Here are three simple steps to growing closer to God during your quiet time! I want you to tailor these steps to what works for you. Whether you have your quiet time in the morning or night, for three hours or 10 min, it doesn't matter as long as you are growing closer to Jesus!
1. Quiet Prayer and Rest Before God
a. Come before God and rest: let thoughts and worries come to your mind and give them over to God.
b. Ask for God to fill you with His Spirit and to refresh you in His presence today.
c. Rest in silence. This will be hard. You may get antsy. It will be difficult to sit in silence before God – but I want to encourage you to rest and press into the silence. Because we live in such a fast paced culture, we so often neglect to be still before God.
d. Focus on being mindful of where you are at right now. Don’t live in the past. Don’t live in the future. If you are feeling guilty about things from your past – give it to God. If you are feeling anxious about the unknowns of the future – give it to God. This is the perfect time to let feelings and anxious thoughts rise to the surface of your heart. Don’t just shove them away – but talk them through with God and surrender them at His feet.
e. You may feel like you have no idea what you are doing as you sit silently before God – that is totally okay! Don’t let that stop you. Being uncomfortable and feeling inadequate during prayer is normal – even this you should give to God and ask for His help and strength in prayer.
2. Remind Yourself of the Gospel
a. After your time of prayer and rest, pull out your Bible and open to Romans.
b. Recently, I was reminded that I need to focus on the Gospel DAILY. The good news of Jesus Christ dying for us and making a way for us to be in communion with God the Father is the foundation and center of the Christian faith. To go a day without the reminder of the gospel is like going a day without food. I had gone awhile without the reminder of the gospel – and it was affecting the way I was living. I wasn’t walking in love toward God and others as I should have been. So, I started reading Romans and it reminded me of the truth that I am a sinner in need of the grace of Jesus Christ. Reading about the gospel in Romans has helped open my eyes to the deadliness of my sin, but also to the abundance of God’s grace for a sinner like me.
i. Read: I want to encourage you to read through Romans. Take one chapter a day. Today focus on Romans 1. But if you only want to read Romans today, I would encourage you to read Romans 6: Dead to Sin, Alive to God.
ii. Rest, Think, and Pray: Let God’s word sink into your soul. Chew on His word. Talk to God about what you just read.
iii. Read Again: Read the same chapter again with a child-like faith. Ask yourself the following questions as you read it again:
1. What stood out to you?
2. What is penetrating your heart?
3. What does it say about who God is and what He has done for you?
4. How will the Gospel change your life today?
iv. Journal Prayer: Journal out your prayer after reading this passage. God’s word is God speaking to us – prayer is us communicating back to God! Tell Him what’s on your heart and mind after reading this passage. Pour out your heart before God.
3. Meditation and Prayer Walk
a. Choose a Psalm you want to memorize (if you don’t know which Psalm to choose, I would HIGHLY suggest meditating on Psalm 1). Write down the Psalm (or a part of the Psalm) on a piece of paper. Take that paper with you into nature. Go on a prayer and meditation walk – constantly reading and thinking about God’s word.
b. Meditation is the opposite of what the world says meditation is. The world says you should empty your mind. God says you should fill your mind with His truth. Meditation is simply reading, speaking, and focusing on God’s word. Read it over and over again in your mind and out loud. Think about the text. Let the scripture sink deep into your heart and mind. Let it wash over you like a wave of the ocean.
I hope this helps you as much as it helped me! Here is a PDF of this blog post just in case you want to print it out for your quiet time:
Blessings and love,
Ashley
All glory to God!
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