Quiet Time -- Not so quiet?

Making time for God… Not something we do quite as often as we’d like to. If you're anything like me, you have that picture of what that perfect quiet time should look like in your head (I love fantasizing on Pinterest, it makes quiet time look like perfection!) . But I think that, for a lot of us, the picture perfect vision of what our quiet time should look like seems to get washed away when other things come along. I mean...that hour that you had planned to set aside for God turns into five (maybe fifteen) minutes to say a quick prayer asking God for what you need and to maybe read the verse of the day on your Bible app. And when that time finally comes where you actually have more than fifteen minutes to spend with God… It's not so quiet at all. Your thoughts are racing, you can't concentrate, and your phone that's sitting right there next to you just seems to be screaming your name. So how exactly do we have a successful quiet time when it's not even quiet?

I don't think quiet time is going to be perfect the first time around, maybe not even the first few times. But I feel like as we continue to make quiet time with God a daily habit, it becomes more and more fulfilling and more successful. Especially when we make it the first thing we do in the morning -- filling ourselves with Jesus before we take on the day. I love this one lyric of the song “Breathe” by Johnny Diaz. It says: "When the stress is on the rise, in my heart I feel You say, ‘just Breathe, just breathe Come and rest at My feet And be, just be Chaos calls but all you really need...is to just breathe’ " Just spending time being silent in God’s presence is enough. Even when you don't know where to start -- what to pray or where to read in your Bible. Just Breathe. Let the stress fall away as you just be in the presence of the LORD. “Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10 Now...say you wake up at at 8 a.m and go to sleep at 8 p.m...(I know most of you probably stay up later than that though 😉 ) That's 720 minutes in your day. I think we should be able to take out at least fifteen minutes to be still in God’s presence... Just to simply read His word and Pray. There are so many distractions in our day that can drown out the voice of God and it's hard to take away time to just focus on Him. Especially if you're like me and have thoughts that are constantly racing. But it takes one step at a time...practice taking out five minutes of quiet time at first...it'll start to get easier. And you'll start to long for that time alone with Jesus. And there are so many ben

efits of silencing the world and making time for God.

"The cure to a lonely heart is to be alone with jesus"

I'm going to be doing a part two of this post covering the topic of what comes next? I'll be giving tips for ways to have a successful quiet time, my favorite methods of bible journaling and studying, and ways to make it fun and creative! ~Now I want to hear from you~

• Do you struggle with making time for quiet time in your day?

• If you do have a consistent quiet time, in what ways has it been a benefit to you?

#faith