How To Have A Quiet Time - PT. 1

It’s Going To Be Different For Everyone

What should I do for my quiet time?

Do you have your quiet time every day?

What should I be reading in the Scriptures?

Do you journal? Do you know of any good devotional books?

I hear these questions constantly. No joke. Seriously, I probably get some form of these questions (either on tumblr or facebook or in person) every week. I’m finding out that tons and tons of people who love Jesus and have been walking with Him for a while don’t really spend any consistent time with Him during their week, or else they are incredibly consistent, but the thing they’re doing doesn’t really give them anything spiritually, so it doesn’t mean anything to them and they might as well not do it. So, what is a ‘quiet time’ all about, and what should a person do?

Well, in response to this, I’ve decided to put together a series of posts on what it means to spend time with the Lord and what that time ought to be about and could possibly look like. Here in part 1, we’re just going to talk about why it isn’t going to look the same for every person out there.

First of all, you should probably know that the whole ‘quiet time’ thing is not really in the Bible. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have a devotional time with the Lord, but I am saying that there is no clear, Biblical directive or plan of action for this type of thing. In other words, there is no Bible verse that says, “Thou shalt have thine quiet time every morning, first thing when thou wakest up, and it must last for 27.5 minutes.” You see, Christians are always looking for the rules to follow. In other words, “Tell me exactly what to do, when to do it and for how long so that I can know that I have fulfilled the requirements and made God happy with me for the day.”

The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t work. You don’t have to go down a check-list of chores everyday to make God happy with you. The moment you trusted in Jesus, you were declared completely accepted by Him and righteous in His sight for all of eternity. We don’t do anything we do in our Christian life in order to make ourselves more acceptable to God. We are declared totally accepted already. Not only this, but no one can tell you every single little thing you need to do in order to have a relationship with God, and that’s really the whole point.

The Bible doesn’t spell out exactly what you need to do in your quiet time because God wants an actual relationship with you. He wants a real, live relationship between your heart and His. He wants you to love Him and get to know Him. No one can make a list of requirements for you and God to achieve a relationship. You just have to spend time together and develop a relationship yourselves. And folks, this is really the whole point of the thing: Relationship. Friendship. Love.

That’s what God wants with you. So, let’s start there… think about the people in your life that you’re closest to. Think about the folks you really love. How did you get there with that person? How did you develop that relationship? Was it playing on the same soccer team? Was it that you both really loved Star Wars? Was it going to the pool together in the summers? Was it camping under the stars or sleepovers with popcorn and cheesy movies? Well, these types of things tell you what friendship means to your heart. So look, why not take a night, stay up late, pop some popcorn, start talking to Jesus and see what happens? This is about a relationship and it’s going to look different for every person out there. Love is organic. It grows where it will on its own terms. Don’t force it, but don’t neglect it either.