How Can I find Quiet Times with God?
Relationship is pretty shallow if we don’t spend time with the person we love: talking, listening, working together, crying together. Being quiet together.
If we’re not doing that, I’d argue we’re not in relationship. We may have “collected” a contact with that person, but how deep is the connection? How long will it last?
Just like we need intentional time with our loved ones and close friends, sharing our hearts and weaving together our lives, we need a daily quiet time with God. Time to read, pray, listen and learn.
It’s not enough to know about God.
We need to know Him. Tweet this.
Daily quiet times require self-discipline. Like any positive habit, they’re hard to establish and easy to break. We can be tempted to get legalistic over them or to load guilt on ourselves when we get off-track, but that’s not the point. They’re an invitation to be alone with the God who made us.
Find even five minutes to get alone with God.
You’ll be the richer for it. Tweet this.
The time and place don’t matter as much as that it happens. Consistency does help, but not if a rigid schedule strangles you. Think of time with God as the most valuable “rock” you’ll put in the daily jar. Make sure it gets in there at some point.
If you’re easily distracted like me, first thing in the morning may be best. I can’t do the “somewhere in the day” option because I forget. At one point when that wasn’t an option, I aimed for “tea with the Lord” right after lunch. Some people mark “appointment with God” in their daily planners, which could have the added bonus of startling friends or co-workers who happen to snoop.
One warning: establishing the routine of a daily quiet time is about quieting ourselves before the God of the universe and allowing Him to shape and grow us. Yes, we’ll be better off for it because we’ll be growing spiritually and better equipped to face what comes at us. But it is not a means of bribing God to give us easy, pleasant days. He’s still the Shepherd, we’re still the sheep.
And relationship with Him is still the best.
Related articles
- Quiet Time : Proper Attitudes (lynvgarcia.wordpress.com)
- Quiet Times with God (janetsketchley.wordpress.com)
- How Can I Pierce the Gloom? (underthecoverofprayer.wordpress.com)
Janet Sketchley
Janet is an east coast Canadian writer working to break into print in novel-length fiction. In the mean time, she writes weekly book reviews, devotionals and features on her blog, ”Tenacity“.
Related articles
- Quiet Time : Proper Attitudes (lynvgarcia.wordpress.com)
- Quiet Times with God (janetsketchley.wordpress.com)
- How Can I Pierce the Gloom? (underthecoverofprayer.wordpress.com)
Thank you, Ruth Ann. Time with God does make all the difference. We may not notice it right away, but it’s cumulative — either the spending time or the skipping it!
What a beautiful posting by Janet Sketchley. It makes all the difference to our day if we take time to build our relationship with God.