Quiet Time Study

by | Apr 30, 2021 | God's Kingdom

My favorite time in the morning is the time I spend with God. I read devotionals, I journal, and I read my Bible and pray. I love to take my time and enjoy the journey of spiritual growth with God. I am sorry to say that my Bible reading often gets pushed aside because I’m not good at getting a lot out of the Bible. I read devotionals because I then get what someone else got out of the Bible.

One day while I was sitting in the office of our pastor in charge of local outreach and care, he started quoting Scripture after Scripture to encourage me, and it gave me such peace hearing those Scriptures. It was like a wave of peace washed over me. On the way home, I thought about how I would love to be able to do that—be able to have Scriptures memorized and ready to encourage someone who needs it. BUT, I would have to be in the Word daily, memorize some and be prepared to apply them to those who are hurting and need peace.

God is good. The following day when I went to use my prayer journal, I was leafing through it and found this list of Bible reading helps. I thought you too might like this tool to help you. As the days grow darker, we will need the Light of God’s Word for our encouragement and to give hope to others.

  1. Find a quiet, comfortable place
  2. Choose a short passage of Scripture
  3. Ask the Holy Spirit to meet you and guide you
  4. Read the passage through to become familiar
  5. Reread the passage more slowly—maybe one time out loud. Sometimes we hear the Scripture differently when we read it out loud. What stands out to you? Write that down.
  6. Be quiet and listen to God. Does anything in this passage speak to you about something in your life? Write that down.
  7. Reread the whole passage and notice how what you wrote in 6. ties into your life and the Scripture. Take some time to journal how the Spirit has guided you.
  8. Read what you have journaled. Talk to God about it. What life experiences or person comes to mind? Remember, the Spirit is guiding you to more depth of understanding and application.
  9. Read the passage a 4th time and again let a word or phrase be a starting point for a conversation with God.
  10. Tell God what you have noticed and ask Him about what you don’t understand. Ask God what He wants you to do with what you have learned. Write it down.
  11. What verse do you want to memorize as a help for yourself or others?