Quiet time is the time believers set apart to experience God’s presence. The purpose of it is to meet with God and prayerfully hear from Him. It does not have to include a perfectly curated latte, 12 devotionals, and a prayer journal. While those things are not bad, I think there is a certain image of a quiet time routine that Christian culture romanticizes. Let’s return to the foundation.
Quiet time is the time believers set apart to experience God’s presence.
God is a personal god and wants to connect with you. You can experience deep intimacy with your heavenly Father by establishing a good routine.
What does an effective quiet time include? How can you position yourself to commune with God and hear His voice?
1. Start with Prayer
It doesn’t matter when you decide to have your quiet time as much as your willingness to commit to spending time with God daily. I aim for the mornings because starting my day in God’s presence is ideal; however, life happens, and sometimes I’ll do it in the evenings after work.
Regardless, I always start my time with prayer. I invite God into the time and ask for his help in understanding the Bible. It is only by God’s spirit that we can do anything right (John 15:5), so this is step one.
My prayer always includes three things:
- I ask God to enter into communion with Him.
- I ask Him to give me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to receive whatever He has for me that day.
- I also ask the Lord to speak to me about what book of the Bible He wants me to study. ( P.S. There is nothing wrong with Bible Study Plans, but I believe it is powerful to allow God to guide your study).
Dear God,
I thank you for the opportunity to experience your presence. Please give me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to receive whatever it is that you want to share with me today. I pray that your Holy Spirit will illuminate the words that you want to stand out. I ask for fresh revelation/wisdom and a greater ability to discern your voice.
In Jesus Name Amen.
2. Read/Study Scripture
After prayer, we get into the meat and potatoes- reading God’s word. A deep dive into the Bible is life-giving. One of my favorite verses is Romans 10:17– ” so faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”. By reading scripture we position ourselves to hear from God!
Once I’ve decided what book of the Bible I’ll study for the next few weeks, I choose only 4-8 verses to study daily. A chapter feels like too much. Truthfully, there is SO much packed into one verse, so I like to take my time.
My Study Routine:
- First, I begin by reading the small section and writing one verse down in my notebook.
- From there underneath the verse, I start recording what’s happening in the verse, what I think it means, words that stand out, other bible verses that it reminds me of, ways I relate to it, etc.
- Then, I start to ask myself questions (sometimes I’ll even write these down too). What does this show me about God? What does God want me to learn from this? Does this speak to a specific circumstance in my life? Why did this happen? And so many more. This is called the SOAP Method. Click here for more resources.
This is where it gets good. At this point, you position yourself to hear from the Lord. After I ask the questions I’ll give it a moment and just wait, and more times than not the Lord will answer my question. Usually, a thought will pop into my brain, and I recognize there’s no way that I just came up with that on my own. I understand it can be easy to doubt if it was God, but if it aligns with scripture it probably is the Lord. Anything I hear, I write down in my notebook for future reference. Don’t forget to do this! Finally, I repeat steps 1-3 for each verse in the small section I picked to read for the day. Sometimes I will look up text commentary on the Blue Letter Bible app for further clarification. I try to look up commentary after my study. I believe the Holy Spirit can speak to me and you too, so I don’t like to rely too heavily on other people’s words. He wants to speak to you personally, so give Him that space.
3. Memorize Scripture
The final part of my routine is memorizing scripture. I put this one off for a while. But it is so important to know scripture. If you want to be guided by God’s word you’ve got to know it.
I’m type A, but even if you’re not I think you would benefit from Charlotte Mason’s system. Basically, you create a scripture memory box. I’ll link a video to it here, where you can see her explain it in depth. It only takes 5 minutes and you practice a few verses daily so you won’t forget verses you’ve already memorized.
When I was first trying to memorize scripture, I tried to do just that- memorize it. Turns out my memory isn’t great and there is a much more efficient way to do it.
Memorize Scripture by using repetition.
Say the verse over and over again, and eventually, you’ll find that you just know it. To optimize this process, I’ll record myself saying the scripture repeatedly on a voice memo and just play it back as I am walking my dog, doing dishes, or whatever.
Trust me a deep intimacy awaits- God isn’t hiding; He wants to be known. The Bible says seek and you shall find. We have to prioritize spending time with the Lord. My advice is to find what works for you and commit to it. My routine is a smorgasbord of what I learned from friends, scouring the Internet, and trial and error.
In closing, I want to remind you that you don’t need to do this perfectly. Many days, I fall short. It’s not so much about having a perfect routine as it is the heart behind the routine. I pray you and I would prioritize being in God’s presence and take the necessary steps to accomplish that. Position yourself to hear from God and then listen- He is so faithful to speak to you.