How Do I Have a ‘Quiet Time’ Anyway?

If you’ve been hanging around Christians for a little while, hopefully you have heard them talking about ‘having a quiet time’ or something similar. A quiet time is simply a time where you get alone with God and His Word. The three necessary components are: 1) Get alone, 2) Read the Bible, and 3) Pray. You can certainly add in other things (memorization, journaling, singing, silence, etc), but these are the basics.

What You’ll Need

To start any new discipline, you will need to ensure you have a few things to get started. This is akin to getting workout clothes, a gym membership, new running shoes, and a plan before you start a new exercise discipline.

1. A Time and a Place. If you don’t have this, you just won’t do it. Pick a time and a place that you will get away from the world and alone with God. It needs to be as far from the hustle and bustle of life that you can manage. For most of my adult life, this has been early in the morning on my sofa or recliner. When I was recently on vacation, I had to find a spot away from where the family gathered together in the mornings as they woke up. On my last deployment in Afghanistan, there was a place outside my sleeping quarters that overlooked the Helmand River that I could usually get to before it became a gathering place. Where will be your time and place today? I’m sure it will change over the years, but where will it be this week?
2. A Bible and a Journal. A few tips for these:
   • Try the old fashion way- paper Bible, paper notebook, and a pen.
   • Just the Bible please- this isn’t the time for study Bibles, commentaries, devotionals, etc. The goal is to read God’s Word- not other people’s words.
   • Choose a Bible that is comfortable to read- a translation and font size conducive for reading- not the super-sub-compact Bible that fits in your pocket.
3. A Bible Reading Plan. It doesn’t have to be complex, but you will need a plan for reading. Here are my thoughts on selecting a Bible Reading Plan.
4. Your To Do List and Calendar. This may sound a bit counter-productive since I told you to get away from the hustle and bustle of life, but these are good to have off to the side. You will be prone to distraction as you start to have a quiet time, so when you are distracted with a to do item or an appointment that you can’t forget about, enter it quickly and then get back to the work at hand: being present with God.

What You’ll Do

This is where is gets really simple: Read the Bible and Pray.

Read the Bible. Perhaps you’ll say a short prayer to ask God to speak to you through His Word, but then jump into whatever the next thing on your Bible reading plan is. This is the time to read the Bible- not study, not word study, not find every cross-reference, not look at commentaries, not think about who else needs to hear this, not how you’re going to post about this on social media- read the Bible.

Pray. Spend time in prayer. Reading the Bible is how we hear from God; prayer is how we speak to God. I recommend writing down your prayers. I have been doing this for about 20 years now, and I have journals full of my prayers over those years. You might be amazed at how beneficial this simple practice can be.

Try the 50/50 Plan

The 50/50 plan is really easy: You read for half of your time and then you journal and pray for the other half of your time.

You have 10 minutes today? Read for 5; journal/pray for 5. When I was active duty military, 10-15 minutes was a typical workday quiet time. Then on the weekends, I would have 30 minutes or an hour. In both situations, the 50/50 plan works: read for half and then journal/pray for a half.

These days a typical quiet time is 30 minutes of reading and 30 minutes of journaling/praying/memorizing. However, there are many days throughout a month that expands to 2 hours total or even 3 or 4 hours total. Other days I have to squish it back down to 10 minutes. That’s the beauty of this “plan”- it expands and contracts with real life.

“But what do I journal and pray about?” I’m sure you’ll figure that out as you give it a try, and perhaps I’ll tackle those questions in the weeks to come. Until then, figure it out as you go! Get alone; Read the Bible; and Pray!

I love you guys!

Brian O’Day

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to know when new articles like it are posted each week!