Quiet Times (Part 2) – How To Do It
(Reflections on How to do Daily Bible Quit Times)
"Practical Steps to Do Quiet Times"
Read before: Part 1 – What & Why
C. How To Do It?
How do you do devotion?
What steps should we take to begin devoting?
Or how is the activity format?
This time, I will explain again the steps that you may all think you already know, but it turns out that there are some of us who don't really know how to be devout in quiet times.
1. Pray
Start by praying. This is very important. You're not reading a novel or comic. You're reading the word of God.
Our minds will not be able to understand the truth of God's word without God's help.
Ask HIM to light up our hearts so that we can understand the truth of God's words and what message God wants us to catch or pay attention to from this quiet time today.
God wants to speak to us. We ask Him to prepare our hearts, open our hearts and minds to the truth of God's word that He will deliver.
In this opening prayer, we will also be honest with God.
We declare to Him in full:
- What are our current heart's objections?
- What is bothering us right now?
- We tell Him when we are sick, sad, or maybe happy.
- We tell Him that we are sleep deprived and very sleepy right now.
Then we put everything before God. We focus our minds and hearts on hearing God's voice at this very moment.
We ask that God Himself enable us to hear what we have to hear, understand what we must understand, and meditate on what we should think about.
Having honest attitude before God just like King David, we often ignore it and even forget it.
This is a very important point. We need to surrender to God all aspects of our lives. We have to trust God completely.
2. Determine Which Bible Passage We Will Read Today
It is helpful if you have a year's Bible reading list or even a manual for devotional times from devotions book.
(If you already have materials like that, then you can probably just skip this one part.)
However, if you don't have one, you can decide for yourself which part of the Bible you read each day.
Try to read book by book.
Do not read randomly or even by opening the Bible and pointing to the part of the Bible that was opened with your eyes closed
(We're not playing magic here).
Start by reading the books of the New Testamentfirst,as they will be easier to understand.
Read from the book of Matthew to the book of Revelation, then continue reading the books of the Old Testament.
Also determine how much you will read in 1 day.
Is it one passage, one chapter, or several chapters at once?
I personally suggest that you only need one passage or one chapter a day.
Because what matters is not how much you read each day, but:
- How many of those passages of God's Word have you read today, that you can understand the content, that have made you aware of God and yourself?
- which makes you know God more deeply every day?
- which spoke to you personally?
Always take time to meditate more than just read the Bible material.
3. Read Slowly and More Than Once
After you have determined which part of the Bible you will read, read the Bible passage slowly and more than once.
Let the Holy Spirit show you which parts, which verses, which words need a closer look.
When you have found the passage prompted by the Holy Spirit, read it again.
If you do not understand a passage, it is very important to seek help by asking the pastors in your church.
There are places in the Bible that are difficult for us to understand. Do not be afraid, for this matter God has provided for us pastor whom have study the Bible specifically.
Ask them, they will be very happy to help to understand that part of God's Word that is confusing you.
4. Meditate
Ask in your heart why this passage is take great interest to you.
As you continue to pray silently, find out what God would like to say to you personally.
What does God want to show you through meditating on that passage?
In whatever form it is; reproof, encouragement, or expression of God's will, don't stop too soon. Meditate on that passage carefully.
Keep praying silently so that what you get really comes from God, not from our ego, our sinfulness, our intelligence, but God who speaks to us.
Take more time to meditate on God's Word.
5. Take a Decision
This part is a very important part, but is often forgotten.
Reading the Bible is good. Meditating on it is even better. But what is even better than just reading and meditating on God's words IS TO DO IT.
The psalmist not only says that He meditate on God's Word day and night (Psalm 1: 2), but he also says that he does them (Psalm 119: 112).
And our Lord Jesus also said that those who are happy are those who hear the word and keep it (Luke 11:28).
After meditating on that part of God's Word, make a decision to do it.
Mention or write down one specific thing that you want to do starting today as a sign that you are doing the Word of God that you have read and meditated on today.
6. Pray Again
When you are done, pray again to close your quiet time.
Ask God to give you the sensitivity to hear God's voice throughout this day, not just this quiet time.
Also state the decisions you have made in your quiet time today and ask God for strength to do His will.
The essence of doing quiet time is having intimate communication with God through reading the Scriptures and praying.
Take plenty of time to share your heart's objections today, your obstacles, joys, sorrows, hopes, and dreams.
Do it in a quiet time not formally so it becomes a formality. Quiet time comfortably, calmly and intimately with God.
God is also our Best Friend. So treat Him like we treat a best friend. We honor Him, value Him, and stay close to Him.
And the most important thing is that we are honest with Him.
Without this attitude of heart, we will only get very little from reading and meditating on God's Word.
We desperately need to open our hearts completely to God, to be honest with Him and not to have an ever-spiritual look before Him.
If we spend quiet time like this, have a conversation or chat with God, our daily quiet time will never be the same and monotonous.
And this is what God wants from us, namely:
We invite Him personally to be a part of our lives, to be our closest friends. He wants us to have a very intimate and intimate relationship with Him.
Continue to PART 3.
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