Guest Post: Quiet Times

Hey y’all, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Henderson. I was a camper for 8 years and have been on staff the last 4 summers. I am originally from Birmingham, AL and my family still lives there, but I went to the University of South Carolina in Columbia and decided to stay to continue leading YoungLife at Hammond! I just graduated last May and am now working for Boosterthon.

I want to talk to you a little bit about quiet times, what they mean, what they mean to me, and ways I personally have enjoyed doing them. I would say I was in high school, probably 11th grade before I really understood why it is important to have a quiet time and what one even looked like. My junior senior summer at camp I learned a lot about what it looked like to have a personal relationship with Jesus from my counselors and my friends.

Everyone works on their relationships with friends, talks to them, asks them how they are doing, wants the same asked in return, and you definitely spend time with them, right? That’s because that is how you build a relationship with someone. You spend time with them and talk to them so you can get to know each other better. It is the same way with Jesus. As Christians, we have a relationship with Jesus. To build and grow that relationship we have to spend time with Him, talk to Him, listen to Him by reading the Bible, and just be in His presence. That is what doing a quiet time is! Jesus wants to be our BEST FRIEND and to become best friends with somebody you have to spend time with them and get to know them.

A quiet time is set apart time to be with the Lord. Mark 1:35-37 tells us that even Jesus, God’s son, set apart time alone to be with Him.

There are a few things that we need to do a quiet time well:

Scripture- Spending time reading God’s word.
Prayer- Talking to God, simply having communication with Him.
Observation- What is His word saying? Just spending time in His presence.
Application- How is what God is saying to you through the Bible and prayer applicable to your life?

At first, spending time in a quiet place, by yourself is hard. We are used to busy lives and always being around people. But the more you do it, the more you will come to enjoy it. Like Jimdaddy always said, making something a habit takes doing it 21 days in a row. So I encourage you to have a quiet time 21 days in a row and I bet you will want to keep doing it. Spending time with God is what helps build our relationship with Him, it is what helps us to get to know Him, learn more and more about Him and continuously experience His Grace and freedom.

The things that I have found work best for my quiet times consist of:

A specific time and place= For me it’s in the morning before I do anything else, usually in my bed or on my couch.
Having a plan= A devotion book or Bible reading plan help me to know what I am reading so I don’t start my quiet time and not know what do to or what to read.
A Journal= I love love love writing things down. I journal my prayers to help me focus and so I can look back at how God has answered them. I like taking notes on what I am learning and writing verses down as well.

Everyone’s quiet time is going to look different because it is working on your personal relationship with Jesus. But have a time, a place, and a plan set up so that you can get started getting to know Jesus and His grace and love for you!