John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."
 
One thing that's helped me in my walk with the Lord which I highly recommend is, when the Lord has put a verse or a word on my heart, I've tried to write it down. It was just something that He prompted me to do very early on in my walk that has helped me - to write them down and try to revisit them later, meditating more on some of them.  I've lost some of them (my early notes were on paper before I had electronic devices), but from what I can remember, out of all my early notes, the very first one which I ever wrote down was this:
 
“Do you have a PERSONAL relationship with Jesus? A relationship with Jesus is personal.”
 
The word “PERSONAL” was an early word the Lord challenged me with.  If I was going to run this race with Him, if it was going to be real; then it had to be my own relationship with Him: not dependent on my parents, or other people I knew. It had to be personal. It's like that phrase, "God has no grandchildren, only children."
 
I’m thankful the Lord taught me this very basic and essential thing when I was young. And all these years later I find that it’s still my burden: an intimate, personal love life with my Savior that I long to grow more in.  As I grew in that the Lord taught me clearly that there is only one way to this life: through the cross (discipleship).  We have to daily die to ourselves to live (to know Him) - Gal 2:20, Luke 9:23-24. My burden is that others would also have this as their life focus. So below I'll share very personal questions which I also ask myself that hopefully help stir more of a burden for this personal love life with Jesus too.
 
I hope you will not feel discouraged if you have not thought about some of these questions before or are not living them perfectly, but the goal is to be challenged that at least you can check your experience to ensure you're heading in this direction, for those who really are serious about having a personal devotion to Christ. And that we can examine ourselves to make sure that we have indeed at least started and are growing in our real and personal relationship with the Lord, and continuing in this way without veering off the path.
 
"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves" (2 Corinthians 13:5)
 
For those of us that have walked with God for many years, we have to make sure we have not strayed off of that path of personal love and devotion to our Savior.  The much bigger temptation for an older Christian I don’t believe is to reject Christianity, I believe it’s to keep Christianity and lose your personal relationship with Jesus... without noticing! (Matt 7:23, Rev 2:4)
 
 
 
SOME QUESTIONS TO MEDITATE ON
 
Have I seen that Jesus died not just for the world, but for me personally - the sinner?  That even if I was the only sinner on earth the Father still would have sent Jesus for me? (Luke 15:4)
 
Do I have a real personal relationship with the Lord where I talk to Him and He talks to me - through day to day circumstances by the Holy Spirit, and through very personal and specific words as I read the Bible? (Heb 4:12)  Do I have a longing for simple, consistent Bible reading because I've seen this is directly from God for me? (1 Peter 2:2)  And when I read the Bible am I looking not just to learn more and grow my brain, but to have time with my Savior and grow my intimacy?
 
If there is anything which I know is not God's will, am I willing to turn away from it, and continue to fight the temptation of it with God's help?
 
Do I have a real and personal relationship with God where I am longing to spend time with Him, like Jesus who “often withdrew to the mountains to pray”, even in the midst of a busy day, am I at least desiring for that?
 
Is my love for the Lord marked by: “I want to love Him better!”, and to give the Lord glory and pleasure from my life with this one short time on earth I have?
 
When I sing in the church words like, “Knowing you Jesus, there is no greater thing”, do I mean it? Do I sing with meaning? Do I pray from my heart? (Matt 6:7)
 
Have I made the conscious decision that nothing on earth compares with knowing Jesus and now fully intend to completely and permanently walk this way?
 
Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15).  He also said, "If you love me, tend/feed my sheep" (John 21:17).  Is my personal love for Jesus growing me in a personal burden to live a godly life, and also build up God's children in Christ for the same?  Am I growing in a burden to build up the Lord's body in my local church (1 Cor 12:25-27)?  And to see those who are lost, saved?
 
PERSONAL SIN AND CHRIST-LIKENESS
I think of these questions when looking at my own life, and sin:
 
Like a devoted wife who is working to be the best wife she can for her husband, am I judging myself everyday to purify myself from sin for my Beloved? (1 Cor 11:31, 1 Jn 3:3)
 
If my passionate love for the Lord goes down, and I sense some spiritual dryness, what is my response? Does that disturb me? (Rev 2:4, 3:16)
 
Have I grown in genuinely grieving over my sin from my heart? And in seeing how God sacrificed everything for me when He didn’t have to?
 
I may have come to Christ for forgiveness of sins, and salvation from Hell.  Most of us are saved like that. But have I grown from there to be burdened not for what I can get from God, but what He can get from me?
 
Has my knowledge that I deserve only Hell (apart from God’s mercy), kept me from placing demands and expectations on God that He has to do things that I require, in the timing I require it?  Has it produced a mercy in my heart toward every other person, keeping me from looking down on others?
 
In view of my own personal sinful past, have I grown in trembling in the fear of God, does it change how I speak careless words, or take careless actions today?
 
The world labors to build houses and obtain properties.  Have I labored to prioritize my small secret room in my heart that is reserved for just me and my Best Friend? (Matt 6:6)
 
PERSONAL TRIALS
When trials come, do I run to Jesus first before looking to ChatGPT, and phone calls with friends and family? Do I lean on comfort from the Lord? Is He my greatest refuge? (Psalm 121:1-2)
 
Does my personal love for God drive me to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and yield to the Lord's hand in trials? Have I recognized things I've been clinging tight to, and come to the point of saying, "Your will be done", even when it's uncomfortable?
 
Am I finding the personal comfort and consolation in every trial and setback and loss and disappointment - that I still have the Only thing that really matters? (Heb 13:5, Psalm 94:19)
 
Am I fighting all the “other desires” in my life that choke my life with God? Are there things I have given up, or fasted from simply because they were distracting me from being fully devoted to Him? (Mark 4:19)
 
Even if not perfectly, have I tasted the joy and comfort and rest which is above all others of living in God’s presence? And I’ve seen that nothing else compares? (Psalm 34:8)
 
For those who have walked with the Lord long enough to know the Scriptures - do I love Scriptures such as Psalm 73, Psalm 16, and Philippians 3 because I connect with hearts that are pouring out in devotion, that are completely captivated by Jesus?  When I choose Christian books to read, rather than being drawn to those which stimulate the mind, or coddle the emotions, am I drawn to those where from the writer flows a heart of devotion, and knowing God intimately?  Have I seen that these are the same ones which also emphasize repentance and complete abandonment to my self - self-will, self-life, and sin?
 
Have I grown in a desire to deeply fellowship with others who have this same heart, more than to do other interesting things or talk of other interesting conversations?  If I’m not there yet do I at least want to grow in that?
 
CONCLUSION
 
These are just some questions to meditate on, though the experiences and progress is different for each of us.  But for every one of us there should be this in common: it must be PERSONAL.
 
Yes, the only authentic Christian life is one which is personal.  These may sound like very high standards, but it's not discouraging - because even though it's impossible on our own to live, with the power of the Holy Spirit God can help us live like this. And it's a progress. 
 
Many of these questions I didn't ask myself early on, they come over a period of trying to walk with God - failing and getting up, failing and getting up.  But I'm thankful by God's grace that we can have a real experience to 'taste and see' that the Lord is good, if we follow this way, and to know we are going in the right direction.  And this life of a personal reality in Christ is available to every Christian.
 
May Jesus be your best friend always, and may you know the Father and His Son PERSONALLY.
 
I've heard, "the only sin that Satan is not guilty of is laziness" - he will continue until the end diligently to destroy this personal devotion of ours.
 
Matt 24:12-13 "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures [IN LOVE] to the end, he will be saved"
 
May the Lord preserve us to endure in a personal fiery love for Him (no matter what others are doing or whatever else is happening), and never leave our first love.  It's a genuine joy - like days of heaven on earth, to live in our little personal 'secret room' with Jesus while we're on our short pilgrimage here on this earth.
 
1 John 1:3 "what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."