Quiet Time- Part One

With Holly back from her recovery trip to the US, I have had the last few days to settle back into my non-mommy routine. First on the list of my to-do’s was to spend lots of in the Word and in prayer- since the time I did get to spend over the past month had been intermittent and often interrupted. Today, for example, I remained at home while the Nelson clan went to the vegetable market (a plastic tent set up outside the BP gas station) in order to do just that.

Sitting down to spend time reading and praying, however, has my mind reeling on questions it has been incessantly asking over the past year or so- why do I spend time doing this? What is its purpose? What is its worth?

An obvious, but maybe less thoughtful answer would be, ‘well, because that’s what Christians do- they prioritize time spent reading the Bible and praying.’ I’ve often been told, and have often been the teller of the analogy that your relationship with God is just like a relationship with a friend- you have to spend time with them in order to get to know them and to show them you care about them. Relationships take time, right? And the best way for Christian to spend time with God is to sit down with a Bible, color-coded pens, a prayer journal and a hot/cold beverage of choice.

Here is the real nagging question in my head- where in Scripture does it say we are to do this? I can find no verse or passage requiring or even recommending this of Christians. And so, the follow-up questions roll on: why do I spend time doing this? What is its purpose? What is its worth?

Especially when the verses I do read about the requirements and recommendations of a Christian sound more like these-

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.
Matthew 7:12

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22:37-39

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
Matthew 28:19

I appeal to you, therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Romans 12:1

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James 1:27

If these are the things required of us, why then do we prioritize quiet time above all else? If we are doing so for the sake of ourselves and even for the sake of our own relationship with God, we have gotten it wrong. You see, if we are actually Christians who have been filled with the spirit of Christ- our ‘selves’ are no longer and can never be the point.

The point of quiet times (and everything else for that matter), must always be God. Scripture is quite clear that the distinguishing factor in each of those requirements and recommendations is that they are not actually possible without God. Not in any way. Not even close. He is the One who brings them about and the One who actually accomplishes them in the heart and life of a Christian. We are completely dependent upon Him to do them.

It is this dependence that brings about the necessity and demand for time spent in the Word and in prayer. It is not a time to show God how much we love Him- it is a time to show our complete and utter dependence upon Him in order to love Him. Just like the Israelites depended on Manna from heaven for their daily physical nourishment (Exodus 16), we are to depend on the Bread of the Word for our own daily spiritual nourishment. Our quiet time should be likened to the time the Israelites spent collecting the Manna from the fields- we go to the Word in order to be fed and prepared. It does not demonstrate our faith- it prepares and propels us to demonstrate our faith.

So next time you sit, I challenge you to think about why you are doing so. Are you doing so because it is what you are supposed to do, or because it is what you must do? Does your life of faith absolutely depend on that time spent with God, or does that time lessen the guilt over the life of faith you do not live? The difference actually seems to make…a big difference.