An Easy Way to Do Your Quiet Time
My wife loves Elisabeth Elliot. So, when we celebrated her birthday a bit ago, her parents bought my wife one of Elliot’s books called “Keep a Quiet Heart.” As I often do when I encounter a new book, I skimmed through the contents to see if anything jumped out at me. The book itself is a collection of short topical sections. It wasn’t long before I stumbled upon a section that I found particularly helpful. The section is called “Hints for Quiet Time” and I thought that Elliot gave an excellent and easy way to do your quiet time which I want to share today.
Read a few verses, a paragraph, or a chapter. Then ask, What does this passage teach me about: (1) God, (2) Jesus Christ, (3) the Holy Spirit, (4) myself, (5) sins to confess or avoid, (6) commands to obey, (7) what Christian love is?
From “Keep a Quiet Heart” by Elisabeth Elliot
What the quote means
In the small, page-long section on quiet time, Elliot emphasizes the importance of having a daily quiet time with the Lord. In particular, Elliot wants to help out busy parents who know they need to have a quiet time, but are not sure how to fit it into their busy schedule. Elliot recommends doing your quiet time in the morning, working through a book of the Bible, and answering the questions she gives above.
The questions Elliot gives are simple, but they cover a lot of ground. You first see if their is anything the passage teaches you about any of the members of the Trinity. Then, you ask what the passage teaches about how you should live your own life. Simply put, the questions boil down to “what does this passage teach me about God” and “how then should I live in light of this passage?” Elliot rightly points out that actually writing down your answers to these questions in a notebook is a good idea.
Finally, she recommends you make it a point to share what you learned in you quiet time with your spouse and your children. I think this point is essential because one of the ways you remember what you study is by using what you have learned.
A great way to ensure that you remember God’s word is to teach God’s word to others.
Elliot says you can complete these steps, answer the above questions, and have some time in prayer in 15 minutes if that is all the time you have. But the more you spend time with the Lord, the longer that time will likely become.
Why it is important
I think we need to distinguish between quiet time and a full on, in-depth Bible study. If you plan on having the latter every morning before you start your day, you are setting yourself up to fail. You might occasionally be able to complete an in-depth Bible study before work or before caring for kids. But more often then not, your morning quiet time will be a half-hour to an hour time where you get to pray and spend some time reading a section of God’s Word.
However, just because your quiet time might not be as long as an in-depth Bible study does not mean it should have no structure or should stay at a surface level of analysis and reflection. What I love about Elisabeth Elliot’s advice is it gives you 7 easy questions that force you to look at the text and think. It is all too easy to pass over what you read with little to no understanding. And if that is the case, you should not be surprised if you “don’t get much out of” your morning quiet time.
If you want an easy way to do your quiet time, start by taking Elliot’s recommendation and keep a notebook where you record your answers to these 7 questions. Work through a book of the Bible, write down what you see in each daily chunk, and then spend some time in prayer. Your quiet time will be richer and more Spiritually beneficial if you ask questions and write out answers. It might feel like work but “in all toil there is profit”, especially when it comes to the Word of God.
Don’t settle for a short, surface level quiet time. Ask and answer questions that will force you to meditate on the passage you are reading.
Implications
1. You are never too busy to dig into God’s Word
How long would it honestly take you to read a chapter of the Bible and write down the answers to the 7 questions Elisabeth Elliot gives? Not everyone has an hour or two in the morning to spend in deep Bible study, but there is not a single Christian who couldn’t have a simple quiet time as defined by Elliot. Reading the Bible, asking these 7 questions of your reading, and praying in response might not seem like much. But every day you commit to digging into the Bible, you encounter the life-changing Word of God.
“I don’t have time” or “Bible study is too difficult” should never be excuses for failing to have consistent time with the Lord. Elliot makes it so simple and practical: examine the text and your own life using the 7 questions she gives. You don’t need to be a Pastor or a Theologian to do this. You don’t have to be particularly brilliant or incredibly insightful. But what you do have to do is set aside time.
Spiritual growth is as simple as setting aside your excuses and setting aside time to spend with the Lord.
2. Spiritual growth takes disciplined effort over time
Even though Elliot gives an easy way to do your quiet time, it still requires two things: effort and time. You cannot get away from this. If you are going to grow any sort of flower in a garden, it isn’t going to spontaneously appear out of thin air. You will need to put time and effort into planting and watering the flower. So too with spiritual growth.
Quiet time doesn’t have to be complicated, but it will always require effort and time on your part.
Here is the reality: as soon as you commit to put disciplined time and effort into pursuing the Lord, every sort of roadblock and excuse and difficulty will appear. The Christian life is spiritual war remember. So if you are going to commit to spiritual growth, you are going to have to commit to fight. To fight distraction. To fight laziness. You will have to guard your time with the Lord when other “priorities” seep in. Elliot gives a marvelous method for spending time with the Lord. But only you can commit to scheduling and keeping your daily time with God.
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