Seeking Quiet Time With God
I’ve always wanted to be the kind of woman who starts her day off by reading the Bible, praying, and drinking coffee. When I see photos on Instagram of girls posting highlighted Bible pages alongside a cozy coffee cup, I always wish that I had that kind of life.
However, there are two main problems with this image of the person that I want to be. First, I don’t like coffee. Or even tea. I start off my mornings with a glass of ice water. Second, I begin work earlier than the traditional 9 to 5 job. Throughout my career so far, the latest time I have been able to leave my house has been 7:15 am. When I was living far from one of the schools that I worked at, I had to leave home at 5:30 am each morning in order to arrive at our 6:55 start time. Waking up even earlier has rarely seemed possible.
I have tried a few times. I did live fairly close to one school that I worked at, and several times, I woke up even earlier than normal in order to take time to read my Bible and pray. I know that there are plenty of people who also begin work early in the morning and who are still able to have quiet moments in the morning, but I am not one of them. Despite my best efforts, I could never get my brain to function enough to make the time worthwhile.
Instead, I settled on spending quiet time with God in the afternoons and evenings. Throughout college, with roommates, and later, in the homes that I lived in alone, this arrangement worked well for me. There were some nights when I was too tired to read my Bible, but I managed to stay relatively consistent.
Now that I’m married, it’s harder to find quiet moments at home. My husband does not do quiet. He’s a band director during the day, and once he’s home he’s playing records, picking up instruments, or doing something else involving lots of sound, like singing to our cat. I love how passionate my husband is about the things that he loves, and I’m happy that I get to share a home with him.
Still, I desperately need time just to myself. I cannot concentrate with music playing or a show on in the background. Some people can, but I’m not one of them.
At first, I tried to carry on my routines from before. But before, even with roommates, I had parts of the house that were just mine, and that was no longer the case. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was and why I felt annoyed so easily. I had spent so long praying to find a husband. Why did I need so badly to spend time apart from him? Shouldn’t I have been able to concentrate just fine with someone else around?
When I neglect to spend time alone in prayer, the negative effects are, unfortunately, very apparent. I get irritated more quickly, and I have less motivation to do things. I’m not the calm version of myself that I prefer to be. I imagine that I’m not the only one who sees things beginning to spiral when I spend less time with God. You’ve probably seen the same things happen in your own life.
But despite seeing these negative effects, it took me a while to realize just how necessary the habit of spending time alone with God is.
In Matthew 14, Jesus feeds 5,000 men plus women and children who came to listen to His teachings and be healed. However, once Jesus is finished, He doesn’t remain with the crowd who have come from all over just to see Him.
“Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while He sent the people home. After sending them home, He went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while He was there alone.” -Matthew 14:22-23
Jesus sends His disciples away as well as the crowd of people who came to see Him. Most of what is recorded about Jesus in the Gospels focuses on His interactions with other people, but in instances like this one, we learn He spent time alone with the Father.
If even Jesus, who has the closest possible relationship with God already, needed time alone in order to nurture that relationship, it isn’t surprising that we need time alone with God too.
I’m not saying we should only spend time worshipping God on our own. It is important to spend time with other believers. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus says, “For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.” We are meant to spend time in prayer with other Christians. But, we should also follow Jesus’ example of seeking God in solitary moments.
I still haven’t figured out a perfect plan for spending quiet time in prayer and reading. For a little while, I was able to spend time reading my Bible and prayer immediately after getting home from work. Once my husband and I started working from home due to COVID-19, I was finally able to spend the beginning of my morning on the porch, coming close to the image of the woman reading and praying in the morning that I’ve always wanted to be. When it got too hot outside to do that, I realized I could ask my husband to wear headphones for a little while when I needed quiet.
I have realized how I find quiet time is probably going to continue changing. We don’t have to stick to the exact same routine as long as we are able to find a time to spend with God frequently.
If you have roommates who aren’t accommodating or if you have small children, your opportunities for quiet time alone with God may not happen as often as you would like, but figuring out a way to be sure you don’t neglect this important time is necessary.
There will be times in your life when your time with God will be watching the sun rise (or sunset) with your prayer journal and your Bible next to you and times when your time with God will be ten minutes before you rush through a quick shower and times with everything in between.
Even when it doesn’t look the way you hoped it would, time spent with God is always valuable. You don’t need to feel uncomfortable making this time a priority because this time has an effect on everything else that you do with your days.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth is an educator at heart. So far this has taken the form of a camp counselor, a museum assistant, and currently a middle school teacher. She loves to watch people grow and learn. You can read more of her writing at her blog Chronicles of a Southern Belle.