The children’s song goes, “read your Bible, pray every day, and you will grow, grow, grow.” And I don’t think there’s a Christian anywhere who doesn’t desire to grow, grow, grow. But what if you don’t know how to read your Bible? What if you don’t know how to pray? Despite having heard people talking about their “quiet times” or devotional reading, what if you aren’t sure what those look like? What if you’ve been a believer for many years, only you still wonder how others spend time with the Lord?
Do you still wonder how others spend time with the Lord?
Thankfully, there isn’t only one “right way” to spend time with God. In some ways, you can’t really go wrong simply reading his word and speaking to him in prayer. But in this article, I’m going to offer a practical, guided tour to one approach to spending time with God. I’ve also provided lots of links to helpful resources throughout.
1. Prepare
Whether it’s early in the morning or much later on in the day, there are always other things grabbing at your attention. We’re busy people. Worse, the little attention you have is probably already stretched. Modern technology doesn’t help. So I recommend a paper Bible, at least for your quiet times; or listening to the Bible with notifications switched off.
We’re all busy. But worse, the Bible can often be confusing (2 Peter 3:15-16). Maybe you’re opening God’s word for the first time, and all of it is confusing. Either way, you’re going to need some help to be focused; to have your heart in the right place; and to understand what God has to say.
The Spirit is with us and able to teach us all things.
Incredibly, we have access to such help. The Holy Spirit is with us as believers and is able to teach us all things and remind us of everything Christ said to us (John 14:25-26). He is able to quiet our hearts and minds to hear and understand God’s word (Psalm 119:18).
Pray to God, therefore, when you begin. I normally keep it short and simple: “Heavenly Father, bless me through the reading of your word. By your Spirit and in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
2. Read
When most people think about quiet times, this is the part that comes to mind: reading God’s word. Now, the Bible can be a daunting book. It’s bigger than most books you’ll read. It’s also quite dense. You could approach it at random, but you’ll end up missing out on the flow of the story if you do. For the Bible tells one grand story of salvation. Even if it does that through 66 books—each with their own message, too. You’ll need a plan.
The main point is that you’re spending time in God’s word.
That’s a bit of a pun, because Bible reading plans are the easiest way to bring some intentionality to your reading. Reading with a plan isn’t new. In our modern age, we have the privilege of Bibles in our homes and in our own languages. But for centuries, Christians didn’t have their own Bibles—they would have to go to church and hear the Bible read; and that would mean that the whole congregation would follow along the plan laid out in the lectionary and benefit from the guidance of faithful leaders.
Plans can be intimidating. Most of us aren’t used to reading so much. We all feel as though the time is short. But you don’t have to read five chapters a day, or get through the Bible in a year—for what it’s worth, both of TGC’s founders preferred two-year plans. Furthermore, these days you can easily listen to God’s word, meaning you don’t always have to carve out time for reading. The main point is that you’re spending time in God’s word.
There are many good options. Also, you don’t have to wait until January to begin. So find a plan that you’re keen on and get started.
3. Meditate
This is an often-neglected step in our private devotions. Instead of seeing Bible-reading and prayer as different disciplines entirely, we should aim to connect our Bible-reading to our prayer, and we can do this through meditation. It’s important to be clear about what this isn’t. Meditation isn’t “emptying oneself” in a mystic sense, but rather “filling up” on God’s word and reflecting on it deeply.
You’re not necessarily seeking new understanding when meditating.
How do you do this? Luther offers some very practical advice; he suggests looking for an instruction that you could ask God to help you to receive or follow, something to respond to with thanksgiving, or perhaps a sin which you could respond to in confession. This might be something you start during your quiet times and continue to dwell on over the course of the day.
You’re not necessarily seeking new understanding when you’re meditating on God’s word. Although, of course, you might find it. Instead, you’re aiming primarily to deepen what you’ve learned. You’re giving it time to really sink in before you respond to God in prayer.
4. Pray
Prayer is responding to God’s revelation of himself to us. This means that for us to experience the full range of prayer—even outside of our quiet times—we need to be regularly in God’s word. The benefit of praying in our quiet times is that we immediately have something to respond to—and might even have a response modelled for us in our passage.
While there is much more to be said about prayer, it’s helpful to have somewhere to begin. Thomas Cranmer, author and compiler of the Book of Common Prayer, included a number of weekly prayers called “collects.” These prayers were said corporately each week and are rich in their own right, but the outline they typically follow is particularly helpful in guiding our own prayers:
- Address—begin your prayer by naming God
- Doctrine—this is a truth that will form the basis of the prayer. I’d recommend taking a truth from your meditation above and starting here
- Petition—the thing you’re asking for. This might come out of your meditation on your reading, or it might be something from your prayer list, or even something you feel led to ask God for in the moment
- Aspiration—what you hope will happen if God answers your request
- In Jesus’ Name—Cranmer closed his prayers remembering that we ordinarily pray to the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit.
Keep coming back to God’s character, person, and work as the basis for your prayers.
I recommend praying for others or those things that God moves you to pray for in the moment by repeating steps 2-4 before closing your prayer. This means that you’re always coming back to God’s character, person, and work as the basis for your requests.
I’ll give you an example (numbered to match the headings above). This is my prayer for me and you both:
(1) Heavenly Father, (2) you have revealed yourself to us through your creation, your word, and your Son: the word made flesh. (3) By your mighty power, help us to joyfully receive your word and respond to it in prayer, (4) so that that our relationship with you would deepen and our worship would be richer. (5) Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
