The Quiet Time: Defined

Posted by Joe Thorn - 30/11/06

The Quiet Time Series
1. Not a Cleansing Rite
2. Defined
3. My Failure
4. What is it Good For?
5. Advice

In a previous post I attempted to make it clear that one’s “quiet time” does not change the way God thinks of us, nor does it grant us better access to God. This does not mean that such a discipline is unimportant. In this post I want to lay out my understanding of the quiet time and its value.

This is not a book on the subject, but merely the loosely organized collection of my thoughts. I will suggest far superior and comprehensive material at the end of this series.

Terms
So why am I calling it a “quiet time” so much? In my experience, people wanting help in this area are not likely to talk about this ritual as “private worship,” though I prefer that term myself. So to make this post accessible and easy to locate in Google, I am pushing the term “quiet time.” Besides, all the terms are useful and emphasize different aspects of the discipline. We call it a “quiet time” because in it we practice being still, waiting on God, while hoping with anticipation to hear from him. We call it a “devotional” time because it is an act of seeking God through the means he has prescribed. We call it “private worship” because that is what it is: the worship of Jesus Christ apart from the gathered church.

Definition
By “quiet time” or “private worship” I mean a concentrated period of time where a person encounters God by faith, through Scripture and prayer, leading to his spiritual growth, while moving him to live out and share what he has learned/experienced with others. Maybe that’s a bit too long, but I believe all of that is important. Let me expand it just a bit.

While the Scripture often emphasizes corporate spiritual exercises, it also pushes the idea of personal spiritual experiences and disciplines. The “quiet time” is the experience of an individual who gets alone with God for a concentrated and limited time. It is important to understand this is an encountering God “by faith” because it is not the discipline alone that is the focus, but the end of such effort. Scripture and prayer are central to this discipline. Other habits can and should be incorporated, but from my perspective there is no time alone with God without the Bible and prayer. There should always be a discourse with God, a pleading for grace for self and others. There should always be praise and thanksgiving. I can’t imagine someone suggesting that one can be alone with God without some form of prayer. It may not be formal, well-articulated, or the ACTS model of prayer, but prayer will always happen in the quiet time. Nor do I think we can pray apart from the Scripture. I am not saying one needs an interlinear Greek/English New Testament, a highlighter and a Moleskine journal to engage God - but how can we praise God without calling to mind and meditating on what Scripture tells us of him? At the very least, one’s quiet time is a time of prayer and meditation on Scripture while seeking God. This of course contributes to our spiritual development, but one’s encounter with God should never - ever - end with himself. We should encounter God, be moved to greater faith and repentance, and be burdened to share this God and Savior with others. If what we learn from God in our “private worship” is worth anything, it will be worth sharing.

Is keeping a quiet time biblical? No one will argue it runs against biblical commands, but the question is, “Is this something God wants from us all?” I believe it is. I believe that the model of daily meditation on scripture, times of prayer and seclusion for the purposes of encountering God is exemplified in the Bible. Such a habit of devotion was the habit of Jesus. Mk. 1:35 Lk. 11:1 Lk. 22:39 Mt. 14:23 Lk. 9:18. So yeah: Getting alone with God frequently for “private worship” is biblical, but I want to avoid building trust in a particular extra-biblical model.

I am not saying the quiet time is the only, or the best way, to encounter God by faith and experience Christian growth. I am not saying that there is only one way to have a quiet time. I am not saying that there is a specified time frame in which one should have their quiet times. I am saying that frequently getting alone with God to pray and meditate on his word is an essential part of a Christian’s life.
Coming up: Benefits, Excuses, Tips, and False Guilt.

12 Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. I’ve been waiting for another post in this series. Thanks Joe.

    Comment by Justin Buzzard — November 30, 2006 #

  2. Thanks, Joe. I’m looking forward to more.

    Comment by Scott Eaton — December 1, 2006 #

  3. Joe, I appreciated this post greatly. Often times establishing a “quiet time” or having personal worship seems like a burden. Yet, when we readjust our focus, it becomes an amazing blessing, not only to me but also to God.

    Thank you!

    Comment by Dustin — December 1, 2006 #

  4. I have appreciated this series greatly having recently been liberated from the idea of a “quiet time”. It’s not exactly a dirty little secret but “all good Christians have one” is something that is frequently implied from pulpit and lectern. Thanks again…

    Josh
    “…the word of God is not bound.” 2 Timothy 2:9

    Comment by Josh Kidwell — December 1, 2006 #

  5. Good thoughts Joe, thanks. It’s all too easy to get caught into the legalism trap with “quiet times”. I think those of us who teach should probably be more careful when explaining this concept.

    Comment by Adam J. — December 2, 2006 #

  6. I think your last paragraph got cut off or is it just an intentional cliff hanger?

    Comment by MRB — December 6, 2006 #

  7. Thanks MRB, I didn’t see that. It is now fixed, though I do not remember what I originally wrote. :)

    Comment by Joe Thorn — December 6, 2006 #

  8. I’ll be the “legalist” here and argue that, absent extraordinary circumstances, or infancy or mental illness, this delightful privilege of DAILY time in personal prayer with God and reading and thinking upon his Word is also an obligation and an indication of sin if it is left off. I believe that it is generally accurate to say that a person who is not personally praying to God as a DAILY practice has no reason to believe their faith is other than a dead and counterfeit one. I also believe that the biblical principle (not universal rule) is that this should occur at least in some fashion in the morning.

    1) A healthy mature adult Christian should spend time DAILY alone with God in prayer. “Alone” (e.g., shut the door going into your closet) presumes some sort of ‘quietness’.

    2) The strong weight of evidence of the psalms (e.g., Ps 5:3 “In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice, in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait”, Ps 59:16 “in the morning I will sing of your love”, Ps 88:13 “in the morning my prayer comes before you”, Ps 90:14 “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love”) and Christ, whom in this facet of the life of faith we are generally told to emulate and imitate, the Holy Spirit provides details of Christ’s practice during a busy healing and preaching ministry (e.g., Mk 1:35 “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed) all model rising early (among other times, but especially in the morning) to praise and pray to God.

    3) At the beginning of any venture, it is wise and reverent to pray and “commit our plans to the LORD”. The morning is where we begin our day of work and plans.

    Absent extraordinary circumstances, what God-glorifying reason (which is the standard for considering whether anything we do is sin) or faith-reliant reason (which is the standard for considering whether anything we do is sin) would a Christian have for
    a) NOT going to the LORD in the morning to begin his day with prayer?
    b) NOT having a daily practice of spending some time in the Word of God?

    I am bothered by the constant scoffing at “quiet times” I have heard. These ‘enlightened’ evangelicals who would like to downplay the efficacy or value in God’s eyes of a commitment to honor daily in a disciplined manner this delightful privilege have no corresponding parallel in any of the heroes of Church history beyond this current legalist-paranoid generation. Funny how an American evangelical world that is so shallow in its piety and prayerful life today as never before are such experts as never before at watching out for all these legalistic dangers. We’re so terrified that somebody somewhere MIGHT think that because they entertain the idea of having a disciplined daily prayer life, they might also entertain the idea that it is in some way ‘metitorious’. In contrast to such anxiety that is constantly warning people to see a link between their prayer life and any graceful benefit bestowed by God, Jesus’ most extensive teaching at the sermon on the mount clearly and repeatedly links ‘reward’ as a motivation for prayer.

    Joe, I appreciate you wanting to spend some time advocating the ‘quiet time’. But its a wierd sad indication of the times that we need this long drawn out defense that others are commending so highly to finally, at the end, say nothing more than SOME frequency of prayer and meditation on God’s word are essential to the Christian life.

    I suspect the praise in the comments would have been largely withheld if you had stepped on anyone’s ‘freedom’ by urging anything more than the vague statement that “at some interval that should happen in a way you interpret ‘frequent’ you ought to pray alone with God.

    The discerning reader of the Bible (and one famliar with all the great works and habits of and on prayer and devotional life by the great Christians who have gone before us) know that it implicates both the regularity, amount, and shallowness of most of our prayer and devotional lives and bible reading as something to be repented of as woefully and sinfuly inadequate of the repeated biblical admonition to be “constant”, even if no crass quantifiable number of hours or times of regularity is specifically delineated.

    Jonathan Edwards, whom many modern evangelical thinkers still consider the greatest theologian-pastoral writer this country has ever produced (D. M.Lloyd-Jones said no man is more relevant to the present condition of Christianity) in his sermon “Hypocrites Deficient in Duty of Daily Prayer” specifically makes a biblical case for “constant DAILY” prayer as a line between true and false Christians. Note that a ‘hypocrite’ is not truly converted/saved in this terminology, and the duty of “secret prayer” is for “constant daily” prayer, and that an indication that one only has a certain intermittant prayer life (in the course of his whole biblical argument in the sermon) has no reason to think themselves truly saved.

    “(Hypocrites) in a great measure leave off the practice of secret prayer. They come to this pass by degrees. At first, they begin to be careless about it under some particular temptations. …Thus, it presently becomes a frequent thing with them to omit it; and after a while, it comes to that pass, that they seldom attend it. Perhaps they attend it on Sabbath-days and sometimes on other days. But they have ceased to make it a CONSTANT PRACTICE DAILY to retire to worship God alone and to seek His face in secret places. They sometimes do a little to quiet conscience and just to keep alive their old hop because it would be shocking to them, even after all their subtle dealing with their consciences, to call themselves converts and yet totally to live without prayer. Yet…they have, in a great measure, left off.

    …I would exhort those who have entertained a hope of their being true converts – and who since their supposed conversions have left off the duty of secret prayer and ordinarily allow themselves in the omission of it – to throw away their hope. If you have left off calling upon God, it is time for you to leave off hoping and flattering yourselves with an imagination that you are the children of God. ”

    Read the whole sermon at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/works2.iv.viii.html

    Comment by steveprost — January 1, 2007 #

  9. Thanks for commenting Steve. I am very familiar with Edwards’ works and have long benefited from the Puritans writings on personal piety. I think they are the best resource, outside of the Bible, concerning an individual’s care for his soul.

    I would agree with your statement, “DAILY time in personal prayer with God and reading and thinking upon his Word is also an obligation and an indication of sin if it is left off.” So to suggest that I am pointing to that perspective as legalism is a bit off. My point in this area is that obligation is never a proper motive - rather love for God is the proper motive. Obligation is true and real, but love is what moves us.

    I would only encourage you to stay with the series and see what I actually am saying “in the end” (which has not yet come). But, in the end I believe daily time alone with God in prayer and Scripture is critically important. I am cautioning against particular models of this being held over Christians as law, and improper motives for engaging in the disciplines.

    Comment by Joe Thorn — January 1, 2007 #

  10. Not to split hairs or parse your words, Joe, but how would you define meditation on Scripture? For me it involves letting Scripture interpret/define Scripture, but I’d love to hear what you have to say about that.

    Comment by Rob Slagle — January 2, 2007 #

  11. Scripture interpreting Scripture is classically called the “analogy of faith,” or the “analogy of Scripture.” That can happen while meditating, but meditation is broader than that.

    In every work I have read on the subject, it is described more along the lines of focusing on a particular passage of Scripture, filling our hearts and minds with it, seeking understanding and application. Stephen Charnock’s sermon, “The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts” or Don Whitney’s book, “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life” are examples of this perspective.

    Hope that helps. Thanks for stopping by and commenting Rob. I plan on recommending a lot of material at the end of the series.

    Comment by Joe Thorn — January 2, 2007 #

  12. My quiet time is fairly simple. I thank God for meeting with me, and ask Him to center my thoughts and let me hear Him. I’m in the Psalms right now, and I read and interact with the Word in my QT journal (I confess it’s a Moleskine) in a live manner. It is usually between two and three pages, but that’s not a rule or the goal, and it usually lasts about 30 minutes or so. Sometimes it goes into what I can only describe as “prairie dog time” and I don’t really have a scence of time passing but when it’s over it seems as if it has been an extended in-the-moment time with God, which is what my QT is about.

    When I’m in it, I’m stronger; when I miss, I’m weaker. It’s an essential part of my personal discipleship. I’m a morning QT guy, but I don’t think that’s mandatory. I do know that for me it sets the tone for the day, and gives me an aspect of my relationship with God to consider through the rest of the day.

    When I look back through my QT journal, I can see what He’s been getting through to me, and maybe understand my purpose better. I read consecutively through Bible books, but He sets the theme that surfaces, consistently.

    Life’s too important to try to go through it alone, and I think without some kind of consistent QT you are alone. I know that it definitely changed - and continues to change - my life.

    Comment by Earl — January 3, 2007 #

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress with GimpStyle Theme design by Horacio Bella.
Entries and comments feeds. Valid XHTML and CSS.