Quiet Time: Day One

For me, I have always loved the early morning hours for my quiet time and now doing my quiet time with the Christmas tree lights just makes that time all the sweeter!  Every day I make sure the space I meet Jesus in is clean (ish). I have a hard time focusing if there is a mess everywhere, I end up spending my QT cleaning instead of praying.  It is amazing to me that I would clean then...I don’t really feel motivated to clean any other time of the day.  

I always make sure I have a notebook, bible (app or paper), coffee and a pen.  I am currently sitting in my living room in my yellow armchair. This is my current spot, that may change at some point, but for the past 5 years, this has been it!  My standing appt with Jesus happens at 5:30 am in my yellow chair.  

One of the things we have introduced at our church is the 3 x 5 challenge.  This is a great place to start when you are just beginning to do quiet time.  This challenge encourages 5 minutes of worship, 5 minutes of scripture reading, and 5 minutes of prayer.  I personally like to use the S.O.A.P. method of reading the Bible (I will explain what that means later) it is all sounding very spiritual and fancy, but it is actually just a method on how to read the Bible so that we can actually understand it and get something from it for your everyday life! So for the next 5 days, I am going to share with you what my quiet time looks like.  I am hoping that by doing this it demystifies spending time with Jesus and you can simply work on growing in relationship with him. 

Worship:  This morning I was feeling a little spunky so I decided to put in my headphones on full blast and listen to “Stand In Your Love”. Usually, when I am listening to worship music I end up singing loudly and offkey (my QT isn’t very often that quiet at all), I will close my eyes and sometimes I start praying just thanking God for who He is. If I am being honest, this is my favorite time and it is the best way to start my day.  This song is 19 minutes so it’s WAY longer than 5 minutes, but it just gets better and better as it keeps going! Remember the important thing is that you start where you are! If you have never listed to worship music before in the context a 19-minute song is going to be way too long, so just stop when you feel like it, there are NO RULES! 

Scripture:  Like I said I decided to do something called S.O.A.P. journaling as I read scripture this week. Being as it is the Christmas season I thought it was appropriate to start in Luke 1.  

On a side note, can I just say something, I was feeling really insecure this week as I was watching everyone doing their Advent devotionals.  Honestly, I had to look up what the word “advent” even means. For those of you, who like me, were in the dark the meaning of advent is actually really cool, it literally means, the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.  So advent is the celebration of the arrival of Jesus.  

You’re Welcome. 

S:  Scripture.  So I chose to read all of Luke 1.  I underlined or highlight the words or phrases that stand out to me.  It is ok to write in your Bible, in fact, I encourage it! I wrote these verses specifically, 

Verse 20: “But now, since you didn’t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born.  For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time.” 

Verse 37: “For the word of God will never fail” 

Observation:  This is what I specifically observed about these verses was… 

If we can not align ourselves to the word of God, we must stay silent, when I am seeing God do a miracle I must say what He is saying, speak by faith.  In order to say what God is saying I have to be with Him! His word will not fail, but my words can derail what He is trying to do! That is why Zechariah was unable to speak so that he could not derail the plans of God.  

Application: What a lesson!  Be filled with the Holy Spirit and know what God is saying!  Listen and lean in so that I am in alignment with the word of God over my life.  As I read the word I can declare it over my life and I can be sure that I am in alignment with God.  If I am not saying what God is saying I could hinder what God wants to do in my life. I want what He wants for me so I am willing to align my words to His word. 

Prayer:  Lord, let me hear from heaven,  fill me fresh with your Holy Spirit.  I want to say what you are saying, but first I need to hear what you are speaking to me.  Let me hear you in a new way so that I can truly say what you are saying, build faith in me so that I can continue to build faith in those around me.  In Jesus’ name! There you have it -- S.O.A.P. It is that easy to begin to study your Bible in a way that actually makes sense! 

Today I had uninterrupted time with Jesus.  I felt like He spoke some things specifically to me for the season I am moving into, and even felt some warning about a situation that is going on.   I feel like today I prayed throughout my time, I started with prayer as I worshiped and I ended with prayer as I finished up my SOAP journaling. There were also a few situations that I know people I love are going through so I wrote down their names in my journal to remember to pray for them specifically.  

I hope this acts as a guide for you.  Let yourself off the hook if you haven’t known how to have a quiet time, don’t let that keep you from being in a relationship with Jesus! Just start somewhere, start today!