Elements of a "Quiet Time"

For some, a "quiet time" is what we hear of at camps. It's something apparently the "Christians" do in the morning...kind of like brushing your teeth. For some it sounds like a punishment - "go do your quiet time!" Either way, perhaps it was our fault for really not teaching it well. Not only that, I think we've packaged it too neatly and in one particular way...but let's see how we can change that.

1. The Desire of the Heart: The "who" of quiet time is much more important than the "how." Likewise, the "why" is more important than the "when." For the believer, once Christ becomes a reality, there is a flush of desire to know God and to experience Him. He replaces our desires with thoughts of Him and our hearts are turned towards Him. It's as if we've tasted the goodness of the Lord and we're not satisfied with anything else. He becomes our desire and our heart can't help but to know more of him, to learn about him, to walk with him, and to hear his voice. This is drastically different than "well...i guess i better go learn about God because i have to." No! this is like Psalms 42:1-2, "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" They are never satisfied with where they're at...rather, they'll do anything to receive more of Him. It is no longer a duty but a deep-seated joy. St. Augustine experienced this and writes, "How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose . . ! You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy." (Confessions). This becomes the "who" and the "why." Everything else flows from this understanding.

2. Element of Meditation: There's a time when the believer meditates on a sliver of truth revealed to them by the Word of God. I say sliver because to digest huge chunks of systematic theology eventually turns into a gorging for the soul (if there were such things) and the person gets spiritual bloated or doctrinal indigestion. Allow yourself a sliver of truth to chew on in one sitting. Meditation is the idea of taking something say, "the Gospel" and clearing your mind and thinking through "the Gospel." So for me, I begin to unpack this idea of the Gospel. What does this mean? What is the context of it? How did biblical authors understand it? How did this affect men and women in Christendom? What does it look like for my life right now? What does it NOT mean? What does this mean for my youth? How does the Gospel affect how I disciple? And so on and so forth. It's not easy and it takes practice. The Psalmists understand this and write, "Psalm 119:99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation." Psalm 119:97  Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day." You'll see them say that this "meditation" stays with them all day long. So when they're at the grocery store...they're thinking about the goodness of God's law.

3. Elements of Study: There must be a personal time of taking a hold of God's Word revealed in Scripture and actually studying it. Yes, i mean breaking out your English 101 notes and applying them to the Bible. There needs to be a good portion of your time in deep study of a certain passage and when you walk away from it you can go, "Ok...now I understand the main idea of what the author is saying. I know the context behind it. I know how the biblical principles apply to me & my community today. I'm comfortable enough to teach this to someone." This is hard though. Most people don't want to take the time to actually open their bibles and start asking obvious and hard questions like, "wait...what does this word mean? what in the world is going on in this passage? how does this relate to this part of the bible?" But this is part of actually desiring more of God. You want to study his word in order to find more of Him. The Psalmist would say it like this, "Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statues; and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart, Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it." (Psalm 119:33-35). Also, "In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statues; I will not forget your word." (Psalm 119:14-16). You see, the more you study...the more you understand the character of God. The more you unravel the different layers of God's truth...and in the end this leads to your joy.

4. Elements of Prayer: This is a bit different than meditation. While meditation is thinking through God's truths, prayer is pleading & praising in light of God's truths. A lot of people go, "well i'm just not a good prayer-er" or "I don't know what to pray." Well a good start is that you take what you've studied and what you have meditated on and use that as a basis for prayer. So if you studied in Ephesians 2:1-10 the Gospel, and once you've thought it through...then use it as your theme of your prayers. For awhile now, I was taught by my mentor how to pray a bit more systematically (which you don't have to, but it helps me focus). What you do is that you pray in concentric circles. Which means...i start with myself and then i move a little larger and i pray for my closest relationships (family & significant other). Then i'll move a little larger and for me I pray for my youth leaders. Then i'll move out to pray for my youth and then the church. So the circles get larger and larger. But what i'll do is I have a "theme" to my prayers. So like if i were meditating on the Gospel that day...i'd start my prayer like this, "Lord God, I am humbled that you have saved a sinner like myself. I thank you for sending Jesus to absorb the wrath which was meant for me. Please never let me become proud and fool myself into thinking that I deserve anything...always remind me of your Gospel." and it'll move on to, "Dear Lord God...I thank you that you have chosen to save my family in their own respective ways. I pray that you continue to teach the simple Gospel to my father as he pastors your folk in understanding your good news...." So that's what I do. You don't have to follow that...but this is what helps me. You'll see this throughout the Psalms - Psalm 57:2  I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. Psalm 118:25  Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! This is the theme of the Psalms...the writers, being very real people with very real issues, crying out with honestly and hopefulness that the Lord of all will hear their prayers. We do the same.

So go Christian...place yourself under the discipline of having a "quiet time"...for the sake of your joy and for the vitality of your soul. Find out when is the best time for you to do these 3 elements. You might have to break them up during the day. And remember, this is very much like working out...you get sore at first, but with time and consistency, you'll actually start expecting the pain that comes with growth...and maybe even enjoy it.

Foreign Territory: Part 1

This past Monday i had a chance to attend a bible study. Little did I know it was going to be an all-ladies Beth Moore Bible Study. Wait, let me preface this with saying that i was invited to this by several friends. It's not like me to randomly crash girl bible studies. Well...so the bible study starts at 6:30pm and because church is so close i leave around 6:15. When i get closer i realize that parking is going to be nuts. There's this huge line of cars waiting to get in. I make a right into the street where the church is located but all the lots are full. Thank God...i can just play it off as if i couldn't find a parking spot. So i pull out of my phone to call my friend and be like "Hey, i don't think i can find a spot. I guess i'll meet up with you...." All of the sudden the crossing guard flags me into the nearest parking lot. Awesome. I'm pulling into a parking lot filled with soccer mom cars and i'm thinking "this is crazy Justin. What did you get yourself into now?" I park and get out of the car and immediately find myself swarmed admist handbags and smelly lotion. I follow several thousand ponytails to the church where i'm trying to play it off like i'm there for basketball (but i have this bible in my arm - good one). I get inside and i start frantically calling for my friend. I don't want to be that guy who walks into a girls bible study looking for a bunch of girls. Haha...sounds shady enough. So imagine this...before i get to the door of the sanctuary (First Baptist Church mind you) i hear music going off and i open and bam! it hits me...biggest mistake of my life. I scan the room and there's like 20395810 women there and i'm "that guy" who decides to attend. Thankfully my friends find me right when i get there and thankfully they're sitting relatively high and thankfully i'm invisible (wait, not the last one).

We find our seats and the extremely charismatic worship leader (who looks like Wanda Sykes) is just getting after it. I look around and all these thoughts are going through my head. My first thought was "I wonder if these women are uncomfortable with men here?" I mean, granted i'm not the only guy (thank God) but this is a women's bible study. Surely one of them are thinking "Uuggg, what is he doing here?" But after that thought subsided i just look around at the worship atmosphere and at that moment something came over me. I realize that in heaven, there is a mix of worship - women, men, and angels. But for me to close my eyes and just listen to a chorus of women...i can't wait till that part in heaven when the flying worship leader says "alright ladies...it's your turn". There's something different and i can't explain it. Phrases like "daughters of God" begin to form in my mind and it's pretty awesome. Then i realize that they're doing like this 9-part harmony to Amazing Grace. I was like "yeah...you don't hear this when men sing (well maybe with Boyz II Men)"

I'm still just looking around at what is going on and i spot this one section. The section that i always love to look out for in big worship events. It's the section for the deaf folks i think. They're always near the front and there's always one lady signing to them. I'll tell you why i love looking at this section. They look really happy. I mean you'll find men/women during worship and they'll look like they've had the worst day ever but when you look at this deaf section they're genuinely worshipping. Because i don't think you can fake this stuff you know? You don't hear anything so something inside of you must be churnin'. But what gets me all the time is the thought that in heaven...when that day comes when that section is before the throne of God...and when the heavens begin to worship...they hear it. It blows my earthly mind. For all the years of silent worship in their minds and hearts...now they'll finally be able to hear it! To shout it out with a chorus of people in mighty praise.