The purpose of this book is to help you retreat and spend extended time with God. But even as I use the word “retreat,” I need to clarify — by this I don’t mean only a once-a-quarter or once-a-year weekend away with God. Think more of the pattern of Jesus, how He retreated regularly and also made a point to retreat at key points during His ministry. What would it look like for your life patterns to look more like His?
What would it look like to develop habits of coming away for time with God daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, annually, and as needed in the ups and downs of your life?
But we must admit that even if we desire to retreat for time with God and engage more deeply with Him, we may not know what to do or how to do it. That is the main goal of this book — to provide some principles and concrete activities in order to help guide and give structure to getting alone with your good Father.
Developing rhythms of getting alone with God can look like a number of different things. Possibilities that I have seen people practice include:
- Pausing for a few minutes between activities to be still and commit each activity or task to God
- Going for a daily walk in the park to pray over the coming day and ask for His perspective
- Getting outside for an hour or two a few days a week for more extended time of prayer and meditating on Scripture (in addition to normal patterns of daily Bible reading)
- Weekly time at a local coffee shop to talk with God about how life is going and to listen to His Word
- Setting aside short daily times for extra Scripture meditation near key celebrations like Christmas and Easter, dwelling deeply on the beauty and significance of Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection
- A monthly half-day or full-day retreat to go deeper with Jesus
- Annual times of reflection, confession, prayer, and praise
This list is not meant to be complete or exhaustive, but just to give some examples that are varied in both length and frequency.
There is no one correct pattern of time with God, and our rhythms will shift with the demands of different seasons in our lives. But we need to come back to the core questions: do my patterns of engagement with God reflect the reality that He is the only source of life and hope? Am I growing in greater intimacy with the Father from year to year? And we also need to wrestle with the paradox that the times of greatest stress, busyness, trouble, etc. are the times we need to press more into retreating and being alone with God, not less. This was Jesus’ own pattern as the crowd surrounding Him became oppressive (Luke 5:15-16).
As we pursue a deeper relationship with God, we must remember that this growth is a process. I don’t recommend that you blitz through this guide over the course of a few days or that you attempt to put in place the above example patterns all at once. Start by taking a few steps. Try a few activities for prayer, reflection, or Scripture meditation. Try adding one new rhythm or habit that gives you dedicated time away with God. From these first steps, keep trying and growing, prayerfully asking God to guide you forward. You will find some patterns and some activities more helpful than others. This is normal, as God has created and gifted each of us differently. There will always be a healthy balance in this journey of both knowing yourself and what is helpful to you, as well as being willing to be stretched and try something new.
This book that you are reading is not yet complete, but is an initial draft of some of the resources that I have found most helpful for personal or group spiritual retreats. In the future, I hope to add additional chapters to help us consider why we seek this intimate relationship with God, including chapters on the glory and beauty of God; loving God with heart, soul, mind, and strength; and the pattern of Jesus’ relationship with the Father. I also hope to provide some encouragement, teaching, and practical help for engaging in spiritual disciplines and retreat such as: what does Scripture say about meditation, full engagement with God in prayer, specific tips for spiritual retreats, individual and group spiritual retreats, and integrating patterns of retreat and deep connection with God into our daily lives.
Right now, the majority of this book is simply a collection of activities that could be used for spiritual retreat or for slowing down in order to pursue deeper connection with the Lord. In order to give some concrete ideas of first steps that you could try, I have provided several detailed retreat outlines in the chapter titled Example Retreats.
Where Do I Start?
Here is an outline of a few things that you could work through from this book to get started:
- Take some time to pray and journal about the following questions:
- Where are you already pursuing connection with God, and what is going well?
- Where is deep connection with God lacking in the rhythms of your life?
- In your current season of life, would you benefit most from adding a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly rhythm of retreat?
- What are you longing and hoping for in this new pattern of time with God?
- Next, consider what lengths of retreat you would like to try out — 1, 2, or 4 hours. Take a look at the chapters on Retreat Components and Example Retreats and make a rough plan for your first two retreat times. Next, look at your calendar and schedule them. Then, consider what factors would help you come away for uninterrupted time with Jesus. Is it more helpful for you to be inside or outside? Morning, afternoon, or evening? Alone or with others? If you’re going outside somewhere, does the location have restrooms, tables to write at, chairs or benches, sunny spaces or shade?
- Before your first retreat, set aside some time to work through the chapters titled What is Meditation? and Jesus Withdrawing to Pray, then read Key Attitudes.
- Most importantly, act on your plans and take the time to get alone with God. Take unrushed time with your good Father, trusting that He will work in you and through you as you draw near in faith. Don’t worry about having the perfect methodology or techniques, and don’t expect that you must have some sort of significant experience in your retreat time. Simply engage fully with God and trust that He works in His children, whether or not we perceive how He is working transformation.
- After your retreat time, consider sharing with a brother or sister in Christ about your time. What was good and what was hard? Do you see any ways that God is working in your heart and mind? What would you like to try next time?
- Continue to explore and seek how to foster greater intimacy with Christ in all the different rhythms of your life.
In it all, let us look forward in hope, because God’s promise is that the thirsty are satisfied — He will bring life as we walk with Him. There are undiscovered continents of deep spiritual life waiting, and by the grace of our good God, He will bring us there.
May God richly bless you through the unhurried time spent with Him. Most of all, may He bless you with Himself, for this is the greatest gift that He can give.