Quiet Time

<<private devotions>>

The term ‘quiet time’ refers to the personal time spent in intimate fellowship with God. It is a two-way interchange – allowing the Holy Spirit to speak into our hearts mental impressions or insights from the Bible as we present our requests before the ‘throne of grace’. This spiritual discipline is a vital necessity if we want to have a genuine and deepening relationship with God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Ideally daily, and free of distractions and interruptions, it is a privileged, private meeting with the King of Kings – being in the presence of God – so come with an expectancy to hear and receive. Aspects of this connection with God include praise and worship, reading the Bible with an open, meditative heart genuine repentance and confident trust. He will impress on our spirits and minds some insight into Scripture, some attitude or activity that needs to be corrected or implemented. During this time, real focused prayer for ourselves, others, families, church, government and situations can be made, while not forgetting to thank Him for the answers already received. The first priority is our connection to God, and then from that solid basis we pray about pressing issues, and see situations changed, for “The people who know their God will be strong and take action’ (Dan 11:32; Mt 6:5,6).

The emphasis is not to gain knowledge but rather being in intimate ‘heart to heart’ fellowship with our Saviour, for how do we really get to know a person except by spending time with them? There will be times of real soul searching and repentance as the Holy Spirit convicts, in order to restore our relationship and further advance the Kingdom of God in us and make us more like our Master. Spending time with Him expresses our dependency on Him, yet also a confident trust that He will not disappoint in answering prayers that are in agreement with His plans (Mt 7:7-11).

The Psalmist said, “I will rise before dawn and cry for help” while Jesus often withdrew to a lonely place and prayed early in the morning, receiving strength and guidance from His Father (Ps 119:147; Mt 14:23; Mk 1:35; Lk 5:16). Although it can be any time during the day that is convenient, when

If Jesus saw the necessity, how much more do we need this?

an allotted period can be given to communion with God, many people choose to get the day off to a ‘God start’. Although we should be tuned into and relating to the Holy Spirit’s voice throughout the remainder of our day, this is a period of time where we choose to stop what we are doing to give Him complete attention without the responsibilities and pressures of the world demanding our input and focus. It is probably the hardest yet most essential and rewarding of the Christian disciplines, for it is giving ourselves in totality to connecting with our life source (Jn 15:4,5). With our spiritual batteries recharged we are invigorated to let our light shine and serve God through ‘whatever our hand finds to do’ (Mt 5:16; 1 Cor 10:31).

Nothing restores perspective, provides refreshment and reveals new direction as effectively as unhurried time, with no agenda and no purpose except communion with our Lord. We

Do I consider this an essential part of my day?

should be offering to God the best, not the tired, leftover fragments of our day or a hurried ‘hullo/goodbye God’ between other engagements. It requires a stilling of the human spirit, soul and body from the earthly activities to focus on God. This quieting of our inner self is something we must do by bringing our mental facilities into submission through prayer and worship (Ps 131:2). It calls for discipline of will to be still and regularly put time aside to ‘sit at the feet’ of Jesus in surrender and to receive from Him (Lk 10:38-42). Satan opposes us having this daily time of devotion with our heavenly Father, because he knows real spiritual empowerment can take place here so strong determination is required to develop and maintain it. Sin in its multitude of different manifestations hinders our relationship with God, as with Adam and Eve, who after sinning did not want to be God’s presence (Gen 3:8; Ps 32:3-5, 66:18). When the matter is confessed, the sin is forgiven and the connection is restored (Ps 32:1,2, 51:1-4; 1 Jn 1:9). Through persistence, spending time with God becomes a habit and the Lord will be able to commune with you in this time of undivided attention, giving impetus to be ‘human beings’, not just ‘human doings’ who may be continuously involved in activity, yet unless established by God will only be unfruitful and eternally worthless (1 Cor 3:12-15).

Many people find journaling of great spiritual value to record the insights gained, challenges of Scripture and to document their spiritual journey.