Dear Friends,
We had a good discussion in Sunday School today about the Unit 6 lesson called "Spiraling Up." It begins on Page 94. If you did not get to do this lesson last week, I encourage you to do it this coming week. It is a wonderful lesson. Mr. McQuilkin suggests ways to "spiral up" and includes devotional time, prayer, church life and adversity. He shares about his own experience of having a quiet time. It reminded me of Glynn's challenge to us a while back to develop a quiet time.
This study challenged me to examine my quiet time. I only began having a quiet time 13 years ago when I joined Bible Study Fellowship. I find that my best times are when I am doing a Bible study that requires daily study. After these lessons I feel challenged to make my quiet time more of a time with God rather than "doing my lessons." He gives good suggestions for developing a Quiet time. Mr. McQuilkin spoke of reading the Bible from cover to cover. This is something I have never done. I've tried before but never really followed through.
I really wanted to discuss this in Sunday School today and find out about other people's Quiet Times, but there was not time for that. We talked about discussing this via email. Another suggestion was to do it through Facebook. I liked that idea but then realized that many don't do Facebook. I decided to try this blog. It is set up so that only the people with the link can see if, so it is only for our Sunday School Class. I encourage you to post a comment and tell us about your Quiet Time. What works for you? What changes have you made through the years?
May God bless our words as we share and encourage each other to have Life in the Spirit.
Have a blessed week.
I started with my "quiet time" about six years ago. It wasn't intentional but rather something that sort of evolved. I was looking for a way to make sure I read the Bible each and every day. It took a while, but I realized the best time of the day for me was before I went to work. I was rested and I was less likely to be distracted by calls, e-mails or other interruptions. I started reading two pages of the Bible every morning. Before I knew it, I had read the Bible from cover to cover. In Robertson McQuilkin's book Life in the Spirit, he describes his initial attempts of reading the Bible as like eating sawdust. I remember days like that, but I also remember days when Gods word began to speak to me. Before I knew it, I started praying more regularly and started looking for ways to add prayer to my daily schedule. One day I started to pray just after my alarm went off. I hit the snooze button and I began to pray. At the time, I was under a lot of pressure at work and at home and it seemed like the walls were caving in. It was at this time in my life that I started this daily "quiet time". Before long, I would wake with someone or something on my mind and I would start to pray for it. Somehow, this morning prayer transformed from prayers for me to prayers for others. This made a big difference in how I felt and what I prayed for. As you can see, my "quiet time" comes when I am lying on my bed and the hectic parts of life are put on hold even if only for a little while. Psalm 4:4 (KJV) says Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Pretty good advice if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteMike Bullins