YAY! This week's chapter is all about putting into practice everything we have been learning about having a quiet time!
Nancy gives us three general principles to help us establish a personal devotional life, each of which is taught in Scripture and illustrated in the life of Jesus.
The first principle is to have a consistent practice. This is not an obligation, but a huge priveledge! We get to spend time with the God of the entire Universe! He WANTS to spend time with us! Isn't that amazing!
In the Old Testament, the Israelites were instructed to collect Manna, their food, on a daily basis. They could only collect for that day, and for themselves. This physical bread is a picture of the Bread of Life, God's Word, and our need to spend time individually each day with God.
The second principle (which is particularly hard for me), is to spend time with God in the morning. She gives numerous examples of people in the Bible rising early in the morning to pray, including David, Moses, Mary and Jesus. The Israelites also had to rise early to collect the Manna. If we do not take the time to meet with God in the morning, we are telling him that we don't need His help in making it through our day. We have to be willing to pay the price of getting out of bed if we really want to know God.
And the third principle is to find a solitary place to meet with God. Luke 5:16 tells us that Jesus often "withdrew to lonely places and prayed". She says that she has found it helpful to set apart a place in her home to meet with God. We need to get away from all the people and distractions in our lives to focus on Jesus.
She concludes by saying "I know of no way to experience unbroken union and communion with our beloved Lord Jesus apart from a conscious, deliberate choise to spend time alone with Him each morning." This is coming from a woman who knows and loves God.
So my questions for this chapter are:
1. Which of these three principles is the hardest for you to follow?
2. What are the greatest barriers you encounter in maintaining a consistent time alone with the Lord in the morning?
3. What practical steps can you take in overcoming these obstacles?
1. Mmm idk if I can pinpoint just one as the hardest, which is a shame :s consistency is hard for me because I just have so much else going on that I never find time for God. I know you could say that I'm making excuses, and that I'm not prioritising Him, which I don't really think I can argue with. It should be that, no matter how rough things are for me, I still have time to read my Bible and spend a few quiet moments with God. The other thing I struggle with is spending time in the mornings. I tend to go to bed really late, which means that I wake up as late as I possibly can. Sometimes there are late nights when I do wake up early enough the next morning to have quiet time, but those aren't generally very helpful because I'm so groggy. So, I've kind of decided that, at least for now, if I'm up really late and know I'll feel terrible in the morning, I try and read my Bible before bed, because I can focus better since I'm already awake. And for those nights when I do go to bed early enough, I try and have my quiet times in the mornings. (This is of course tied to the problem of consistency, which means that this rule/method doesn't play out the way it should).
ReplyDelete2. Greatest barriers....those would have to be...basically what I just explained. Staying up really late to do work and not getting enough sleep to wake up in the morning.
3. Umm, I guess I need to be a lot more disciplined. I've tried telling myself that Jesus always made time for God, even when he was exhausted, he would make himself get up and pray. But I don't seem to have the same willpower. Another practical step would just be to commit myself to less, so that I have more time to spend on myself (me time translates to me and God time) as it is, I don't really have much personal time, and as I mentioned above, it's definitely not on a consistent basis.