What is your daily quiet time like?

Daily quiet time? What daily quiet time?

I usually either wake up from a nightmare sweating/crying/screaming/all of the above and heave a sigh of relief as I whisper, "It was just a dream-- Thank You!" Or I say a simple prayer as I'm brushing my teeth.

My almost-daily QT is like no other time during the day. It's early in the morning, before the family (or even the sun, sometimes) is up. It's so quiet I can lose myself in a time warp as I read, reflect, pray, listen, and write. I read the One Year Bible since I like a sampling from the OT, NT, Psalms, and Proverbs each day. Sometimes it's done in 20 minutes, but usually it goes much longer, especially when it inspires me to write. I am so refueled by this time, though sometimes hectic mornings push it to later in the day. It's the best part of my day, though, whenever it happens.

Psalm 63:1,2
O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

I think it depends on how thirsty one is for God. That thirst makes a big difference in a spiritual life in regard to how things happen.

M Paul

I need a more structured prayer time, because I do more personal prayers but want to include more people.

I read a devotion and pray in the morning (at my computer, because I get daily devotions online.)

I also pray at night, in bed. I also pray throughout the day, as things occur to me, but those aren't planned.

M Paul said:

Psalm 63:1,2
O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

I think it depends on how thirsty one is for God. That thirst makes a big difference in a spiritual life in regard to how things happen.

M Paul

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MP, What a beautiful thought. Intrestingly enough, I quote the first few lines of Psalm 63 in my second novel SONS
"Jan arrived at Saint Sebastian Monastery at six o’clock the following morning. He stopped, closed his eyes and cocked his head as he listened to the monks chant Lauds, translating the Latin in his head: Deus, Deus meus; ad Te de luce vigilo, “O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee.”
The plain, haunting Gregorian melody pulled him back to his childhood at
Philadelphia’s Saint Dominic’s Academy, and mornings like this, the choir singing the first Mass of the day. What ever happened to those innocent days?"

My quiet time is a bit different, in that it's done late at night, right before I go to bed. As far as the Bible we use (not that anyone cares!), for study my wife and both use the Amplified. She also reads that one for pleasure, while I like The Message. I suppose over all we probably have thirty or so different translations in our bookcase (crazy charismatics, y'know...)

CityMouse,

I like your sentence structure and rhythm. Very nice.

Gravity,

In regard to your many Bibles, as a Classical Pentecostal talking to a (crazy?? maybe not) Charismatic--are there any Pentecostals or Charismatics involved in those translations?? Hmm--is that why all the passages on the power of God and the leading of the Spirit have been changed, according to a dynamic equivalency theory of translation?? I'd take another look at things.

If you find the KJV difficult, try the NKJV, or maybe this one.

http://www.kj21.com

M Paul

Paul: we own a Dake's KJV study Bible, and he was a Pentecostal (my wife and I were saved in a Pentecostal church :::mumblety-mumble:::: years ago, and the Dake's is the first Bible we bought). As I said, we've got a bunch of them around the house, including NKJV, an old Living Bible (now falling apart), Good News, Amplified, Arthur S. Way, Jerusalem, even a Cottonpatch. The Cottonpatch isn't a complete Bible (the translator died after only doing the Gospels, Hebrews, and some of Paul's letters), but has to rank as the most unusual version I've ever seen, much less own.

Gravity said:

:::mumblety-mumble::::

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You lost me with the expression.

M Paul

Trying to be funny. Just trying to say it was a long time ago. Sorry.

M Paul said:

CityMouse,

I like your sentence structure and rhythm. Very nice. M Paul

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M Paul, Thanks for the kind words. While I've not experienced the situations my MC does, I feel his reactions/emotions are probably close to my own.

In the morning before my dh gets up-- quiet time for prayer, Bible reading and if I am lucky a devotional or two.

Most days, I get up and make myself a pot of coffee, and the first words out of my mouth are, "Good morning, Lord", or "Good morning, Daddy".

After that, I just talk to God throughout the day. I admit I don't read my Bible much, but when I do, it's usually either the KJV or the NIV.

In my entire life, I've read through the Bible one time, and it took me several years. But it was very rewarding.


I hope you'll forgive my rambling, but I only just finished my second cup of coffee, and I'm still not fully awake yet.

I don't have trouble finding quiet time right now, as I have no children and I am home alone during the day. My problem thus far has been finding a bible study guide that I "connect" with. I've tried online groups, with no luck. I have a couple books on request at the library and am currently working through "The Purpose Driven Life" (which I highly recommend, it's great!). I read the bible here and there and my prayer occurs throughout the day.

It isn't exactly quiet time, but two tricks I use are "The Magnificat" --a daily devotional that is mailed out monthly and that I keep in the car for when I have to wait to pick up my kids in carpool, and when the kiddos are in the car and things are rough, saying a decade of the rosary,with each Hail Mary being for someone or something, the kids get into the dedications.

Quiet time is a required part of the day, like an exercise routine, writing routine, diet and budget, it has to be conciously chosen and worked into the day if you want it to be there every time. Still haven't figure out how to make sure I get quiet time, exercise and writing done in the same day....