How to have a meaningful quiet time (Part 4)

Follow a Simple Plan

Someone has said: "If you aim at nothing, you are sure to hit it!" To have a meaningful quiet time, you will need a plan or some kind of general outline to follow. The main rule is this: Keep your plan simple. Don't let it detract from your time with Christ. Bob Foster's seven minutes with God suggests a simple plan for beginners.

The following six-point plan is workable for a quiet time of any duration. You will need the following three items for your planned times:

• A bible - a comtemporary translation (not a paraphrase) with good print, preferable without notes.
  
• A notebook - for writing down what the Lord shows you and for making a prayer list. (Bilie Hanks' my spiritual notebook, available from international evangelism association, would be ideal.)
  
• A hymnbook - sometimes you may want to sing in your praise time (see Col. 3:16)

The suggested plan may be remembered through the following words, all beginning with the same letter. Relax, request, reflect and remember, record and request.

1. Wait on God(relax). Be still for a minute, don't come running into God's presence and start talking immediately. Follow God's admonition: "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psa 46:10; Isa 30:15; Isa 40:31). Be quiet for a short while to put yourself into a reverent mood.
   
2. Pray briefly(request). This is not your prayer time, but a short opening prayer to ask God to cleanse your heart and guide you into the time together. Two good passages of Scripture to memorize are:
   
   - "search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psa 139:23-24; 1 John 1:9)
   
   - "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law [the word]" (Psa 119:18; John 16:13)
   
   You must be in tune with the Author of the Book before you can understand the Book.
   
3. Read a section of the Scripture(read). This is where your conversation with God begins. He speaks to you through His Word and you speak with Him in prayer. Read your Bible...

• Slowly. Don't be in a hurry; don't try to read too large an amount; don't race through it.
  
• Repeatedly. Read a passage over and over until you start to picture it in your mind. The reason more people don't get more out of their Bible reading is that they do not read the Scriptures repeatedly.
  
• Without stopping. Don't stop in the middle of a sentence to go off on a tangent and do a doctrinal study. Just read that section for the pure joy of it, allowing God to speak to you. Remember that your goal here is not to gain information, but to feed on the Word and get to know Christ better.
  
• Aloud but quietly. Reading it aloud will improve your concentration if you have that problem. It will also help you understand what you are reading better because you will be both seeing and hearing what you are reading. Read softly enough, however, so that you won't disturb anyone.
  
• Systematically. Read through a book at a time in an orderly method. Do not use the "random dip" method - a passage here, a chapter there, what you like here, an interesting portion there. You'll understand the Bible better if you read it as it was written - a book or letter at a time.
  
• To get a sweep of a book. On some occasions you may want to survey a whole book. In that case you will read it quickly to get a sweep of the total revelation. Then you need not read it slowly or repeatedly.

4. Meditate and memorize (reflect and remember). In order to have the Scriptures speak to you meaningfully, you should meditate on what you are reading and memorize verses that particularly speak to you. Meditation is "seriously comtemplating a thought over and over in your mind". Out of your meditation you might select and memorize a verse that is particularly meaningful to you.

5. Write down what God has shown you(record). When God speaks to you through His Word, record what you have discovered. Writing it down will enable you both to remember what God revealed to you and to check up on your biblical discoveries. Recording what God has shown you is one way of applying what you see in the Scripture that pertains to your life.

6. Have your time of prayer(request). After God has spoken to you through His Word, speak to Him in prayer. This is your part of the conversation with the Lord. To help you remember the parts of prayer, think of the acrostic P.R.A.Y.

P - Praise the Lord. Begin your time of prayer by praising God for who He is and what He has done. The former is adoration, the latter thanksgiving. Adoration is real worship; it is giving God the recognition He alone deserves. So praise God for His greatness, power, majesty, strength, and other attributes. Examples in Scripture of pure praise may be found in Psalm 145 and Revelation 4 - 5. You can worship Him in this way by reading the Psalms (particularly Psalms 146 - 150), reading great hymns of worship, and/or considering the names of God (Chron 16:25 - 29);Psa 50:23; Psa 67:3; Heb 13:5). David gives us a beautiful example of a prayer of adoration:

Praise be to you, O Lord.
God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is Yours.
Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom;
You are exalted as Head over all.
Wealth and honor come from You;
You are the Ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.
Now, our God, we give Your thanks,
and praise your glorious name (Chron 29:10-13)

We also praise the Lord for what He has done for us, particularly in salvation and daily provision. This is developing the prayer of thanksgiving. During any quiet time think of at least 20 things you can thank God for that day (Osa 100:4; Phil 4:5; 1 Thess 5:18)

R - Repent of your sins. This is the prayer of confession. After seeing God in His Holiness(Isa 6:5), we recognise our own sinfulness. Don't just tell God about the sins you have committed, but ask God to help you turn away from them. This is repentance. God already knows your sins; He just wants you to admit them and turn away from them. (Psa 32:51; Prov 28:9; 1 John 1:9)

A - Ask for yourself and others. These are the prayers of petition and intercession. Begin with your own personal requests(petition). Throughout the Bible God urges us to ask for things for ourselves in prayer. These may be our physical needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter; spiritual needs; or help in coping with the difficult problems of life. God loves us, wants to bless us, and wants to give us what we need (matt 7:7-9; mark 11:22-24; John 14:13-14; Heb 4:16). Not only are we to pray for our needs, but God is also pleased to give answers to our desires that are in His will (psa 37:4; 84:11; 145:19; Phil 4:6). It is important to be specific in your praying, and one of the ways to do this effectively is to set up a prayer list. Just take a sheet of paper, rule off four columns, and fills them in. As you begin to fillpage after page of answered prayer, your faith will grow greater and deeper.

Ask for others (intercession). The Bible calls on Christians to intercede for others - to pray one for another. So pray for your family, relatives, and friends; pray for your pastors, church workers, missionaries, and others involved in kingdom work; pray for your leaders, teachers, and employers; pray for people to whom you are witnessing; pray for those whom you do not like or those who do not like you - and watch what happens! ( 1 Sam 12:23; Job 42:10; Rom 15:30; Eph 1:15 - 16)

You might want to divide up the days of the week in your notebook and pray for different people on different days. Get a world map and pray for missionaries by location "around the world".

Y - Yield yourself to God's will. Your prayer time should end with a time of personal recommittment to the Lord. Reaffirm the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life and pledge your submission and obedience for that day to Him (Rom 12:1-2; 14:8-9).

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With the 4 parts in completion, I pray you'll understand how to have a meaningful time with God better now. =) enjoy your quiet time!