“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8
A quiet time is when you deliberately set aside a period of time to read your Bible; to hear God’s voice and to commune with Him through prayer.
For years, my quiet time has been one of the best moments of my day. (I pray it never ends.) In fact, I have a hard time navigating life without it.
One morning while reading the Psalms, a picture of a treasure chest came into my mind. Verses jumped out at me that reminded me of perfect, rare, pure gold coins. One by one, I gathered them and carefully stored them in my prayer journal. Desperately wanting to internalize them… In hopes of believing them in my core and incorporating them into my everyday life.
Last week, I taught a workshop on Quiet Time. This week, I’ll teach a workshop on Prayer and Prayer Journaling. In my preparations, I started brainstorming reasons why I think a quiet time is far more rewarding than anything else the world has to offer.
A quiet time helps us to:
- Know God personally; To know how to be right with Him. To know what pleases God and how He desires to be worshiped; To establish and maintain relationship with Him.
- To have our souls fed and nourished.
- To have our hearts, minds and motives purified; To have the awareness of His forgiveness.
- To receive personal revelation; to know God’s will for the situations in our life and our purpose for each season.
- To not be deceived by false teaching or false ideology. (And it’s out there!)
- To be fortified to persevere when life is hard.
- To be strengthened against conformity to the world’s pattern of behavior.
- To receive fresh courage to do what otherwise we may never do in service to the Lord.
- To become a better wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend and citizen.
- To receive hope when we feel hopeless; strength when we feel emotionally and physically weak and perspective when we see the world becoming increasingly evil and godless.
I could go on and on!
The fullness of these things CANNOT happen by attending church or group Bible study once a week. It only happens when we carve out time on a regular basis to spend time with our Heavenly Father. The One who created us. The One who is for us. The One Who loves us beyond what we can imagine.
Do you have an established quiet time and prayer time? All it requires is:
- A commitment of setting aside a set amount of time each day (or most days)
- An open heart that’s willing to hear what God may lay upon your heart.
- A Bible; a notebook or a Journal
The quality of my life changed when I began seeking the Lord on a regular basis. No matter how awesome your life may be, apart from Jesus, there’s an empty hole in your life.
Make time for Him today. He’s waiting for you… with open arms.
To Learn More about Establishing a Quiet Time:
and knowing God Personally
(Formerly known as Intimacy with God)
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Worship: Lacy Hines