The Secret to Great “Quiet Times” (Part 1)

Do you remember the childhood Sunday School song, “Read your Bible, pray every day, and you’ll grow, grow grow…and you’ll grow, grow, grow…..”?  That sounded like such a novel thought as a kid. But now, not so novel. Which isn’t a bad thing I suppose. It shouldn’t be news to us that we should spend daily time reading God’s word and praying. It should be anything but novel. These disciplines should be such a regular part of our life that we would describe them as normal, standard, routine, expected, etc.

But there is something about this part of our lives that never feels quite as successful as we want. It’s rare to hear someone say they have mastered their quiet times. And rightfully so, we always want to grow and become better at giving the Bible and prayer the attention it deserves.

So how do we make our time in God’s word better (we will think through our prayer time in Part 2)? There are many many things that can be said to help us grow in this regard – but I think the importance of one tip, in particular, is underestimated….

The Underestimated Tip

If you want to make major strides in the department of reading your Bible every day, so you’ll grow, grow, grow – here’s the tip of the day: read your Bible every day. Wait, don’t stop reading. I mean it.  If you just do it every day, faithfully, your quiet times will get dramatically better.

It doesn’t need to be magical, and it doesn’t need to be Facebook status post-able. The goal is to just be faithful – faithful in taking the time to read the Bible with a desire to learn and apply what you’ve learned.

Far too often as women, we go into this daily time expecting it to “feel” a certain way. When it doesn’t always feel the way we were hoping, we get discouraged. So if you add discouragement to something that has the potential to take a little work, well…you can see why it starts to fall to a lower status on our to-do list. But what if we changed our goal to just be faithful.

 Hoax or Helpful?

Watch how this would work. If you committed to reading your Bible faithfully, rain or shine – you have conquered most of the battle. You can go through your day knowing you are not letting this important pursuit of God’s word become crowded out by the busyness of life. That already sounds massively more successful, right?

At first, you might do it just to get it done. But soon enough you WILL experience the sweetness of God’s word. Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”  It’s a little like trying to be disciplined enough to eat a healthy diet, but not necessarily wanting to. You look at the pieces of fruit, but they just don’t look that appealing when you stare at them. However, if you take the plunge and bite into that juicy apple, you find yourself thinking, “that was actually pretty good. I think I’ll take another bite.”  When you just eat it, you realize it’s good and you want more. And I’m sure the analogy could even extend to training ourselves enough to crave healthy food…but I’ll stop there.

The point is: when you get in God’s word day after day, you realize it is good stuff. And you will want it more and more.

• When you are reminded of God’s truths just when you need it, you will want to store more truth in your heart. 
• When you have biblical wisdom to offer a friend, you will want more biblical wisdom. 
• When you get a daily glimpse of the goodness of God, you will be compelled to learn more. 
• When you learn truths that change your life, you will want to make sure you come back tomorrow!

Wonderful Momentum

This beautiful cycle reminds me (as a mom with little ones) of the book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” You remember how the story goes, right? You give a mouse a cookie, which makes him want some milk….if you give him some milk, he will need a napkin…and if he has a napkin…etc. And it comes right back to him wanting another cookie. 

If a woman reads her bible, she’s going to learn God’s wisdom on life, if she learns God’s wisdom on life, she is going to learn to obey God, and if she obeys God….and on the story goes with all the good that happens when we do life God’s way. Which is going to come right back to her wanting to read more Bible. 

There is a momentum that will develop if you just find yourself faithfully spending time in God’s word. 

This week, starting today, let’s be women who have great quiet times, by just making sure we have a quiet time.