How to Have your Quiet Time

Your Daily Quiet Time is a brief period of time that you spend in the presence of God & God alone! It is one of the most important personal habits in any Christians life, as it helps you to develop your own personal relationship with God by letting him speak to you through his word.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Bibles (Several Translations if possible)
• A Notebook
• A Pen/ Pencil (Whichever you feel more comfortable with)
• A Dictionary
• A Concordance
• A Quiet Place
• A Good Attitude!

1. Try and ensure that the area you will be having your Quiet Time in is as quiet and isolated as you can possibly make it, so try and close the windows and lock the door, as when you're having your Quiet Time you want to avoid having any distractions!

2. Say a short prayer to God so you can begin your Quiet Time, this prayer should consist of both Thanksgiving and a request to God for guidance and understanding.

3. Slowly read your Passage for the day. This passage can either be selected using a daily devotional, a scripture that caught your eye the day before or you can systematically read through a book of the bible and pick up each day from where you left off. It is also important to remember that it does not need to be a single verse of the bible or a whole chapter, it is just a reasonable portion of the scriptures for you to gain insight from!

4. Analyze the scripture you have just read by:
   A) Reading it in different translations of the bible
   B) Looking up the meaning of words in your dictionary (often we don't have a complete understanding of the words we use on a day-to-day basis!)
   C) Look up key words in the passage in your concordance (reading additional scriptures on the matter may help you to gain further insight into what you are reading.)

5. Write notes on everything you have learnt from the passage, try and record everything you learn and everything you read.

6. Say a closing prayer which should just thank God for his word and also to commit the rest of the day to God.

Tips & Warnings

• Try and have your Quiet Time in the morning, that way you can think about what you've learnt and apply it to your life.
• Set a regular and unchangeable time for you to begin your Quiet Time, if you can make it routine then it will become habitual, thus making it very easy to have a relationship with God.
• Sometimes writing some of the key points & scriptures on your hand, or keeping a small memo with you throughout the day can really help you to remember your Quiet Time and try to apply it.
• Make sure you have your Quiet Time daily, as building a relationship with God is one of the most important things that we can do in our Christian lives (Matthew 7:21-23)

[kingswoodzone]

on 7/2/2008 this is a very useful post