Unmotivated to have your quiet time? Find it hard to just be still with God? We’ve all had days like that. Life can be tough sometimes, and God sees our struggles.

Keep pressing on in faith though! These are four fresh ways of connecting with Jesus for the times when you’re feeling powerless or weak.

1. Silence and solitude

There are times in life when we will not even have the strength or energy to find the words to pray. Sometimes, I feel so weary that I’m simply silent before Him.

This doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing; we can use this silence to recharge and draw strength from the Lord. Being alone and silent can also be a good way to hear the Lord speak, rather than talking at the Lord with our requests and complaints. 

In fact, this practice is so important that Tung Ling Bible School even holds a whole module based on it, where students do not speak for a whole day.

This is to encourage them to rest, spend longer periods of time dwelling in the Lord’s presence, and to make an intentional effort to listen to Him!

Being alone and silent can also be a good way to hear the Lord speak, rather than talking at the Lord with our requests and complaints. 

In Lamentations 3:28, Jeremiah concludes that it is better for those who are upset and frustrated to “sit alone and keep silent,” because it is God who has “laid it on him.” 

In difficult times, it’s important to trust that if God has brought us to this season, He will be the one who brings us out. Rather than scrambling to figure everything out right away, we can use situations like this to rest, reflect and listen to God’s voice.

2. Art

Did you know you can worship God and connect with Him through art?

I fondly recall one annual Creative Arts Camp by my church, where children were taught calligraphy. Our kids were taught to connect with God by creating art, lettering out their favourite Bible verses.

In Exodus 31, the LORD tells Moses that He “has filled [Bezalel] with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.”

Rather than calling Moses or Aaron who had already proven their faithfulness to Him, God equipped Bezalel, who was a craftsman, to build the Tabernacle.

God saw this creative and artistic work as equally as spiritual as anything that Moses or Aaron did; this job also required depending on the Holy Spirit.

The LORD has gifted many of us with artistic ability, and just like how we might use our talents in music to bring glory to His name and commune with Him, we can do so using our creativity and artwork too.

3. Reading a Christian book 

Something my cell leader and I did together last year was to read Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by the late Timothy Keller. 

Once a fortnight, we’d discuss one or two chapters of the book that we’d read that week, focusing on what stood out to us and how this should change the way we act in a practical way.

I’m a huge bookworm, but I’d never even considered that God can use a book outside of the Bible to speak to us and encourage us to reflect on our ways.

I was forced to think critically about each sentence and point raised, weigh it up against the counsel of Scripture, and the process sharpened me.

While these books are definitely not a substitute for reading the Bible, a lot of them are still filled with good advice and a sound understanding of God’s Word.

There are many God-fearing authors out there with different insights that can help us understand God more too. Start by asking your church leaders for good and Scripture-affirming resources!

4. Admiring nature

Recently, my family and I took a trip to Tokyo, and one of the things we did was to look at Mount Fuji from different viewpoints across Lake Kawaguchi.

Gazing at God’s creation, I was truly enamoured by the landscape He had created – nature that had existed before us humans even did!

Whether it’s staring at the pretty sunrise on the way to work or school, or strolling through a park in the evening, it can be calming to walk with the Lord in a world that He has created, and admire His beauty reflected in the world.

Job 12:10 reminds us that “In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”

It is the Lord who breathes life into every living thing, that sustains us and ensures our survival. Isn’t it so amazing that, in nature, we can be in the presence of something that the King of Kings literally created?

And if the skies declare the work of His hands (Psalm 19:1), what’s stopping us from appreciating it just a little bit more when we can?

Ultimately, quiet time should not feel like a burden – it should be a joy to spend time with God!

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to spending time with God, so if your typical way of connecting with the Lord isn’t working for you in this season, be free to try something else.

As Gary Thomas puts it in the introduction to his book, Sacred Pathways, God gave us our different personalities, so spending time with Him in different ways and relating to Him in the way He made us acknowledges His good work. 

Again, while none of these can fully substitute reading and meditating on the Word, they can still be used to deepen our relationship with God. What’s most important is that we continually seek God through His Word.

How will you connect with the Lord today?