How Do we stretch ourselves to get more of God this year?

I heard this being said today, "How Do we stretch ourselves to get more of God this year?"

1. We stretch ourselves by adding time to our prayer life.
2. We stretch ourselves by making ourselves available doing church ministry.
3. We stretch ourselves by getting ourselves involved in a particular ministry.

Getting more of God is seen here as doing more, going the second mile. Sure there is some truth here but if you look at the points being presented, are they not confined in the vicinity of what Christians do in a context familiar to them?

Take prayer for example. Prayer is an integral and important part of the Christian life. There is no question about this. But is simply getting more of God done by stretching our prayer time?

Take doing or getting ourselves involved in church ministry for example. Ministry is integral, important even for the community context of practicing our faith. But should we confine doing ministry only in the vicinity of the Sunday service space or during a Christian program/function?

This is how some churches/leaders/pastors/teachers here understand how we stretch ourselves to get more of God. It is irritating to hear and this sort of teaching is constantly being repeated to people. It is simply a narrow understanding of a person being 'intoxicated' by God.

With this, how does someone then stretch himself/herself to get more of God in ones life? I think this question would be better answered in this manner:

To really stretch ourselves to get more of God in life this particular year, what we have to do is be more God conscious. Lets get something straight, since God is everywhere and we also believe that God in Jesus is the ruler of this world and not just our lives, it gives an implication that whatever we do matters to God. This simply beats having just a fixed prayer time where we understand that we are making time for God. Lets make our prayer life spill from the small confinement of solitude to a more wider field; life itself. Lets make our small time of being God conscious effect our walk outside.

As for ministry, lets not confine ministry to the four walls of the church building, to a certain day called Sunday, to certain christian function. Lets give ministry a more wider field. All of life for example. Are you not doing a certain/ specific ministry in the world outside where you work or study? To be honest christian ministry is not something that is confined, otherwise we might come out thinking that there is only one side to ministry and it is done in church, on Sunday, and also other Christian functions. This simply confines the possibility of influencing the world as a whole.

So lets widen our perspective. To get more of God we simply have to let God himself invade our lives. Let him have every corner, be it our inward walk, our secular walk, and our church community walk.

To get more of God we simply have to be God conscious.