Grace and
peace be unto you from God, our Father and our Lord, Jesus Christ –
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time this week on the
freeway for work. Much of time is sitting in traffic. While in traffic, I
usually listen to Jazz music and news radio. But this particular day it both
was getting on my nerves. So I turned the radio off not down but off. So for
the next couple of hours I road in silence and it was the best time ever.
I’ve learned (and still learning) that nothing can take the
place of your personal devotional time with God. It is a time for you to seek
God and hear from God clearly on issues pertaining to your Christian walk in a
chaotic world. It is a time to repent from all wrong doings. It is a time to
make personal changes and godly commitments. It is time to calm down from the
demands of life in the home, church, and workplace. Bottom-line: Your Christian
life will benefit greatly from spending time with God.
A major part of learning about the Christian life is
developing a regular pattern of spending time with God. Bible reading, prayer,
and meditation on Scripture, are essential to knowing God's will and growing in
your faith. But it can be hard to know exactly where to start.
Here are a few tips to having a more meaningful quite time
with God:
Pray for
guidance during your quiet time - Follow a systematic plan to read
your Bible. You can read through a book, follow a devotional guide, study a
character of the Bible, or study a topic such as forgiveness to get started.
Make notes of what God says to you through His Word. Is there an example to
follow or avoid? Is there a promise to claim? Is there a truth that should
influence your life?
Be
persistent until you are consistent - Strive for consistency rather
than for length of time spent. Try to have a few minutes of quiet time every
day rather than long devotional periods every other day. Expect interruptions.
Ask family members to respect your quiet time and turn off any electronic
devices that may distract you. Satan tries to prevent you from spending time
with God. Plan around interruptions rather than being frustrated by them. Use a
calendar to note that you have completed your quiet time for the day. Remember,
God wants to spend quality time with you. Don’t rush through your quiet time so
that you can check off a 'to do' item.
Focus on
the Person you are meeting - View this as an opportunity to spend time with God
rather than a habit of having the quiet time. If you scheduled a meeting with
the person you admire most, you would not allow anything to stand in your way.
Meeting God is even more important. He created you with a capacity for
fellowship with Him, and He saved you to bring about that fellowship.
Memorize
and Meditate on Scripture – Scripture will have no place in your heart if it’s
not in your head. You may do a meditation study in sections a few minutes each
day, concentrating on one verse a week. Ordinarily, you may prefer to select a
passage you have been memorizing or perhaps the key verse in a passage or a
chapter you have read or studied during your quiet times. After you select a
passage, pray, claiming James 1:5 for wisdom to apply God's Word.
Thank and
Worship God - Notice I did put this last for a specific reason. John
4:24 says, “God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship Him in spirit and
truth. Spending daily quite time with God creates for you a more meaningful
worship life. Why, you ask? Worship is connected to spiritual truth. The more
you know of God the greater your worship you can offer to God.
The result of your quite time with God is spiritual
breakthrough. Each day you spend with God is a day for your burden getting lighter.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For
my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30
My dear friends, let’s use this time to draw closer to God!
