Sticking to a daily quiet time routine can be a struggle. But it’s SO IMPORTANT to make sure we’re spending quality time with God as often as we can! It’s not just another thing to check off our to-do list, but vital for a growing and thriving relationship. Spiritual health is even more important than mental and physical health, and God’s Word is the food we need to survive and live a healthy, energetic life. It can’t be something that we skip or put off. It should be our number one priority!
Maybe you’ve tried to have a regular quiet time but haven’t found a routine you can stick to. Maybe you want to have a daily quiet time but don’t know where to start. Today I’m sharing some ideas for how you can make the most of your quiet time, because let’s face it: our time is precious. It’s something we can never get back, so we should use it well.
Remove distractions
First of all, I would recommend a quiet time in the morning before you start your day if at all possible. That might mean you have to readjust your schedule or even sacrifice a little bit of sleep. If you just can’t swing it, then another time will work, as long as you can go somewhere quiet to be alone with God. Maybe your lunch break, or in the evening after dinner.
The most important thing you can do is to remove all distractions. And by that I mainly mean your PHONE! When my phone is nearby, I’m always tempted to pick it up, even just to check the time. If I’m not careful I’ll start looking at something and quickly waste half my quiet time. How lame, right?! Leave your phone out of reach across the room so you’re not tempted to pick it up. Put it on airplane mode, and even set a timer if you need to so you know when your time’s up!
Use a real Bible
One of the biggest tips I have is to read an actual, physical Bible. For a couple years I only read my Bible in an app, and even though I was reading through a study almost every day, there was still a sense of disconnect with what I was reading.
When I switched back to my real Bible, I felt a huge difference. I realized that I retain so much more when I read Scripture on a page in the context of a book! It’s so important for me to be able to flip to different spots, highlight, underline, bookmark, and get familiar with each passage as part of the whole.
Start with worship
Okay, so you might actually need your phone for this part. Or your computer, or maybe you still use an ipod…? Haha. Recently I started listening to a worship song at the beginning of my quiet times, and I gotta say I’m loving it! It only takes a couple minutes, but it quiets my mind and heart before God. Find a song on Youtube, or make a playlist of your favorite worship songs on Spotify and just pick one. Spend a few minutes praising God. Then after the song, set a timer and immediately throw your phone across the room! Just kidding. Kind of.
Pick a reading plan
If reading the Bible regularly is not something you’ve done before, maybe it sounds overwhelming. So pick a simple study or devotional that can lead you through a reading plan! For the last couple years I’ve switched between She Reads Truth and the First 5 app, two different online devotional studies that you can follow along with daily. Either one is a good starting point, but recently I’ve felt that I need something a little more in-depth.
Maybe you’ve never read through the entire Bible, so you want to start with that! Try a read through the Bible in a year plan. There are so many to choose from! Even if it takes you longer than a year, it’s an awesome way to get familiar with the Bible as a whole. If you’ve never done it, I think it’s a must. You’ll grow and learn so much, promise.
Get a good study Bible
One of the biggest reasons people are afraid to read the Bible is because it can be hard to understand. A good study Bible is an extremely useful tool to help you comprehend what you’re reading. I have an ESV study Bible that I love. It’s kinda big and heavy, but I LOVE that it has insightful commentary on every page for almost every single verse. With the commentary, I can even read through a book of the Bible on my own, and find answers to any questions I have right there on the page!
Take notes
Try keeping a journal on hand to take notes during your Bible study time. You don’t have to necessarily write something down every day! But if a verse or thought ever stands out to you, it helps to write it down. You’ll retain what you’re learning better, and you’ll have a place to look back to for reference if you want to look something up later.
I like using the same journal I take notes in at church for my daily quiet times too. That way I can easily flip back to my church notes and make connections to what I’m studying on my own time!
Pray
Prayer is something we should be doing all throughout the day. But during your quiet time is a great time to pray more specifically and get a little deeper. I love praying out loud, which is why I like to do my quiet time alone in my room in the early mornings. Try talking openly with God about your life! Invite Him into your day and have a real conversation with Him.
If you can’t get alone in a quiet place, try writing your prayers! Journaling is a great way connect with God and can also help you process and focus better. Keeping a prayer journal (this one’s my fave) is such an awesome way to pray more intentionally for things that matter. And you can go back later and see how God answered!
Related post: 3 Amazing Benefits of Journaling Regularly
If you don’t have a lot of time…
Maybe you struggle to stick to a quiet time, because you just DON’T. HAVE. TIME. Girl I get it! But I wanna give you some hard truth… your relationship with God should be your first priority, period. If it’s not, I can guarantee that everything else in your life will suffer. But maybe you’re type A and it drives you crazy to miss a day, so much that it’s tempting to just give up (GUILTY)!
Batch your quiet times
I’ve been there too. I figured out that if I want to have an amazing prayer time AND dig deep into the Word all in one sitting, I’d need an entire hour of quiet time a day. But that’s just not always practical! So lately I’ve been batching my quiet times. What does that mean? Well it’s kinda like batching your tasks at work! When you pick one type of task to focus on each day of the week, you’ll get much more done because you won’t waste time switching between tasks throughout the day.
So why not apply that to quiet times too? If you only have 30 minutes in the mornings, maybe try reading your Bible during that time every other day. On the in-between days, spend that time praying and journaling. I’ve been doing this for the last few weeks and so far it’s working great!
Quality over quantity
Although it’s SUPER IMPORTANT to spend regular time with God, there’s no verse that says exactly how or when to do your quiet time. But when we look at how Jesus lived his life, we know that He rose early and went somewhere secluded to pray before the day began. If Jesus thought quiet time in the morning was important, then I’m thinking we should too!
Of course, your quiet time will have to adjust as you go through different seasons of life. When I was a teenager I read my Bible at night before bed (because waking up for school was a struggle), and I loved that too. You just have to go with the flow. It’s a relationship, after all, so it will evolve.
If you’re running late or just have a ton on your plate, it’s OKAY if you miss a day! Just pick it up the next day, or whenever you can. But it’s definitely something you should work to incorporate into your routine and make a habit. If you’ve never had a regular quiet time before, it’ll take some effort and sacrifice to get used to.
It’s a relationship
Once I started viewing my quiet time with God as a way to grow our relationship, my mindset shifted. Instead of seeing it as a chore, I thought about what it’s like to be in a relationship with someone. When you’re dating, you’re not necessarily going to see that person every single day. Sometimes you only have time for a special date night once a week (or maybe even less)!
But that set-aside time is something you look forward to throughout the week. It’s when you get to reconnect, do something fun together, talk about your week, and just get closer. It’s something you don’t want to take for granted, and the less of it you have, the more quality you want it to be!
Think of your quiet times as your dates with God. It’s special to be alone together, to talk, and to just be. So when you have less time in your schedule, it’s better to have 2 or 3 days a week of rich quality time with God, than 7 days of quick mindless prayer and speed-reading something you won’t retain later!
If you work hard to integrate a quiet time into your daily life, I promise you’ll grow and your life will change for the better. What tips would you would add to this list? How do you make the most of your quiet time? Leave a comment and let me know, loves!
Xo,
Becka ❤
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