daily. However, something was missing.

My desire was to bridge the gap between philosophy and practicality. I wanted to create something grounded in truth yet as practical as a recipe for making macaroni and cheese. Lest I am misunderstood, I have not tried to create a “formula approach” to the Christian life or tried to provide the “missing link” to all spiritual problems—this is not a happy pill. I see this book as a key to helping individuals unlock the door to a room full of the vast riches of a dynamic relationship with God. My goal is to make it simple for believers who hunger for God to take steps to become a stronger and more mature believer. One could say this is a manual designed to help you fall in love with God.

The core heartbeat of this book is to motivate you to deepen your relationship with God. The method is an eight-step self-guided process that gives you tools to worship God in a personal way.

The Results

A good spiritual fitness program will have extraordinary results. The Bible promises that those who spend time getting to know God will be strong and take action (Daniel 11:32). Hearing the stories of those who have entered this type of satisfying relationship has filled my heart with great joy. I trust that your journey will be worthwhile and fulfilling and that you will experience a relationship with the God of the universe unlike anything you’ve ever known.

This book was not borne out of my success but out of my failure. If you are like me, when you think about your walk with God, you sometimes feel weak, guilty, and discouraged. I want to encourage you to draw closer to God by spending greater amounts of time with Him. It is not rocket science. Before long you will grow in grace and begin to look like Him.

Coming Up

In the following chapters, you will find the big picture of spiritual growth. What do you want to become? You will look into the needs of a life-long relationship with God. One chapter deals with commonly held myths about quiet time. The “Nuts and Bolts” chapter maps out the eight-step method that is the foundation of a blossoming relationship with God. An explanation of biblical meditation gives you the ability to concentrate on God’s character all day long. One of the final chapters discusses true friendships, and shows how they help you develop your relationship with God.

Taken from pp. 1-8 of Alone with God: A Practical Plan for Dynamic Devotions by Jason Janz, copyright © 2006 BJU Press. Used by permission of BJU Press, Greenville, SC 29614. All rights reserved.

For more information, see our PastorBookshelf Overview.

1. George Barna, “Barna by Topic, Goals and Priorities,” survey conducted in 2000, The Barna Group, http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=23. [↩]
2. George Barna, “Barna by Topic, The Bible,” survey conducted in 1997, The Barna Group, http://www.barna.org/FlexPAge.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=7. [↩]
3. Discipleship Journal, issue 52, page 10, http://www.navpress.com/EPubs/DisplayArticle/1/1.52.13.html. [↩]
4. Horatius Bonar, Words Old and New (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1866), 8. [↩]
5. J. Oswald Sanders, Enjoying Intimacy with God. Grand Rapids: Discovery House Publishers, 1980. pp. 11. [↩]

Like this post? Subscribe to our feed .