“How precious are your thoughts concerning me …” Psalm 139:17

It had been anything but a “quiet” time. Although I had closed the door and opened my Bible, my attention skittered between meetings just attended, people needs for which I felt responsible, and future events crowding the calendar. A glance at the clock too soon revealed that it was time to leave my private chamber and tend to the day’s responsibilities. “So much for spiritual preparation” was my somewhat whiny comment to God.

Then came His voice speaking into my heart—as clearly as if He had been physically standing before me: “That okay, my daughter. I just wanted to sit here with you. I’ve enjoyed our time together.”

We delude ourselves into thinking that our quiet times are primarily for our own benefit. We are intellectually aware that God is always with us, that His eye is not only on the sparrow but on each of us. We claim a personal relationship with Him yet are slow to understand much of what that means.

How different would be our attitudes if we began to learn that we come into His presence to give Him joy.

God, I am so grateful for Your personal love for me. To think that You simply desire me to be inYour presence is overwhelming. I love You.

Reflection: Sit quietly and imagine the look on God’s face as you come into His presence. What words of welcome might He be saying to you?

Holiday travel. It isn’t easy. Then why do we do it? Why cram the trunks and endure the airports? You know the answer. We love to be with the ones we love.

The four-year-old running up the sidewalk into the arms of Grandpa.

The cup of coffee with Mom before the rest of the house awakes.

That moment when, for a moment, everyone is quiet as we hold hands around the table and thank God for family and friends and pumpkin pie.

We love to be with the ones we love.

May I remind you? So does God. He loves to be with the ones he loves. How else do you explain what he did? Between him and us there was a distance—a great span. And he couldn’t bear it. He couldn’t stand it. So he did something about it.

Before coming to the earth, “Christ himself was like God in every-thing.… But he gave up his place with God and made himself nothing. He was born to be a man and became like a servant” (Philippians 2:6–7, NCV).

Why? Why did Jesus travel so far?

I was asking myself that question when I spotted the squirrels outside my window. A family of black-tailed squirrels has made its home amid the roots of the tree north of my office.

We’ve been neighbors for three years now. They watch me peck the keyboard. I watch them store their nuts and climb the trunk. We’re mutually amused. I could watch them all day. Sometimes I do.

But I’ve never considered becoming one of them. The squirrel world holds no appeal to me. Who wants to sleep next to a hairy rodent with beady eyes? (No comments from you wives who feel you already do.) Give up the Rocky Mountains, bass fishing, weddings, and laughter for a hole in the ground and a diet of dirty nuts? Count me out.

But count Jesus in. What a world he left. Our classiest mansion would be a tree trunk to him. Earth’s finest cuisine would be walnuts on heaven’s table. And the idea of becoming a squirrel with claws and tiny teeth and a furry tail? It’s nothing compared to God becoming a one-celled embryo and entering the womb of Mary.

But he did. The God of the universe kicked against the wall of a womb, was born into the poverty of a peasant, and spent his first night in the feed trough of a cow. “The Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14, NRSV). The God of the universe left the glory of heaven and moved into the neighborhood. Our neighborhood! Who could have imagined he would do such a thing.

Why? He loves to be with the ones he loves.

From Next Door Savior
Copyright (W Publishing Group, 2003) Max Lucado
Used by permission

Question: Why did Jesus leave His place of majesty and humble Himself to this Earth?

Do you want to dig deeper into your love for God? Try our life lesson “Developing a Heart of Worship”

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6, NKJV)

In movies of the American Old West, it is common to see the rough and ready cowboy ambling down a wooden sidewalk, tipping his broad brimmed hat to passing ladies. The hat isn’t really lifted off his head, just slightly tilted as a show of respect, an acknowledgement. No relationship is initiated, nor is one intended.

It is this display of somewhat superficial acknowledgement that we often exhibit in our relationship with God. We “tip our hat to Him”each morning, before meals and at the end of the day. We mentally recognize His ?presence and promises, but we seldom stop long enough to “look full in His wonderful face.”

While the basic meaning of the word acknowledge as used in the book of Proverbs is “to see or know”, within the word lies the meaning of comprehension, perception and understanding. Another translator equates this with the word submission.

Am I sometimes guilty of passing God on the sidewalks of my life, giving mental assent to Him, but not truly submitting the circumstances of that moment into His care? Are my table prayers perfunctory instead of laced with heartfelt gratitude? Do I tip my spiritual hat to God instead of graciously recognizing His sovereignty and love? I ask for His direction; now I must grow in submission.

Questions: Are you spending enough quality time with God? How can you make room in your schedule for more time with God?

“Lord, every morning you hear my voice. Every morning, I tell you what I need, and I wait for your answer.” Psalm 5:3 (NCV)

Any doctor will tell you the most important meal of the day is breakfast because the way you start your day influences the rest of your day. That’s true not just physically, but spiritually.

That’s why the most important part of your day is your time alone with God. Setting aside time in the morning to be alone with God will set the pattern of your attitude and response to every event and person for the rest of your day.

Whether it takes five minutes or thirty, there are four things you need to do in this time alone with God that will set your spiritual thermostat for the day.

1. Read God’s Word. You don’t have to read a lot, just enough until God speaks to you. It’s amazing how God will use his Word in your life. As the prophet Isaiah said, “The sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom” (Isaiah 50:4). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read something in my morning quiet time that was exactly what I needed to share with someone later in the day.

2. Be quiet before God. Noise is one of the major sources of stress in peoples’ lives. Your body needs a certain amount of quiet, and you need to carve out time in your life for this quietness. You will be less stressed if you start your day with quiet time before God.

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength” (Isaiah 30:15 NIV). The worst thing you can do in the morning is get up and immediately check your e-mail or turn on the news. You need time to meditate on God’s good news before you fill your mind with bad news.

3. Talk with God. Notice it says “talk with God,” not “talk to God.” Prayer is a conversation, not a one-way street. And it’s not the amount of words you say in prayer that make it effective. It’s about sharing what’s on your heart with God – your feelings, concerns, thoughts, and adoration. Just talk with God and then wait on him to respond.

4. Review your day and goals with God. Take time to go over your schedule, your goals and your day’s to-do list with God. There are dozens of verses in Proverbs that talk about planning with God and teaching you to number your days, which means looking at your time and pondering where you are going.

It’s easy to set goals, but if you don’t look at your goals every day, you will never accomplish them. Or as I like to say, “Without review, I lose my view.” Make sure you allocate part of your quiet time to review the vision God wants you to have.

Question: How has your “quiet time” with God been lately? How could you seek to let God improve it?

About the Author: Rick Warren

Feeling pressure to be perfect? Take this study.

“Then Samuel said speak for your servant is listening” (1Samuel 3:10).

Have you taken time today to do just that with God’s Word?

Or let me back up a bit and ask the first question that comes to mind.

As you meet with the Lord, do you pray and ask Him to speak to you through His Word, to teach you, to reveal to you what it is He wants you to understand?
Do you come with an open heart and listening ears?

You see, we often come bounding into our devotional time with the text or chapters at hand and read through them, check off that we’ve completed our “to do” list, and we’re done with our scripture reading and “quiet time” for the day.  Then we continue on our merry way without benefit of having that Word, that truth, poured into our beings.

So, may I offer these suggestions?

Open the Word and your journal. Read a portion of scripture, perchance it will be only a verse or two.  My greatest times of understanding have come in chewing over tiny morsels of God’s truth in my thinking time. Take some time to be still as you consider the Word, ponder its truth, mull over its meaning and reflect on its application in your life.  Ask God to reveal to you all He would have you understand. Use one of these as a heading to your journal:

God, what to you want me to know today?

What are You saying today?

What are You speaking to me?

What things have I learned?

Lord, what do you want to reveal to me today?

In what way should I apply this to my life today?

Then, write out the verses in your journal as you continue to inquire of God His help in your comprehension.

Consider, ponder, mull over, reflect….write back to Him what He shares with you.

May the gems of God’s truth shine in your hearts and reflect who the Lord is as you bring them to mind and apply them to your lives.

Lord, unstop our ears to hear You. Open our eyes to see You more clearly today.  Help our mind be keen and clear to drink in the Truth of who You are and what You would have us know and understand.  We give you our hearts today, open willing vessels to take in what You teach and use it for Your glory.

Questions: Tell us about how you spend your time with the Lord. What is a pre requisite for a successful quiet time?

About the Author Nancy O’Bosky

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24

To have a meaningful quiet time, you will need a plan or some kind of general outline to follow. But keep your plan simple.

Here’s one plan:

1. Wait on God (Relax) — Be still for a minute; don’t come running into God’s presence and start talking immediately. Follow God’s admonition: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10; see also Isaiah 30:15; 40:31). Be quiet for a short while to put yourself into a reverent mood.

2. Pray briefly (Request) — This is not your prayer time, but a short opening prayer to ask God to cleanse your heart and guide you into the time together. Two good passages of Scripture to memorize are:

- “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24; see also 1 John 1:9).

- “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law [the Word]“ (Psalm 119:18; see also John 16:13).

You need to be in tune with the Author before you can understand his Book!

3. Read Scripture (Read) — This is where your conversation with God begins. He speaks to you through his Word, and you speak with him in prayer. Read your Bible …

- Slowly. Don’t be in a hurry; don’t try to read too large an amount; don’t race through it.

- Repeatedly. Read a passage over and over until you start to picture it in your mind. The reason more people don’t get more out of their Bible reading is that they do not read the Scriptures repeatedly.

- Without stopping. Don’t stop in the middle of a sentence to go off on a tangent and do a doctrinal study. Just read that section for the pure joy of it, allowing God to speak to you. Remember that your goal here is not to gain information, but to feed on the Word and get to know Christ better.

Question: What step of this quiet time process do you find most difficult, and why?

About the Author: Rick Warren

“By the seventh day God had finished the (creation) work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” (Genesis 2:2, NIV)

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me,” Jesus said.  “Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest.” (Matthew 11:28 The Message)

Most of us do not know how to rest. We’ve been raised on the slogan.  It all depends on how hard you work. Try harder and you’ll succeed.

It’s interesting to note that God’s order is rest before work. Even creation tells us this. God rested on the seventh day which happened to be mankind’s first day on planet earth. What’s the message? It all depends on God working through me, not in my own frenetic efforts to get the work done.  God wants us to work in a restful frame of mind.

“Walk with Me and work with me–watch how I do it,” Jesus said. “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28-30, The Message)

“The best thing I can do for my world is to know God in such a way that others will look at my life and want to know him too,” says Jill Briscoe

Father, I want to work in sync with you today. I don’t want to run ahead or lag behind. Help me to be alert and sensitive to your leading. Thank you for the privilege of working with you.  Amen.

Question: Where do you find quiet time alone with God?

About the Author: Helen Grace Lescheid

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 5:3

A young Christian leader, who was probably more impressed with himself than he should have been, shared with me one day how he had difficulty in being humble about all of his talent. He was a better than average speaker and a reasonably gifted singer, he had a good mind and personality, and in his heart of hearts he knew that as a Christian he should be humble.

He said, “I spend many hours on my knees asking God to make me humble.”

I responded, “I can save you a lot of prayer time in that regard if you are interested.” He assured me that he was. Whereupon I explained to him that every gift he possessed – personality, good mind, his ability to sing, speak, and other qualities – were all gifts of God and could be taken from him at any moment by a brain tumor or a car accident or plane crash or any of a thousand different things. Furthermore I reminded him that Scripture admonishes us to humble ourselves.

“Humility is perfect quietness of heart,” Andrew Murray said. “It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or irritated or sore or disappointed. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed hope in the Lord, where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret, and am at peace as in a deep sea of calmness when all around and above is trouble.”

Few Christians achieve such high standards, nevertheless it is an objective toward which we all should strive as long as we live, following the example of our Lord recorded in Philippians, chapter two.

To be poor in spirit implies not only that we have a humble opinion of ourselves, but also that we recognize that we are sinners and have no righteousness of our own; that we are willing to be saved only by the grace and mercy of God; that we are willing to serve where God places us, to bear the burdens He allows and to stay in His hands and admit that we deserve no favor from Him.

As commonly interpreted, the word “blessed” means “happy.” You and I are assured of happiness when we are making conscious strides toward humility. All of this becomes possible as we yield to God’s indwelling Holy Spirit.

Bible Reading: Matthew 5:17-20

Today’s Action Point: With the help of the Holy Spirit I will consciously humble myself, asking Him to enable me to love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and my neighbor as myself as an act of humility and as a major factor in achieving the supernatural life.

About this Author: Bill Bright

Please open your Bible and read Psalm 81:8-16.

Children have “selective hearing,” the ability to tune out an adult’s voice whenever they want. Either they are absorbed in their own activities and do not want to be disturbed, or they do not like what they are hearing so they ignore the voice. The adult is speaking, but you would never know it by the child’s response. At times we behave the same way toward our heavenly Father, don’t we?

The Lord speaks to us through the Bible today just as He always has. His Word contains the complete revelation of God and was written by His chosen people under the control of the Holy Spirit. (2 Timothy 3:16) If we are inattentive to the Bible, then we have turned away from our major source of hearing from God.

But if we open His Word, we will hear how much He loves us. God wants to fellowship with us, to express His love to us, and to receive our love in return. From Scripture, we will receive definite direction for our lives. (Jeremiah 29:11) God knows that the world, our own selfish nature, and Satan clamor for us to choose their ways over His. God wants to provide us with His wisdom so we will make right decisions. God also talks to us to give us the reassuring and comforting words we so desperately need. He sees our trials, our failures, our humiliations, and our sorrows and wants to speak words of loving truth to us. And His Holy Spirit helps us understand what He is saying.

God still speaks. The question is, Are you listening?

Question: Can you put aside some time today to listen to what God has to say to you?

About this Author: Charles Stanley

“But when you are arrested and stand trial, don’t worry about what to say in your defense. Just say what God tells you to. Then you will not be speaking, but the Holy Spirit will” Mark 13:11

Have you even had the experience of trying to say a word for the Lord, just sharing your faith, and breathing a prayer for guidance – then marveling as the Lord Himself, by His indwelling Holy Spirit, put the very words in your mouth that needed to be said?

Such has been my experience – many times. And I marvel and rejoice each time. On some occasions, I have addressed crowds of varying sizes, often not only feeling totally inadequate but also concluding my message of the evening with the feeling that I had been a poor ambassador of Christ. Then, someone had approached me after the service and thanked my for saying just the word he needed at that moment.

We serve a faithful God. That neighbor who needs a word of encouragement – ask the Lord to give you the right words to say to him or her. That correspondent hundreds of miles away – trust God for His message to him or her through you.

Certain conditions must prevail, of course, before the Holy Spirit can speak through us. But they are easily met. I must come with a clean heart, surrendered to the Holy Spirit, with my sins forgiven, having forgiven other people and holding no resentment or ill feeling against anyone. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18, KJV).
Let us trust God and His indwelling Holy Spirit for the very words of counsel we should say to a loved one or friend today.

Bible Reading: Acts 2:1-4

Today’s Action Point: I will trust God and His Holy Spirit to put the very words in my mouth this day that need to be said to others whose lives I touch.

About this Author: Bill Bright