QUIET TIME – That Precious Time Alone With God

This is the phrase commonly used by believers to describe that period of time one spends with the Lord away from every form of distraction and/or noise. This is that time when we listen to God more than we talk opening up ourselves to Him that He may do in our hearts or mind that which He needs to do that we may be more like Him. This is where we behold the glory of The Father and are changed to be like Him drawing strength from Him also to facilitate this change. This is time that no believer can succeed without in any area of life. It should not be the practice of ministers or clergy only, but something every believer does. Our God definitely wants to spend time alone with every one of His children. It is indeed a privilege; one that must not be taken for granted as we are inclined to doing.

Mathew 6: 8 “But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”

God is the source of our strength. The closer we draw to Him, the more good we receive from Him; we are also better able to deal with life. Drawing close to Him is both physical and spiritual. The physical bit is the deliberate act of “locking out all others for this time allotted to Him alone” and the spiritual bit is having one’s spirit in absolute control of their mind and body at this time as the Holy Spirit interacts with the person. Satan prefers that we don’t have this alone time with God; so our flesh would normally give us all the excuses in the world to facilitate our not having that time with God. He would rather that we don’t go there because we reject him every time we go into that private communion with God. He can’t be part of this meeting as long as we shut him out unlike when believers gather to fellowship. Spending time with God sounds so simple yet it is tough for many and that is because there is an enemy fighting us and trying to ensure we don’t do it because as we draw closer to God, He draws closer to us.

James 4: 8 “Come close to God, and God will come close to you.”

In this time, we may study our scriptures, worship and praise God and/or even ask God for things we need, discuss the issues that trouble us or just remain silent savoring God’s presence. At this time, God is the focus and not us. My suggestions is that we leave asking for things to the end when one is done with just adoring God. I have observed that when our needs are the main topic of our discussion as we spend alone time with God, He ceases to be the center of our quiet time; instead, that need becomes the object of the quiet time and we don’t really listen for God anymore. The more time we spend with God, the better we are at identifying His voice. Identifying God’s voice is one of those things that get better with practice; and now more than ever before, there is the need for every one of us to hear the voice of God

John 10: 4 - 5 “… and they follow him because they know his voice. They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

Hebrews 5: 14 “… who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”

This ought to be a daily practice and can even be several times daily. If however, one misses out on a day, it’s not the end of the world.  It is still okay to make that time as soon as it is possible to do so. To miss out on this time alone with God consistently is to deliberately set out to destroy your walk with God. It is like shutting out your nose and mouth so that you can’t breathe and hoping to live. Indeed the Spirit of God on the inside of us will keep prompting us to spend time with God until one gets used to doing the contrary and the Holy Spirit goes quiet. How does one know God except they rub minds with Him? Why would a God so great be willing to honour you so highly by choosing to spend time alone with you if it was not important? God is so desperate for this time that I have found that if you choose a particular location consistently to spend time alone with God, after a while you will find that God is there waiting to spend time with you when you get there.

John 15: 5 – 6 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.”

If Jesus Christ needed to spend time alone with God as frequently as He did, then we need to do the same and even more so. It sounds very simple but very impactful. It is also worthy of note that after every victory, Jesus made the effort to spend time alone with God. If Jesus needed to be refreshed and replenished, then we certainly do.