Who Needs A Quiet Time? You Do!!
The
alarm clock rings.
Fifteen
minutes later, you roll out of bed. Late again. With
toothbrush in hand, you step into the shower where you have what passes for
“devotions” – a hasty, “Good morning, Lord.”
While
getting dressed, you spot your Bible on the bedside table facing you like a
leather-bound judgment.
“One of
these days,” you say to yourself, “I’ll get my act together and have a regular
Quiet Time…”
Some people just can’t wait to get into their
daily Quiet Time with God. And then there’s the rest
of us – born-again believers who find it hard to commit to a daily time with
the Lord.
What is your idea of a “Quiet Time”? Time to
study your Bible, pray, listen to a teaching tape, go for a walk – or just sit
peacefully and stare at the wall? Your version of Quiet Time might be different
from mine, but the real definition is very simple – it’s just a chunk of time
you devote to being alone with God. A time to get away from
nagging responsibilities and distractions so you can hear the heart of your
Creator.
We plan a Quiet Time to silence everything else
that’s going on and to come away from the “tyranny of the urgent.” It’s a time
set apart to allow God to increase our awareness of who He is so we can become
more sensitive to Him. No matter what’s going on in our lives – His presence
can always soothe and remind us of what is truly important. Quiet Time can make
God more real to us.
There was a period in my life when (in moments of
strong determination) I’d take myself by the nape of the neck and make myself
have a Quiet Time. Feeling all the weight of my responsibilities as a wife and
mother, I would think, “How can I justify spending so much time alone with the
Lord each day?”
And from some other Christians I would hear comments
like: “I can talk to God anytime I want
to, so what’s the big deal about having a Quiet time?” or “If I don’t feel like being alone with God,
it’s only going to be a dead, ritualistic exercise, isn’t it?”
Unfortunately, this kind of reasoning fails to
take into consideration one most basic truth: Daily Quiet Time is vital to the Christian life. I didn’t realize
then how the lack of Quiet Time could affect my growth as a child of God, let
alone my own sense of peace and fulfillment.
Today, I believe that becoming a joyful child of
God – as opposed to a duty-bound, joyless believer – comes down to one word: RELATIONSHIP.
Many Christians have a problem when they imagine
what a relationship with God is like. Many of us think that it’s founded on
mystical, supernatural encounters that set our spirits tingling. Or that we
have to do something superduper or extraordinary – or
even weird. Nothing is further from the truth. God made us to have a
relationship with Him. Therefore knowing Him should come in simple and natural
ways.
In Acts 17:24-28, the Apostle Paul bears this
out. He tells us God created the whole world and He determined exactly where
and when you and I would live. That means real, intimate involvement with the
everyday details of our lives. Paul even reveals God’s purpose for such
involvement: “… that they should seek
God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far
from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist…” (Acts
17:27, 28).
God plans your life and mine so that our
circumstances will cause us to seek
Him! And what’s going to happen when man seeks God? He’s going to find Him – because God is not hiding!
And making Quiet Time a daily priority is just one way of saying, “The meaning
of my life is relationship with God – therefore I’m going to set apart special
time to build this relationship.”
Think about it for a minute. When we talk about
the beauty and marvel of the “natural” world, we can often get our focus wrong.
Its true that a maple tree aflame with golden leaves is beautiful, waterfalls
inspire peace, and snowcapped peaks are majestic — but nothing is more natural
and beautiful than the relationship God wants to have with His children.
Redwood forests and mountain lakes were not created with a natural ability to
relate to God – you were!
How can we fathom this tremendous privilege?
Above all created things on earth, we were given special place in God’s sight –
the privilege of relating heart-to-heart with our Creator. In fact, if we
choose to do the unnatural thing and ignore the divine relationship for which
we were created, we’re really choosing to hurt ourselves – and wound the heart of God.
Is it any wonder, when we ignore our Quiet Time
or see it as drudgery and obligation, that we come to
feel so lifeless, cold, and duty-bound? Or feel that we’re failing in our
relationship with God?
So it’s time to face facts – in this case, the beautiful facts. God wants to have a relationship with you that’s
far deeper than you can even imagine!
God not only created us with the ability to
relate to Him – He also built into us a natural capacity to relate intimately.
My closest and most committed relationship on
the face of this earth is my relationship with my husband. Now how would I be
able to maintain that relationship adequately if I never had time alone with
him? If we never had private time together, we’d never understand one another.
We’d lack real sensitivity to each other’s hopes, wants, and needs. A marriage
like that quickly runs out of gas.
And in just the same way, a spiritual
relationship with God that lacks the day-to-day intimacy of a Quiet Time also
runs out of gas. Some Christians spend all their time “doing” – serving,
preaching, teaching, witnessing, giving, sharing, sacrificing.
They take little or no time to be alone with God, and that gives me a great
sense of sadness.
Sooner or later, pressures and circumstances will
sap their spiritual energy. Too many dedicated men and women fall away from God
because they don’t know how to draw steadily on His power and presence. That is
a tragedy – because we are created for
relationship. First and foremost with God, and then with
one another.
But here’s the great news: Developing this daily
love relationship with God gives your spiritual life the full, steady, growing
edge you’ve been desiring. It will keep you from
burning out or giving up, and it will change you from the depths of your being!
You can
have the loving encounters with God you have longed for. If that’s what you
really want, here are some simple adjustments you can make that will
revolutionize your Quiet Time.
Too often we’re kept from having a Quiet Time
because of misunderstandings and incorrect attitudes. We think, “God doesn’t
really want to hear from me,” or “God’s probably disgusted with me because I
haven’t read my Bible or prayed very much lately.”
Do you face Quiet Time with the sense that God is
uninterested, disappointed, or angry with you? Then no wonder it’s difficult!
Who would want to face a God who felt like that?
In Psalm 27:8, David marvels: “When Thou did say, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart
said to Thee, ‘Thy face, O Lord, I shall seek.’” Do you see two choices
being made in that verse? Who makes the first choice? God.
What’s His choice? To have a daily and intimate relationship
with you. That’s one matter you need to forever settle in your heart – God desires relationship even more than you
do! Do you understand what that means? He’s chosen to take a very humble
and vulnerable position toward you and me by waiting patiently for us –
funny, silly little creatures that we are – to choose Him.
But I also believe God’s heart aches when we ignore Him. How would you
feel if you really loved somebody and you stretched out your arms to them – and
they just walked away? Would you feel disappointed? Heartbroken?
I think God feels all those things – and has for thousands of years. But God is
actually excited when we seek
friendship with Him! He’s not disgusted or disappointed with your failures, but
He does want you to spend daily time with
Him!
You may be thinking, “Doesn’t an intimate
relationship just happen spontaneously? This is beginning to sound like work!”
We need to realize that there’s a cost involved – it takes planning and discipline to develop a relationship. When we fall in
love, we readjust our time priorities so we can be with the one we love. True
intimacy always requires time alone, and time alone requires a deliberate choice made by the two individuals
involved.
During one very busy time in my life, I missed my
Quiet Time for a couple of days. When I finally sat down to get quiet before
the Lord, I heard Him gently say to me, “Fran, I missed you the last two days.”
That’s the way God’s heart is – incredibly tender
toward us! But we’ll only learn to sense that tenderness when we get in that
quiet place with Him. In our relationship with the Lord, we need to make Quiet
Time our top priority – even above our jobs, hobbies, homes, families, and friends.
We do it, not out of legalism, but because we’re summoned every morning by the
One who says, “Arise, my love… and come
away…” (Song of Solomon 2:10).
Our prayers reveal where our hopes really lie. We
can pray in hope that God will supply money, a healing, a
restored relationship with someone, a changed attitude – and it would be right
to petition God for any one of those things.
But has your Quiet Time ever felt like a dry,
endless recitation of prayer lists? Have you struggled to “persevere” day after
day, pounding at God’s door? If your focus has gone from seeking God to seeking
favors, dry perseverance will be the
result.
Psalm 147:11 (RSV) shows us a different
approach: “The Lord takes pleasure… in
those who hope in His steadfast love.” To hope in God
means that you seek Him, not primarily for His favors, but for the pleasure and
delight of His company.
Recently, some friends gave me a surprise
birthday party, and I was overwhelmed by all the love and gifts they shared
with me. But later that night, I got the best gift of all. My young son,
Jonathan, patted me on the shoulder and said, “You’re my sweetest gift, Mom.”
Imagine how God feels when you honestly say to
Him, “No matter how big or important my needs – I put my hope in You!” As you come to trust wholeheartedly
in Him, He in turn delights in you!
Some Christians think that when
God wants to speak to them on major decisions, He will always do so in a dramatic,
“stomach-tingling” kind of way. But this concept of hearing from God overemphasizes the supernatural.
We think that unless God’s word to us is dramatic, He doesn’t really care. But
that kind of thinking only sets us up for frustration, disappointment, and a
sense of abandonment. God has given His Word to us in the Bible, and that’s the
bottom line. God spent an awesome amount of time and energy over thousands of
years just to get the Bible to us. We must be careful, as we yearn for a personalized word from God, not to
devalue the awesome gift of His written
Word.
What a privilege to be able to read His Word
daily, letting it become bone and fiber of our being! God’s Word will always
direct our decisions and actions so that, no matter what confronts us, we won’t
have to panic or feel lost.
Yet even when we approach God with right heart attitudes,
we still face an enemy that’s running roughshod over many of us. I’m talking
about guilt. Guilt is probably the greatest enemy of intimate time with God.
The voice of guilt condemns you as a sinner, and says, “God really doesn’t want
to hear from you.”
Some Christians think they’re supposed to be
walking in a state of sinless perfection. They point to their sinful condition
with defeat and quote verses like Psalm 66:18: “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear…” But
these Christians fail to balance that
scripture with verses like Psalm 25:8: “Good
and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinners in the way.”
God instructs sinners. So when we sin, we have no
Scriptural basis to say, “I blew it – now I’m not good enough to talk to God.”
That same voice of guilt will try to condemn you when you feel confused. It
says, “A spiritual Christian is never
confused. What an embarrassment you are to God!”
For instance, the other day I’d been shopping in
town and was trying to get home in time for supper. I had to make one more
important business decision before leaving town, but because I was feeling so
hurried and pressured, I made a real rush decision.
On the way home I began to feel guilty, wondering
if I’d made the right choice. The next morning I prayed, “God, I want You to direct all my actions. Please show me if I’ve
mistakenly run out ahead of you.” God did
speak to me that morning, and the important thing was this: He welcomed me to His side – weaknesses,
conflicts, mistakes, confusion, and all.
Why do we forget the great promises of God’s
Word? As it says in Hebrews 4:16: “Let us
therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive
mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.”
Why do we insist on trying to clean ourselves up
before we go to God? All He really wants is that we come to Him so that He can give us the strength and cleansing we need.
In the end, you and I have to come back to the
simple truths about our salvation. God loves us. He gave everything in His
Son, Jesus Christ, to bring us back into intimate fellowship with Him. We could
do nothing to deserve this gift before we were Christians, and we can add
nothing to His grace now. That’s the beauty and wonder of it.
Quiet Times are usually a two-way conversation
between you and God. You listen, and you pray. Some Christians find it helpful
to have a list of prayer commitments and then have that list divided up into
days of the week. For instance, one day of the week you pray for the nations,
and another day of the week you can pray for different ministries. That’s one
way to cover all the important responsibilities of your life in prayer. Also,
here are a few simple principles that will help you further enrich your Quiet
Time:
¨ Ask the Lord to reveal anything in your heart that
would block your communication with Him. You don’t have to agonize over this,
but just wait a few moments. If there is some issue of unforgiveness
or anger – any kind of a wall between you and the Lord – He will gently bring
it to your remembrance and allow you to confess it to Him.
¨ Ask for the fear of the Lord. Let me just say that the
fear of the Lord is not a negative
thing. I define it as having a positive and accurate view of who God really is,
ultimately leading to a more awesome respect and reverence for Him. When I pray
for the fear of the Lord, I’m actually just lifting my focus from who I am to
the greatness and majesty of God.
¨ Ask God to direct your prayers. When I start praying
about intimate matters in my life, I’m usually so bound up with emotion or
anxiety that I’m restricted in my communication. So I just come before the
Lord saying, “God, You’re great and You see this
problem better than I do – please help me and give me the wisdom to pray effectively.”
Then I’m able to view each situation more objectively and pray the will of God
instead of my own will.
¨ Pray that God will help you resist the enemy. Even
though Satan is always trying to block us when we go to prayer, just give
thanks that God is going to help you to pray through. This is a very important
step because it helps us to align our mind and our will with what is true.
¨ Keep a daily journal. Proverbs 7:1-3 says, “Treasure my commandments within you… Write
them on the tablet of your heart.” A sure sign that I treasure wisdom from
the Lord is when I write down the words and Scriptures He gives me. Write down
the verses that He makes alive to you even if you’re not really sure what they
mean.
My journal is the written record of the continuity of God’s dealings in my life.
Without it I would feel like the events of my life were unconnected or
disjointed. Often when I’m in prayer the Lord will remind me of a little thing
He might have said a year ago, and then I refer back to my journal. Years and
years from now, I can read through that journal and see how my mind, heart, and
spirit have been beautifully molded and renewed by the Lord.
It’s possible to just float along on Christian
service and activities, but if your desire is to “live and move and have your
being” in the Lord, you must have an ever deepening relationship with Him.