“QUIET TIME”
Quality of Life Series
6/22/04
LEADER: SAY NOTHING…then begin to read the following scripture so softly…ALMOST A WHISPER…they have to strain to hear…continue repeating it till you have everyone’s attention and they are asking you to speak louder.
"And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice." (1 Kings 19:11-12)
Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10 KJ)
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Hearing God” EXCERPT
http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon2a/hearing_god.htm
The young man had lost his job and didn't know which way to turn. So he went to see the old preacher.
Pacing about the preacher's study, the young man ranted about his problem. Finally he clenched his fist and shouted, "I've begged God to say something to help me. Tell me, Preacher, why doesn't God answer?"
The old preacher, who sat across the room, spoke something in reply -- something so hushed it was indistinguishable. The young man stepped across the room. "What did you say?" he asked.
The preacher repeated himself, but again in a tone as soft as a whisper. So the young man moved closer until he was leaning on the preacher's chair. "Sorry," he said. "I still didn't hear you." With their heads bent together, the old preacher spoke once more. "God sometimes whispers," he said, "so we will move closer to hear Him."
This time the young man heard and he understood.
We all want God's voice to thunder through the air with the answer to our problem. But God's is the still, small voice. . . the gentle whisper.
Perhaps there's a reason. Nothing draws human focus quite like a whisper. God's whisper means I must stop my ranting and move close to Him, until my head is bent together with His. And then, as I listen, I will find my answer. Better still, I find myself closer to God.
LEADER: Do you have a quiet time with God?
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Andrew Bonar”
Keith L. Brooks, Essential Themes, (Moody Press, Chicago; 1974), p. 6
Andrew Bonar, a great man of prayer, had three rules:
1. Not to speak to any man before speaking to Jesus;
2. Not to do anything with his hands until he had been on his knees;
3. Not to read the papers until he had read his Bible.
Discipleship Journal, 11-12/92
A recent survey of Discipleship Journal readers ranked areas of greatest spiritual challenge to them:
1. Materialism
2. Pride
3. Self-centeredness
4. Laziness
5. (Tie) Anger/Bitterness
6. (Tie) Sexual lust
7. Envy
8. Gluttony
9. Lying
Survey respondents noted:
· Temptations were more potent when they had neglected their time with God (81 percent) and
· When they were physically tired (57 percent).
· Resisting temptation was accomplished by prayer (84 percent),
· Avoiding compromising situations (76 percent),
· Bible study (66 percent), and
· Being accountable to someone (52 percent).
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Tuned In “
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/odb/odb-11-03-02.shtml OUR DAILY BREAD 11/3/02
Hear this now, O foolish people, . . . who have ears and hear not. Jeremiah 5:21
One of my sons was a master at tuning out what he didn't want to hear. In church, his mind was a million miles away. He could tell you the number of panels in the ceiling and how many seats were in the choir loft. Many times I heard my wife say to him in the midst of a scolding, "Are you listening to me?"
We too are often guilty of tuning out what we don't want to hear, even messages from God. In his book Christian Reflections, C. S. Lewis says that a person who is determined to ignore God's voice will follow this advice: "Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track. Concentrate on money, sex, status, health, and (above all) your own grievances. Keep the radio on. Live in a crowd."
When we do something wrong, that's one time when we especially need to listen to God's voice. But often, in our stubbornness, we make sure we don't. The prophet Jeremiah spoke to those kinds of individuals, saying, "O foolish people, . . . who have ears and hear not . . . . This people has a defiant and rebellious heart" (Jeremiah 5:21,23).
Instead of closing your ears to God, read the Bible and pray to Him regularly. Take time to think about God and His many blessings. That's how to stay tuned in! —Dave Egner
Thinking It Over
How good is your relationship with the Lord?
Are you listening to Him?
Are there sins you need to confess?
What can you do to draw closer to Him?
God speaks to those who take time to listen.
“I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of private devotions starves the soul. It grows lean and faint.” Following a failure in Parliament, he remarked that his problems may have been due to the fact that he spent less and less time in his private devotions in which he could earnestly seek the will of God. He concluded, “God allowed me to stumble.”
William Wilberforce
Christian statesman-Great Britain - late 18th - early 19th centuries
http://www.backtothebible.org/knowgod/step3.htm
A six-step suggested plan for your quiet time: First begin with silence, then:
(CALL OUT NUMBERS)
1. Start with prayer. Ask God to prepare you to meet with Him. If there is something in your life that you know displeases Him, confess it. Let Him forgive you so that nothing will hinder your communion together.
2. Read a specific passage of Scripture--perhaps a chapter or two. If you are not very familiar with the Bible, you may wish to start with the New Testament. Many people think that the Gospel of John is a good place to start. Perhaps you would enjoy reading one or two of the Psalms every day.
3. Meditate on it for a while after you have read a passage. Think about what you read, and ask yourself what it means. What does God want you to do? Ask the Lord to reveal himself and His will to you through His Word.
4. Then read the passage again. Reading it the second time usually brings to light things you didn't notice the first time. This is a great way to learn on your own; for as you read, you'll have God's Holy Spirit as your teacher (John 14:26).
5. Write down questions about the passage as you read. It is good to keep a journal of things you learn and questions you might have. Later you can learn the answers from someone who knows the subject or from Bible commentaries.
6. Finally, pray again. Thank God for sending His Son to die for you. Thank Him for giving you His Word (the Bible) because without it you would have no answers to life's big questions. Thank Him for teaching you from the passage you have just read.
http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon6/meditate_on_it_day_and_night.htm
“The first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day.”
Henry Ward Beecher 1813–1887,
preacher, lecturer, writer, and reformer
"For me, the solitude of early morning is the most precious time of day. There is a quiet serenity that disappears a few hours later with the hustle and bustle of the multitude. Early morning hours symbolize for me a rebirth; the anxieties, frustrations, and woes of the preceding day seem to have been washed away during the night. God has granted another day of life, another chance to do something worthwhile for humanity."
Michael E. Debakey, heart surgeon
I’m reminded of an old hymn that we used to sing, "Meet Him in the Morning Each Recurring Day." My father set the example for us in that he got up at five o'clock in the morning and I do the same thing when I'm at home. It's impossible sometimes to keep a schedule when we are traveling. But when we are at home, we go to bed usually before nine o'clock. Sometimes we go to bed at 8:30 and just read in bed. But almost always we turn the light off at nine o'clock. People say, "What a boring life you must lead. You never go any place? You never do anything?" And of course, we don't feel the least bit bored; we feel greatly blessed.
But as my father would always say to people that said to him, "How in the world do you ever get up at five o'clock?" he would say, "You have to start the night before!" It's that simple!
HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Samuel 3:10
Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Quietude” Hymn by Harold Green 1871-1930
Speak, Lord, in the stillness
While I wait on Thee;
Hushed my heart to listen,
In expectancy.
Speak, O blessèd Master,
In this quiet hour,
Let me see Thy face, Lord,
Feel Thy touch of power.
I met God in the morning,
When my day was at its best
And His presence came like sunrise,
Like a glory in my breast.
All day long the Presence lingered;
All day long He stayed with me;
And we sailed in perfect calmness
O’er a very troubled sea.
Other ships were blown and battered,
Other ships were sore distressed,
But the winds that seemed to drive them
Brought to us a peace and rest.
Then I thought of other mornings,
With a keen remorse of mind.
When I too had loosed the moorings
With the Presence left behind.
So, I think I know the secret,
Learned from many a troubled way;
You must seek Him in the morning
If you want Him through the day.
“Carry some quiet around inside thee,” the well-known Quaker, George Fox, used to say. “Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit, from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of God to turn thy mind to the Lord from whence cometh life; whereby thou mayest receive the strength and power to allay all storms and tempests.”
Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer, since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power of judgment…Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller, and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and lack of harmony or proportion is more readily seen.” These are the words of Leonardo de Vinci, and no idler he; he excelled as a painter, sculptor, poet, architect, engineer, city planner, scientist, inventor, anatomist, military genius, and philosopher.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Mark 1:29-39
And immediately after they came out of the
synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
Now Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever; and immediately they
spoke to Jesus about her. And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by
the hand, and the fever left her, and she waited on them. When evening came,
after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill and those who
were demon-possessed. And the whole city had gathered at the door.
And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons;
and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was. In
the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and
went away to a secluded place, and was praying there. Simon and his companions
searched for Him; they found Him, and said to Him, "Everyone is looking for
You." He said to them, "Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I
may preach there also; for that is what I came for." And He went into their
synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Lure Of Convenience”
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/odb/odb-01-22-02.shtml OUR DAILY BREAD 1/22/02
Having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. Mark 1:35
Don't have time to eat breakfast? Not even a bowl of cereal or a slice of toast? No problem. Just unwrap a "breakfast bar" made from one of many popular cereal products and eat it on your way to work or school. It may not be the most nourishing meal, but it's convenient, and that seems to be what people want most today. In the US alone, more than 30,000 new beverage, health, beauty, household, and pet products appeared in just one year. The most popular of them emphasized convenience.
In today's world, it's easy to become hooked on the "quick and easy" approach to almost everything. But it's dangerous to base our spiritual life on what is most convenient. Even this booklet can become a snare if we read only the interesting stories and fail to read the Scriptures and take time to pray.
Today's Bible reading reveals that in the midst of teaching, healing, traveling, and preaching, Jesus never allowed the pace of life to deter Him from spending time with His heavenly Father. Mark wrote, "In the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed" (Mark 1:35).
Today, let's resist the lure of convenience and take time to be alone with God. (DCM)
In the stillness of the morning,
Before a busy day of care,
How sweet to be alone with God
Through His holy Word and prayer. —Anderson
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Jesus Way”
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/odb/odb-11-06-02.shtml Our Daily Bread 11/6/02
He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. —Mark 1:35b
Ever have one of those hectic days when you need more time than the clock offers? When everyone is after you for help and your tasks seem endless? You might wonder: Did Jesus ever struggle like this? And if so, how did He handle it?
Consider the day in Jesus' life recorded in Mark 1:21-34. It began with a visit to the synagogue to teach, which He did with authority. Then things got rough. A demon-possessed man started shouting at Jesus. Calmly but sternly the Teacher cast out the demon.
When Jesus left the synagogue, He and His friends went to Peter's house. But He couldn't rest; Peter's mother-in-law was sick and needed His healing touch. Later, the entire town gathered outside so Jesus could heal more sick people and cast out more demons. It must have been a tiring day.
How did Jesus respond? Did He take the next day off? Head for the cool mountain streams of Caesarea Philippi? No, the next day He got up before sunrise, found a solitary place, and prayed (v.35). He sought the rejuvenating power of His Father's presence.
How do you handle a tough day? Get alone with God and seek His help. Start your day the Jesus way. (Dave Branon)
When you feel the tension mounting,
And across the busy day
Only gloomy clouds are drifting,
As you start to worry—pray! —Anon.
LEADER: “Calm Under Pressure” EXCERPT
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/odb/odb-05-25-02.shtml
In quietness and trust is your strength. Isaiah 30:15b
Let's learn the principle set forth in Isaiah 30:15. In quietness and confidence before God we find the real source of strength to stay calm. (RWD )
We oft grow weary in life's race,
We're driven by its hurried pace;
But when we wait upon the Lord,
His strength becomes our sure reward.
—D. De Haan
Never take on more work than you have time to pray about.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Time to Be Quiet”
http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon2d/time_to_be_quiet.htm
Popular author and speaker Ken Blanchard sometimes tells a powerful story about Red, a corporate president who, as a young man, learned an important and life-changing lesson. Red had just graduated from college and was offered an opportunity to interview for a position with a firm in New York City. As the job involved moving his wife and small child from Texas to New York, he wanted to talk the decision over with someone before accepting it, but his father had died and Red did not feel he had anybody to turn to. On impulse, he telephoned an old friend of the family, someone his father had suggested he turn to if he ever needed good advice.
The friend said he would be happy to give Red advice about the job offer under the condition that the young man take whatever advice he was given. "You might want to think about that for a couple of days before hearing my suggestion," he was told.
Two days later Red called the man back and said he was ready to listen to his counsel. "Go on to New York City and have the interview," the older man said. "But I want you to go up there in a very special way. I want you to go on a train and I want you to get a private compartment. Don't take anything to write with, anything to listen to or anything to read, and don't talk to anybody except to put in your order for dinner with the porter. When you get to New York call me and I will tell you what to do next."
Red followed the advice precisely. The trip took two days. As he had brought along nothing to do and kept entirely to himself, he quickly became bored. It soon dawned on him what was happening.
He was being forced into quiet time. He could do nothing but think and meditate. About three hours outside New York City he broke the rules and asked for a pencil and paper. Until the train stopped, he wrote -- the culmination of all his meditation.
Red called the family friend from the train station. "I know what you wanted," he said. "You wanted me to think. And now I know what to do. I don't need anymore help."
"I didn't think you would, Red," came the reply. "Good luck."
Now, years later, Red heads a corporation in California. And he has always made it a policy to take a couple of days to be alone. He goes where there is no phone, no television and no people. He goes to be alone; to meditate and to listen.
In a letter to his friends, hymn writer Wendell P. Loveless related this story:
One evening a speaker who was visiting the United States wanted to make a telephone call. He entered a phone booth, but found it to be different from those in his own country. It was beginning to get dark, so he had difficulty finding the number in the directory. He noticed that there was a light in the ceiling, but he didn’t know how to turn it on. As he tried again to find the number in the fading twilight, passers by noted his plight and said, “Sir, if you want to turn the light on, you have to shut the door.” To the visitor’s amazement and satisfaction, when he closed the door, the booth was filled with light. He soon located the number and completed the call.
In a similar way, when we draw aside in a quiet place to pray, we must block out our busy world and open our hearts to the Father. Our darkened world of disappointments and trials will then be illuminated. We will enter into communion with God, we will sense His presence, and we will be assured of His provision for us. Our Lord often went to be alone with the Heavenly Father. Sometimes it was after a busy day of preaching and healing, as in today’s Scripture reading. At other times, it was before making a major decision.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Quiet Hour”
Spokesman-Review, January 6, 1985, p. E3
Bakersfield, Calif. (AP)—The telephone keeps ringing; other workers keep asking questions; the boss schedules another meeting. It’s hard to work or think efficiently surrounded by such normal but distracting interruptions, so a “quiet hour” has been set aside for accounting workers at Contel Service Corp., Western region headquarters for Continental Telephone Co.
They reserve 8 to 9 a.m. to work on long-term projects, research, reports or other creative work that requires concentration.
The quiet hour,” officially called “Achieving Maximum Potential,” was started this fall because the accounting department staff works in a large open area, making it hard t sneak into a quiet corner to concentrate.
“It’s like an invisible force field we can create to allow us one hour of quiet time, said Ted Carrier, Contel’s staff manager for general accounting.
“The managers can close their doors to get a quiet moment,” added Carrier, chief architect of the project. “The rest of us don’t have offices and don’t have doors we can close.”
The Bakersfield office is Contel’s headquarters for 10 Western states, and employees throughout the region are accepting the idea that they can’t telephone the accounting department between 8 and 9 a.m., Carrier said.
“During AMP hour, employees aren’t involved in meetings, errands, running printers or other distracting activity,” Carrier said.
LEADER: Continental Telephone isn’t the only company with such a policy:
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Biggest Enemy of Creativity”
Management Digest, Vol. 1, No. 4 (July, 1989)
One hour of quiet concentration in any business can be worth two hours of normal working time, according to the management of a Denver business, quoted in a Success magazine item.
“Interruptions are the biggest enemy of creativity,” says Gary Desmond, a principal of Hoover Berg Desmond (HBD) a $30 million a year architectural firm. To minimize the inevitable interruptions in the firm’s large, open offices, Desmond came up with the idea which is more familiar with kids than corporations—the quiet hour. Every morning from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., no one at HBD including the principals, may communicate with anyone else inside or outside the office. “Basically, we’re sitting at our desks for that hour,” says Desmond, who makes allowances for emergency phone calls. “We try to focus totally on our clients’ designs.” Initially, HBD’s 25 employees balked at the concept. “Management had to explain that this was not a response to bad work habits. It was a vehicle to make us concentrate even more rigorously,” says Desmond, although he now concedes that quiet hour is an excellent crack-the-whip technique too. But what do the clients think of it? At first, the firm chose to hide the policy from the outside world.
“Businesses that found out used to ask if we served milk and cookies at quiet hour,” says Desmond. “But we stuck to it and now those same firms respect how much we’re trying to accomplish every morning.” Quiet hour has worked out so well, in fact, that HBD wants to start a second one, perhaps in midafternoon. “Our employees all wish they had more quiet hours,” says Desmond. “It gives us what most businesses need so badly, a little time to think.”
LEADER: Some businesses start their day with quiet time before the rush of phone calls and clients…our doctor in Dallas and his staff gathered early every morning for prayer and sharing.
By J. Wilbur Chapan, "Present Day Parables."
In Wellesley College a special feature of the daily life of the household is the morning and evening ''silent time." Both at the beginning and closing of the day, there is a brief period, marked by the strokes of a bell, in which all the house is quiet. Every pupil is in her room. There is no conversation. No step is heard in the corridors. The whole great house with its thronging life is quiet as if all its hundreds of inmates were sleeping. There is no positively prescribed way of spending these silent minutes in the rooms, but it is understood that all whose hearts so incline them shall devote the time to devotional reading, meditation, and prayer. At least, the design of establishing this period of quiet as part of the daily life of school, is to give opportunity for such devotional exercises, and by its solemn hush to suggest to all the fitness, the helpfulness and the need of such periods of communion with God. The bell that calls for silence, also calls to thought and prayer; and even the most indifferent must be affected by its continual recurrence.
Every true Christian life needs its daily "silent times," when all shall be still, when the busy activity of other hours shall cease, and when the heart, in holy hush, shall commune with God. One of the greatest needs in Christian life in these days is more devotion. Ours is not an age of prayer so much as an age of work. The tendency is to action rather than to worship to busy toil rather than to quiet sitting at the Saviour's feet to commune with him.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Exodus 34:2
"So be ready by morning, and come up in
the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the
mountain.”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Luke 6:12
It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.
Norman Shirk, April 10, 1981, KQ (Dallas Seminary)
Let me meet you on the mountain, Lord,
Just once.
You wouldn’t have to burn a whole bush.
Just a few smoking branches
And I would surely be …your Moses.
Let me meet you on the water, Lord,
Just once.
It wouldn’t have to be on White Rock Lake.
Just on a puddle after the annual Dallas rain
And I would surely be…your Peter.
Let me meet you on the road, Lord,
Just once.
You wouldn’t have to blind me on North Central Expressway.
Just a few bright lights on the way to chapel
And I would surely be…your Paul.
Let me meet you, Lord,
Just once.
Anywhere. Anytime.
Just meeting you in the Word is so hard sometimes
Must I always be…your Thomas?
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Psalm 145:15-19
The eyes of all look to You, And You give them
their food in due time.
You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
The LORD is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds.
The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them.
LEADER: “A Place to Grow” EXCERPT
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/odb/odb-03-06-01.shtml
Your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Matthew 6:18
God always rewards hidden spirituality. He hears every private prayer; He recognizes every secret gift; He notes and richly rewards each unseen act of devotion. You will be strengthened, and the Lord will make you all that He wants you to be.
The bottom line is this: The things that are done for God's eyes are the things that matter. So, settle into that secret place where God alone sees and knows. (DHR)
Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York http://www.bible.org/illus/p-q/p-q-161.htm#TopOfPage
Far from the world, O Lord, I flee,
From strife and tumult far;
From scenes where Satan wages still
His most successful war.
The calm retreat, the silent shade,
With prayer and praise agree;
And seem, by Thy sweet bounty made,
For those who follow Thee.
There if Thy Spirit touch the soul,
And grace her mean abode,
Oh, with what peace, and joy, and love,
She communes with her God!
There like the nightingale she pours
Her solitary lays;
Nor asks a witness of her song,
Nor thirsts for human praise.
Author and Guardian of my life,
Sweet source of light Divine,
And,—all harmonious names in one,—
My Saviour! Thou art mine!
What thanks I owe Thee, and what love,
A boundless, endless store,
Shall echo through the realms above,
When time shall be no more.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Psalm 1:1-2
How blessed is the man who does not walk in
the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the
seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and
night.
LEADER: “Well Worn Path”
Today in the Word, June 29, 1992
Early African converts to Christianity were earnest and regular in private devotions. Each one reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out his heart to God. Over time the paths to these places became well worn. As a result, if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, “Brother, the grass grows on your path.”
LEADER: Is the grass growing on your path…is your Bible growing dust…how are your knees….your ears….can you hear the whisper of God?
COMMENTS:
STOP AT 10 TILL FOR
PRAYER REQUESTS AND PRAISES:
CUT AND DISTRIBUTE FOR READING:
“Hearing God”
The young man had lost his job and didn't know which way to turn. So he went to see the old preacher.
Pacing about the preacher's study, the young man ranted about his problem. Finally he clenched his fist and shouted, "I've begged God to say something to help me. Tell me, Preacher, why doesn't God answer?"
The old preacher, who sat across the room, spoke something in reply -- something so hushed it was indistinguishable. The young man stepped across the room. "What did you say?" he asked.
The preacher repeated himself, but again in a tone as soft as a whisper. So the young man moved closer until he was leaning on the preacher's chair. "Sorry," he said. "I still didn't hear you." With their heads bent together, the old preacher spoke once more. "God sometimes whispers," he said, "so we will move closer to hear Him."
This time the young man heard and he understood.
We all want God's voice to thunder through the air with the answer to our problem. But God's is the still, small voice. . . the gentle whisper.
Perhaps there's a reason. Nothing draws human focus quite like a whisper. God's whisper means I must stop my ranting and move close to Him, until my head is bent together with His. And then, as I listen, I will find my answer. Better still, I find myself closer to God.
“Andrew Bonar”
Andrew Bonar, a great man of prayer, had three rules:
1. Not to speak to any man before speaking to Jesus;
2. Not to do anything with his hands until he had been on his knees;
3. Not to read the papers until he had read his Bible.
“I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of private devotions starves the soul. It grows lean and faint.” Following a failure in Parliament, he remarked that his problems may have been due to the fact that he spent less and less time in his private devotions in which he could earnestly seek the will of God. He concluded, “God allowed me to stumble.”
William Wilberforce, Christian statesman-Great Britain - late 18th - early 19th centuries
1. Start with prayer. Ask God to prepare you to meet with Him. If there is something in your life that you know displeases Him, confess it. Let Him forgive you so that nothing will hinder your communion together.
2. Read a specific passage of Scripture--perhaps a chapter or two. If you are not very familiar with the Bible, you may wish to start with the New Testament. Many people think that the Gospel of John is a good place to start. Perhaps you would enjoy reading one or two of the Psalms every day.
3. Meditate on it for a while after you have read a passage. Think about what you read, and ask yourself what it means. What does God want you to do? Ask the Lord to reveal himself and His will to you through His Word.
4. Then read the passage again. Reading it the second time usually brings to light things you didn't notice the first time. This is a great way to learn on your own; for as you read, you'll have God's Holy Spirit as your teacher (John 14:26).
5. Write down questions about the passage as you read. It is good to keep a journal of things you learn and questions you might have. Later you can learn the answers from someone who knows the subject or from Bible commentaries.
6. Finally, pray again. Thank God for sending His Son to die for you. Thank Him for giving you His Word (the Bible) because without it you would have no answers to life's big questions. Thank Him for teaching you from the passage you have just read.
“Tuned In “
Hear this now, O foolish people, . . . who have ears and hear not. Jeremiah 5:21
One of my sons was a master at tuning out what he didn't want to hear. In church, his mind was a million miles away. He could tell you the number of panels in the ceiling and how many seats were in the choir loft. Many times I heard my wife say to him in the midst of a scolding, "Are you listening to me?"
We too are often guilty of tuning out what we don't want to hear, even messages from God. In his book Christian Reflections, C. S. Lewis says that a person who is determined to ignore God's voice will follow this advice: "Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track. Concentrate on money, sex, status, health, and (above all) your own grievances. Keep the radio on. Live in a crowd."
When we do something wrong, that's one time when we especially need to listen to God's voice. But often, in our stubbornness, we make sure we don't. The prophet Jeremiah spoke to those kinds of individuals, saying, "O foolish people, . . . who have ears and hear not . . . . This people has a defiant and rebellious heart" (Jeremiah 5:21,23).
Instead of closing your ears to God, read the Bible and pray to Him regularly. Take time to think about God and His many blessings. That's how to stay tuned in! —Dave Egner
Thinking It Over
How good is your relationship with the Lord?
Are you listening to Him?
Are there sins you need to confess?
What can you do to draw closer to Him?
God speaks to those who take time to listen.
“The first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day.”
Henry Ward Beecher 1813–1887, preacher, lecturer, writer, and reformer
"For me, the solitude of early morning is the most precious time of day. There is a quiet serenity that disappears a few hours later with the hustle and bustle of the multitude. Early morning hours symbolize for me a rebirth; the anxieties, frustrations, and woes of the preceding day seem to have been washed away during the night. God has granted another day of life, another chance to do something worthwhile for humanity."
Michael E. Debakey, heart surgeon
I’m reminded of an old hymn that we used to sing, "Meet Him in the Morning Each Recurring Day." My father set the example for us in that he got up at five o'clock in the morning and I do the same thing when I'm at home. It's impossible sometimes to keep a schedule when we are traveling. But when we are at home, we go to bed usually before nine o'clock. Sometimes we go to bed at 8:30 and just read in bed. But almost always we turn the light off at nine o'clock. People say, "What a boring life you must lead. You never go any place? You never do anything?" And of course, we don't feel the least bit bored; we feel greatly blessed.
But as my father would always say to people that said to him, "How in the world do you ever get up at five o'clock?" he would say, "You have to start the night before!" It's that simple!
1 Samuel 3:10
“Carry some quiet around inside thee,” the well-known Quaker, George Fox, used to say. “Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit, from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of God to turn thy mind to the Lord from whence cometh life; whereby thou mayest receive the strength and power to allay all storms and tempests.”
“Quietude” Hymn by Harold Green 1871-1930
Speak, Lord, in the stillness
While I wait on Thee;
Hushed my heart to listen,
In expectancy.
Speak, O blessèd Master,
In this quiet hour,
Let me see Thy face, Lord,
Feel Thy touch of power.
I met God in the morning,
When my day was at its best
And His presence came like sunrise,
Like a glory in my breast.
All day long the Presence lingered;
All day long He stayed with me;
And we sailed in perfect calmness
O’er a very troubled sea.
Other ships were blown and battered,
Other ships were sore distressed,
But the winds that seemed to drive them
Brought to us a peace and rest.
Then I thought of other mornings,
With a keen remorse of mind.
When I too had loosed the moorings
With the Presence left behind.
So, I think I know the secret,
Learned from many a troubled way;
You must seek Him in the morning
If you want Him through the day.
Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer, since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power of judgment…Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller, and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and lack of harmony or proportion is more readily seen.” These are the words of Leonardo de Vinci, and no idler he; he excelled as a painter, sculptor, poet, architect, engineer, city planner, scientist, inventor, anatomist, military genius, and philosopher.
Mark 1:29-39
“The Lure of Convenience”
Having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. Mark 1:35
Don't have time to eat breakfast? Not even a bowl of cereal or a slice of toast? No problem. Just unwrap a "breakfast bar" made from one of many popular cereal products and eat it on your way to work or school. It may not be the most nourishing meal, but it's convenient, and that seems to be what people want most today. In the US alone, more than 30,000 new beverage, health, beauty, household, and pet products appeared in just one year. The most popular of them emphasized convenience.
In today's world, it's easy to become hooked on the "quick and easy" approach to almost everything. But it's dangerous to base our spiritual life on what is most convenient. Even this booklet can become a snare if we read only the interesting stories and fail to read the Scriptures and take time to pray.
Today's Bible reading reveals that in the midst of teaching, healing, traveling, and preaching, Jesus never allowed the pace of life to deter Him from spending time with His heavenly Father. Mark wrote, "In the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed" (Mark 1:35).
Today, let's resist the lure of convenience and take time to be alone with God. (DCM)
In the stillness of the morning,
Before a busy day of care,
How sweet to be alone with God
Through His holy Word and prayer. —Anderson
“The Jesus Way”
He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. —Mark 1:35b
Ever have one of those hectic days when you need more time than the clock offers? When everyone is after you for help and your tasks seem endless? You might wonder: Did Jesus ever struggle like this? And if so, how did He handle it?
Consider the day in Jesus' life recorded in Mark 1:21-34. It began with a visit to the synagogue to teach, which He did with authority. Then things got rough. A demon-possessed man started shouting at Jesus. Calmly but sternly the Teacher cast out the demon. When Jesus left the synagogue, He and His friends went to Peter's house. But He couldn't rest; Peter's mother-in-law was sick and needed His healing touch. Later, the entire town gathered outside so Jesus could heal more sick people and cast out more demons. It must have been a tiring day.
How did Jesus respond? Did He take the next day off? Head for the cool mountain streams of Caesarea Philippi? No, the next day He got up before sunrise, found a solitary place, and prayed (v.35). He sought the rejuvenating power of His Father's presence.
How do you handle a tough day? Get alone with God and seek His help. Start your day the Jesus way. (Dave Branon)
When you feel the tension mounting,
And across the busy day
Only gloomy clouds are drifting,
As you start to worry—pray! —Anon.
“Time to Be Quiet”
Popular author and speaker Ken Blanchard sometimes tells a powerful story about Red, a corporate president who, as a young man, learned an important and life-changing lesson. Red had just graduated from college and was offered an opportunity to interview for a position with a firm in New York City. As the job involved moving his wife and small child from Texas to New York, he wanted to talk the decision over with someone before accepting it, but his father had died and Red did not feel he had anybody to turn to. On impulse, he telephoned an old friend of the family, someone his father had suggested he turn to if he ever needed good advice.
The friend said he would be happy to give Red advice about the job offer under the condition that the young man take whatever advice he was given. "You might want to think about that for a couple of days before hearing my suggestion," he was told.
Two days later Red called the man back and said he was ready to listen to his counsel. "Go on to New York City and have the interview," the older man said. "But I want you to go up there in a very special way. I want you to go on a train and I want you to get a private compartment. Don't take anything to write with, anything to listen to or anything to read, and don't talk to anybody except to put in your order for dinner with the porter. When you get to New York call me and I will tell you what to do next."
Red followed the advice precisely. The trip took two days. As he had brought along nothing to do and kept entirely to himself, he quickly became bored. It soon dawned on him what was happening.
He was being forced into quiet time. He could do nothing but think and meditate. About three hours outside New York City he broke the rules and asked for a pencil and paper. Until the train stopped, he wrote -- the culmination of all his meditation.
Red called the family friend from the train station. "I know what you wanted," he said. "You wanted me to think. And now I know what to do. I don't need anymore help."
"I didn't think you would, Red," came the reply. "Good luck."
Now, years later, Red heads a corporation in California. And he has always made it a policy to take a couple of days to be alone. He goes where there is no phone, no television and no people. He goes to be alone; to meditate and to listen.
Psalm 145:15-19
Exodus 34:2
Luke 6:12
Psalm 1:1-2
In a letter to his friends, hymn writer Wendell P. Loveless related this story:
One evening a speaker who was visiting the United States wanted to make a telephone call. He entered a phone booth, but found it to be different from those in his own country. It was beginning to get dark, so he had difficulty finding the number in the directory. He noticed that there was a light in the ceiling, but he didn’t know how to turn it on. As he tried again to find the number in the fading twilight, passers by noted his plight and said, “Sir, if you want to turn the light on, you have to shut the door.” To the visitor’s amazement and satisfaction, when he closed the door, the booth was filled with light. He soon located the number and completed the call.
In a similar way, when we draw aside in a quiet place to pray, we must block out our busy world and open our hearts to the Father. Our darkened world of disappointments and trials will then be illuminated. We will enter into communion with God, we will sense His presence, and we will be assured of His provision for us. Our Lord often went to be alone with the Heavenly Father. Sometimes it was after a busy day of preaching and healing, as in today’s Scripture reading. At other times, it was before making a major decision.
“The Quiet Hour”
Bakersfield, Calif. (AP)—The telephone keeps ringing; other workers keep asking questions; the boss schedules another meeting. It’s hard to work or think efficiently surrounded by such normal but distracting interruptions, so a “quiet hour” has been set aside for accounting workers at Contel Service Corp., Western region headquarters for Continental Telephone Co.
They reserve 8 to 9 a.m. to work on long-term projects, research, reports or other creative work that requires concentration.
The quiet hour,” officially called “Achieving Maximum Potential,” was started this fall because the accounting department staff works in a large open area, making it hard t sneak into a quiet corner to concentrate.
“It’s like an invisible force field we can create to allow us one hour of quiet time, said Ted Carrier, Contel’s staff manager for general accounting.
“The managers can close their doors to get a quiet moment,” added Carrier, chief architect of the project. “The rest of us don’t have offices and don’t have doors we can close.”
The Bakersfield office is Contel’s headquarters for 10 Western states, and employees throughout the region are accepting the idea that they can’t telephone the accounting department between 8 and 9 a.m., Carrier said.
“During AMP hour, employees aren’t involved in meetings, errands, running printers or other distracting activity,” Carrier said.
“The Biggest Enemy of Creativity”
One hour of quiet concentration in any business can be worth two hours of normal working time, according to the management of a Denver business, quoted in a Success magazine item.
“Interruptions are the biggest enemy of creativity,” says Gary Desmond, a principal of Hoover Berg Desmond (HBD) a $30 million a year architectural firm. To minimize the inevitable interruptions in the firm’s large, open offices, Desmond came up with the idea which is more familiar with kids than corporations—the quiet hour. Every morning from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., no one at HBD including the principals, may communicate with anyone else inside or outside the office. “Basically, we’re sitting at our desks for that hour,” says Desmond, who makes allowances for emergency phone calls. “We try to focus totally on our clients’ designs.” Initially, HBD’s 25 employees balked at the concept. “Management had to explain that this was not a response to bad work habits. It was a vehicle to make us concentrate even more rigorously,” says Desmond, although he now concedes that quiet hour is an excellent crack-the-whip technique too. But what do the clients think of it? At first, the firm chose to hide the policy from the outside world.
“Businesses that found out used to ask if we served milk and cookies at quiet hour,” says Desmond. “But we stuck to it and now those same firms respect how much we’re trying to accomplish every morning.” Quiet hour has worked out so well, in fact, that HBD wants to start a second one, perhaps in midafternoon. “Our employees all wish they had more quiet hours,” says Desmond. “It gives us what most businesses need so badly, a little time to think.”
In Wellesley College a special feature of the daily life of the household is the morning and evening ''silent time." Both at the beginning and closing of the day, there is a brief period, marked by the strokes of a bell, in which all the house is quiet. Every pupil is in her room. There is no conversation. No step is heard in the corridors. The whole great house with its thronging life is quiet as if all its hundreds of inmates were sleeping. There is no positively prescribed way of spending these silent minutes in the rooms, but it is understood that all whose hearts so incline them shall devote the time to devotional reading, meditation, and prayer. At least, the design of establishing this period of quiet as part of the daily life of school, is to give opportunity for such devotional exercises, and by its solemn hush to suggest to all the fitness, the helpfulness and the need of such periods of communion with God. The bell that calls for silence, also calls to thought and prayer; and even the most indifferent must be affected by its continual recurrence.
Every true Christian life needs its daily "silent times," when all shall be still, when the busy activity of other hours shall cease, and when the heart, in holy hush, shall commune with God. One of the greatest needs in Christian life in these days is more devotion. Ours is not an age of prayer so much as an age of work. The tendency is to action rather than to worship to busy toil rather than to quiet sitting at the Saviour's feet to commune with him.
Let me meet you on the water, Lord,
Just once.
It wouldn’t have to be on White Rock Lake.
Just on a puddle after the annual Dallas rain
And I would surely be…your Peter.
Let me meet you on the road, Lord,
Just once.
You wouldn’t have to blind me on North Central Expressway.
Just a few bright lights on the way to chapel
And I would surely be…your Paul.
Let me meet you, Lord,
Just once.
Anywhere. Anytime.
Just meeting you in the Word is so hard sometimes
Must I always be…your Thomas?
The calm retreat, the silent shade,
With prayer and praise agree;
And seem, by Thy sweet bounty made,
For those who follow Thee.
There if Thy Spirit touch the soul,
And grace her mean abode,
Oh, with what peace, and joy, and love,
She communes with her God!
There like the nightingale she pours
Her solitary lays;
Nor asks a witness of her song,
Nor thirsts for human praise.
Author and Guardian of my life,
Sweet source of light Divine,
And,—all harmonious names in one,—
My Saviour! Thou art mine!
What thanks I owe Thee, and what love,
A boundless, endless store,
Shall echo through the realms above,
When time shall be no more.