How to Establish a Personal Quiet Time With God

Conversing with God through prayer can be a key to a strong religious life. Establish your own personal quiet time with God as a daily period of reflection and use it to ask for guidance and assistance.

Instructions

1. Start small. Set aside 5 or 10 minutes a day to pray or meditate, asking for guidance on a specific subject or general help. Focusing quietly and calmly on any issue can provide answers if you listen for them. Gradually build this to 15 minutes every day.

2. Be specific with your requests. Ponder what sort of help you'll need and be direct when you ask for it.

3. Listen more than you speak. Prayer is a two-way conversation. Give yourself periods of quiet so you can hear the voice speaking back to you.

4. Practice patience. Your prayer might not be answered immediately, and when the answer arrives it may be subtle. Be open and watch. Often the answers come to us from ourselves. Prayer is a form of meditation, and it's capable of illuminating the answers we already carry within ourselves.