Do you ever feel like quiet time with God has to look a certain way? In this post, I share a new way to think about your daily quiet time with God because the truth is there is no such thing as the perfect quiet time routine.
A morning quiet time may seem like an unwritten expectation for those who walk with the Lord. Like another commandment. Thou shalt always begin the day with the Lord by spending at least ten minutes in quiet prayer, Bible reading, devotion. If you don’t, well, then you aren’t giving the day to the Lord. You risk having a lousy day. If you begin with the Lord, then the day will be blessed. (And it’s even better if you have your highlighters and sticky notes in a cute little basket.)
Yes, it makes sense that a morning quiet time would be a blessing. After all, God’s Word is filled with encouragement to spend time with the Lord in the morning. King David writes about talking to the Lord first thing in the morning in Psalm 3:5:
O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
And Jesus himself, the Son of God, certainly prioritized His quiet time in the midst of His very busy schedule filled with teaching, healing, loving, and journeying to the cross
Here’s one example:
And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
Mark 1:35
And here’s another.
But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Luke 5:16
He taught us how to do this as well.
“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.”
Matthew 6:6
My History with Quiet Time
I grew up in a Christian home with godly parents. The older I get, the more I give thanks for this foundational grace. I don’t know if my mother practiced a morning quiet time, but I have no doubt that she prayed and read her Bible daily. I just didn’t happen to see her doing this early in the morning because frankly, I was busy being a little (selfish) kid and not paying attention. She was busy being a wife and a mother and a homemaker and a volunteer-everything who trusted the Lord.
As I matured and moved out and got a big-girl job and paid my bills, I would like to say that I turned to the Lord every morning in quiet rest along with my Bible and devout prayers before I faced hundreds of high school students with a lesson on subject and verb agreement or the theme of sacrifice in A Tale of Two Cities. I prayed, yes. But it was often a rushed prayer as I car-pooled to school with the older English teacher who was a cigarette-smoking tough gal with red hair and a gravely voice. She taught film studies and science fiction. She scared me a little bit.
My prayers were simple during those years. Help.
Would those prayers have qualified as “quiet time with the Lord”? Not in the contemporary sense at all.
My Honest-to-Goodness Quiet Time
Not until a decade later did I even consider having an honest-to-goodness quiet devotional time. It seemed that every women’s Bible study book or devotional I picked up encouraged this practice. Those were the days of Kay Arthur and Beth Moore and women’s devotions through my LWML resources. I picked up every new study, and with young children, I craved what I didn’t have – quiet time with the Lord. So some days I woke up extra early, faithfully for a while, and prayed and journaled and read my Bible. And then life got busier, and I quit that practice.
In the subsequent decades since then, I’ve had a similar rhythm. Sometimes I’m faithful. Other times, not. Sometimes I rest in the practice. Other times I feel guilty for not doing it or for not doing it long enough.
The History of Quiet Time with God
I was curious about the history behind this idea of “quiet time in the morning” so I did a bit of research. Because faithful men and women since the beginning of time have dedicated themselves to morning prayer and quiet time with God.
Right? Wait.
Consider the believers who walked this earth in the early days – all the way to the age of the printing press in the 1400s. They didn’t have a physical Bible. Instead, they had what is often called the first “audio” Bible which would have been a collection of memorized passages, stories, and songs from the psalter which had all been passed from one generation to the next. They had prayer and fellowship, and they went about their days serving their families and their neighbors.
I learned about a little handbook called “Quiet Times” which was printed in the mid-19th century by an Army chaplain, James Hoeg. (Here’s an interesting back story to this.) Many resources suggest that he was the start of this contemporary idea of “quiet time.”
Contemporary Resources
It’s impossible to calculate how many books have been published since then on the topic of devotional time, especially for women, but every year there are dozens more entering the market. This is a blessing–each one offers encouragement and suggestions for readers who long to know how to spend time daily in prayer and Bible reading.
Today’s Perfect Quiet Time Routine
Until the age of social media, I didn’t really pay attention to what other women were doing. Maybe I’d talk about it with my women’s Bible study groups just to hear how others were praying and reading God’s Word. I was curious and wanted to learn new routines.
But today, it’s all too easy to take a peek into seemingly faithful women’s lives who post pictures or videos about their practices. Their perfect quiet time with the Lord. The coffee mug. The open Bible with highlighters. The journal and the cross. And the comparison begins.
Now I’m not here to malign social media or the sharing of beautiful pictures and stories that encourage. I believe that most of these women genuinely want to encourage others. But I’ve learned to be careful with comparisons. What one woman finds time to do, another may resent. What serves the empty nester is not the same as the mom of a newborn or toddlers.
You already know this, but I’ll remind you. There is no such thing as the perfect quiet time.
So how can you have a daily quiet time, in whatever season of life you’re in?
Find Your Quiet Time
Find a window of time in the day that works for you in this season. Review these suggestions.
- It may not be in the morning. And that’s okay.
- It may not be an extended fifteen or thirty-minute practice. And that’s okay.
- It may not be traditional Bible study time. And that’s okay.
- It may not be really quiet. And that’s okay.
- It may not look like anybody else’s. And that’s okay.
- It may not include journaling. And that’s okay.
- It may not include any other books. And that’s okay.
Only two things are needed
The bottom line? For you to have time with the Lord, you only need to have two things:
- YOU Being fully present is helpful. Jesus reminds Martha of this as she is bustling around the house. “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41) Of course Mary is fully present at Jesus’ feet listening to His teaching. Martha is not paying any attention to Jesus. There’s so much more to this story that I don’t have time to dig into here. Please know that it’s not as simple as Mary is the good one to copy and Martha is not. Because Martha is the one who later says, ““Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” (John 11:27)
- The Lord. God’s Word clearly tells us that Christ lives in His children. You. Me. Always. He is with you.
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:14-19
Paul writes in Colossians 1:27 that we have “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” And again in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
You don’t need anything special for this time with the Lord.
Quiet Time, Simplified
Let’s revisit the opening to this post. Consider which of these statements fits your current season:
- You feel guilty for not having the “expected” morning quiet time.
- You believe that your day is going to be a bad day unless you sit with your Bible and bow your head by yourself before the rest of the world (your family/friends) awakens.
- You chastise yourself for not having deep Bible study time.
- Your quiet time is one minute long and you wish it were longer.
- You forget to pray all day long and fall into bed thinking about it.
- You’ve gone for months without opening your Bible and praying except for Sunday morning when you’re in church. Oh, and maybe at meal times.
- Quiet time? What’s that?
- Faith? Sometimes you aren’t sure you even believe this.
More than anything, no matter which of these rang true, I want you to know that you are loved by a God who is gracious and merciful. He loves you so much that He gave His only Son to die for you so that you might have eternal life. He doesn’t measure your participation; he doesn’t weigh your efforts; he doesn’t count your prayers or the seconds that you focus on His Word. Our “doing” anything, including a quiet time, is fruitless without Christ. Since you are a dearly loved child of God, you already have Christ. Even if you fail to have a morning quiet time. (If you don’t know whether you are loved by God, then please read John 3:16.)
What It Might Look Like
When we trust Him, we long to spend time with Him. Like any beautiful relationship, when we spend time together, we will want to spend more time together. No matter if it’s first thing in the morning or in the middle of laundry, carpooling, hectic work meetings, or late night chores.
Your quiet time may be two seconds before your feet hit the floor and you can pray Martin Luther’s morning prayer. Or two seconds at night in exhaustion as you close your eyes. Or a few minutes during the day, driving your kiddos to school, or taking your mother to her doctor’s appointment, sitting at a stop light, walking the dog.
I encourage you to memorize or write on a notecard Luther’s Morning and Evening Prayers. They are great to say to yourself or outloud…
Luther’s Morning Prayer
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.
Luther’s Evening Prayer
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have graciously kept me this day; and I pray that You would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me this night. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.
Then go
Luther closes both of those prayers with a simple and profound call. “Then go joyfully to your work…” and “Then goto sleep at once and in good cheer.”
Then go. It’s simple and powerful.
Go about your work. Go about your day. Go to sleep, trusting in your Heavenly Father to provide for you.
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105
To God be the glory.
