God’s word tells us that Jesus made it a regular practice to get up early in the morning and find a place where he could be alone to pray. In Mark’s gospel, for example, we read that:
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed (Mark 1:35).
He wasn’t the first person to do this. Centuries earlier, King David wrote:
In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; In the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly (Psalm 5:3).
Throughout the centuries, many believers in Christ have followed this example and begun their day with a morning devotional, or quiet time, as it’s sometimes called. I’m one of them. Six days a week I get up, and as soon as I’ve had a shower, I grab a cup of coffee and open God’s word. After that, I take our dog Moxie out on a morning prayer walk around the neighborhood (I do the praying. She mostly sniffs things). On Saturday evenings, I set aside another half hour to review everything I learned from the Scriptures that week. I’m retired, so I don’t have to worry about getting to work on time, but even if I weren’t, I would make time to start my days in the presence of God.
A morning quiet time typically involves the spiritual disciplines of Scripture reading and prayer, but there isn’t one “right” way to do it. The perfect method for me might not be what works best for you. What’s important, however, is not to exactly follow some procedure, but to be transformed by the Holy Spirit working in you.
So what’s the point of having a quiet time? To start with, if you’re thinking of it as a duty, as just another job you have to perform, you’re approaching it wrong. A quiet time is not a task to accomplish, it’s a chance to sit quietly and listen to God. You’re not doing a job, or checking off a box, you’re building a relationship. A morning devotion time helps align your priorities with Christ’s. It’s a declaration that spending time in his presence is more important to you than anything on your to do list. As the Scripture says:
“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
A quiet time also sets the tone for the entire day. Beginning each day by seeking God’s presence is the best way I know of, no, strike that; it’s the only way that I know to deliberately cultivate love, faith and humility each morning, so that I can live the rest of the day in the attitude that God commanded through the Apostle Paul:
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).
I want to emphasize that it’s not a command to take a certain amount of time every morning for this. If you didn’t have a quiet time this morning, you haven’t sinned. Now, don’t misunderstand: God does tell us to study and to meditate on his Word (Joshua 1:8, 2 Timothy 2:15), and to pray (Philippians 4:6, 1 Thessalonians 5:17). But there’s no command in Scripture to do this by having a morning devotion every day. In fact, many years ago, I used to have my quiet times mostly in the evening. But over time, I eventually discovered that it works better if this is the way I start my day. I don’t have daily quiet times out of obedience, but out of love, and out of a desire to draw closer to Jesus. To know him better, and through that knowledge, to be changed. I have no right to judge you if your prayers and your study of God’s word look different than mine. But if you do want to have a quiet time, and you’re not sure how to get started, keep reading.
It’s important not to bite off too much at first. It’s natural to get excited and think you’re going to do a hour of Bible study, prayer and worship every morning. Unfortunately, I can tell you right now that you won’t do this more than a couple of times before giving up. That’s not me being negative, it’s me warning you that, for a beginner, that’s too much.
Why do I say this? Well, suppose you were out of shape, and you decided to start working out. Being an ambitious sort of person, you might think you should start by getting up early every day and doing one hundred push-ups, and one hundred sit-ups, before heading off on a three mile run. You might decide that, but the truth is you wouldn’t actually do it. You might try a couple times, but you’d quickly give up and decide working out isn’t for you. But the problem wasn’t that you’re not the “type” who ought to get into shape, it’s that you started off too big. If you haven’t been working out regularly, you need to start small, and gradually build up to where you want to be.
Other kinds of improvement work the same way. When you learn a foreign language, you start with simple words and sentences. If you want to play a musical instrument, you start by learning to play scales and short, simple tunes. In math, you begin with arithmetic, not calculus. If you want to be an artist, you start with drawing exercises. Whatever you do, you have to start out as a beginner, and you probably won’t be very good at it at first, but improvement will come with practice.
This is obvious to most people. But when we think about developing a closer walk with Christ, we too often forget what we know about the way our minds and our bodies work. And when you first consider the idea of having a quiet time, it seems like it should be pretty easy. But I have to warn you that it will be a lot harder than you think to keep it going. Once you start having a morning quiet time, you’re going to run into distractions and interruptions that you never expected. You’ll be tired, or late for something important. You won’t feel like sitting down with the Bible. Or you’ll fall into some sin and suddenly feel unable even to go to God at all. The world, your flesh, and the devil will all conspire to keep you away from spending time in God’s presence. Don’t make things harder for yourself by trying too much when you’re just starting out.
And even after I’ve written this, I know that there is probably a part of you right now thinking that you can manage it; that you really want to go all out to get closer to Jesus. That motive, to get closer to Christ, is good. But the feeling that you’re ready for a big commitment, a feeling that seems a lot like love for God, is really just pride. None of us are as spiritual as we think we are.
Instead of an hour or more, I recommend starting with fifteen minutes every morning, six days a week. I know that doesn’t sound like a very big commitment, and that’s kind of the point. Once you’ve been doing it for a while, say six months without missing, you’ll be much better able to decide whether you want to go longer.
And when you start, don’t just try and remember to have a quiet time at some point every day; actually schedule it. Your quiet time is too important to leave to chance. If nothing else, once you’ve put it on the schedule, it will be at least ten times easier to avoid getting distracted by whatever else comes up. And you can tell your family and friends not to interrupt you during those fifteen minutes unless somebody is dying or the building is on fire.
Then, once you have scheduled the time, find a regular place where you can have some privacy. You’ll also want a Bible, and some way to take notes. I use a computer for this, but a pen and paper worked just fine for me for many years. Then start by reading through a short passage of Scripture; one or two paragraphs is plenty. Meditate on it. Pray over it. Write down your understanding of this passage and your reaction to it. If you don’t know where to start, begin with the gospel of Matthew and just go straight through the New Testament. That will take several years, so let it. By the time you finish, you’ll be well experience at having a quiet time.
But before you even open the Bible, open your heart to God in prayer. Thank him for the gift of the day, and ask him to guide your thoughts. Ask the Holy Spirit to block out any distractions, and to give you the wisdom not only to understand everything you read, but also to obey it. God’s word tells us:
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you (James 1:5).
So take God at his word and ask. When the fifteen minutes is finished, thank God for the time and for whatever you might have gotten out of the Scriptures that morning.
Then, once you’ve gotten started, keep going. Don’t let distractions and interruptions win; guard this time. Don’t get discouraged when it feels like nothing is happening. You’re building a relationship, and that takes time and intimacy.
This might seem counter-intuitive, but often the more active you are in evangelism, and teaching, and ministering to others, in short the harder that you’re working to help build God’s kingdom, the harder it will be to keep up a daily quite time. But do whatever it takes to keep going. We all want to change the world for Christ, but the one part of the world that is your chief responsibility is your own heart. And, sadly, the news is filled with prominent Christian leaders who fell into scandal because they were so busy with building the kingdom that they neglected their own relationship with the king. Our enemy, the devil, tries hard to persuade us that it’s selfless and noble to prioritize everyone else’s spiritual needs ahead of our own. But once again, that thought is really just our pride. None of us can give anybody anything that we have not first received from God. Remember that Jesus himself took time out of preaching the Gospel and healing the sick to be alone with his Father.
Finally, if you keep up this practice, a time may come when fifteen minutes doesn’t seem like enough. At that point, there’s no reason not to go longer. You now have the experience to be able to judge what you can really do. So add a few minutes and see how it goes. Then, after awhile, you can add a few more if you like. You can change up what you do with that time too; more in depth Bible study, more prayer, or perhaps copying Scripture by hand. Some people even like to sing worship songs. The point is to get closer to Christ, not to follow a program, so let the Holy Spirit lead you to do whatever works best for you.
And if it doesn’t seem like you’re getting any benefit from your quiet times, keep doing them anyway. The kingdom of God starts small and works quietly:
“What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade” (Mark 4:30-32).
We choose to take the time to get closer to Christ, but the power to change our hearts is his, not ours:
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).