Quiet time

As a Pastor, I get a lot of questions. Many of those questions are about the nuts and bolts of growing spiritually. So I wanted to devote a post or two about some common questions I get.

Today i want to talk about having a quiet time.
If ever there was a mysterious phrase in the Christian's vocabulary, it would be the phrase, "quiet time".

Normally you would hear the phrase in a sentence like this: This morning I had a fantastic quiet time with the Lord.

In this blog post I want to de-mystify that phrase.

First let's try to define it. I would say that a quiet time, is a set aside time that a person strategically spends with God. As the name implies, a portion of this time would be in quiet or solitude.

For me, my quiet time would look something like this. Prayer time (a time of speaking and listening to God), and a time of reading and studying my Bible, and some time to meditate on what I have just read.

A question many people have is, how do you pray?
Well for me personally, I generally use the ACTS method of prayer:

A- adoration. A time to praise and adore God for who He is.
C- confession. A time of confessing sins (by name), and acknowledging that I truly desire to live for God.
T- thanksgiving. Taking time to thank God for all of His blessing in my life.
S- supplication. A time of asking God for specific things in my life and the lives of others.

I have found for me personally that having a list with people's names and different things that I need to pray about keeps me focused better. Also, I personally like to have my quiet time in the morning.

As far as how long does a quiet time take? That just depends. Sometimes it's relatively quick, and other times it may be an hour or more.
It's basically the same way you would talk to your best friend on the phone. Sometimes you just need a quick chat, and other times you need a little longer.

Sometimes I get rushed and miss my quiet time, and I can tell you, that I can tell the difference in my life. I'm just a little off center the whole day.

One last thing. Don't be legalistic about it. If you miss a day, it's ok. God still loves you! If you don't have a quiet time, why not start today. You will be surprised how it helps your life.