I used to always hate the thought of Quiet Time, especially as a child. My mom would love to drive with no music on, and I thought those were the worst. She just wanted it to be less noisy. As a mom, I totally understand now. I drive most of the time with no music on if I’m alone.
I also never really understood what Quiet Time was supposed to be. I always thought it was reading a journal and figuring out how to be a good Christian. It wasn’t until I was much older that the reality of what Quite Time is supposed to be sunk in.
All the term “Quiet Time” means is setting aside time to be still and spend with God. I think we can all agree that our world is very fast and very noisy. For many of us, we’ve grown so accustomed to the ways of the world that we don’t know how to function without life being loud and busy all the time. That was me until I started working on this area of my life.
I grew up in a loud family. We still are loud and crazy when we get together for holidays, and I enjoy every minute because that’s loud and crazy with a purpose. That’s loud and crazy because of the blessing of family. When you remove the purpose and blessing, loud and crazy turns into distractions that take us away from God.
So what should a quiet time look like? Here are the three things that are typically a part of my quiet time. I say typically because sometimes I will stay longer in one area and not get to all the rest, and I’m learning to be ok with it. The “good girl” in me wants to check all the boxes and know I did it “the right way,” but I keep reminding myself it’s about the relationship time with God.
Quiet
You would assume this would be obvious, but I don’t like to assume. With my quiet times, make it quiet. That includes worship music or bible readings. Some people like those things during their time with God, I find them a distraction from what God might want to tell, specifically me. Those things are great in their own time and space, but it’s good to have a space where it’s just you and God.
Hear from God
When people talk about reading their Bible in the morning and getting all this new wisdom from God, it doesn’t make sense to me because I usually feel like nothing sticks when I just read the Bible. What does help is me just underlining things that stick out, writing questions or thoughts or notes, and eventually coming back to those thoughts to see what God might be trying to tell me. Because I’m a writer at heart, letting God work exclusively in my mind, especially in the mornings, isn’t enriching to our relationship. But when I can put my conversation with God on paper, that helps so much more. So whatever method works best for you, make sure to use that for your time to hear from God.
Talk to God
Prayer is simply talking to God. We put pressure on ourselves when we treat it like a magic spell or equation that we have to get right for him to listen to us or give us what we want. So quiet time usually involves me talking to God about life, concerns, and feelings. One of the ways I want to grow in my conversations with God is by expanding outside of my direct world and getting into intercessory prayer because I’ve never felt like I was good at it. But in my day-to-day talk time with God, I don’t put any pressure on what it should or shouldn’t be. I usually journal that conversation because having these written down helps me remember all the good God has done in my life.
One more thing
Your quiet time doesn’t have to be in the morning. I always thought I wasn’t as “holy” as the morning people for doing my quiet times at other points in the day; sometimes so much I just didn’t do it if it wasn’t in the morning. I realize now that morning can be easier to make it happen, but it doesn’t have to be mornings.
Right now, I usually do my Quiet Time in the mornings. It’s quiet in the house; the kids and husband aren’t up. There’s a freedom to that for me that lets me focus on my time with God without feeling guilt that I should be doing something else or spending that time in a different way.
There is something to say about giving God the first part of your day as a kind of a time tithe, but there have been times in my life that I would have walked away from a morning quiet time with little memory of what happened and feeling no closer to God. So I would say just make sure you’re committed to whatever time you set aside with God, even if it’s 30 minutes before bed. Develop the self-control to commit that time to God and stick with it.
So let me know what you’re committing to in the comments. When will you start setting aside time with God, and for how long?
Stay weird,
