Compiled from the writings of David Brandt Berg
WE ALL NEED MORE QUIET TIME WITH THE LORD IN REST & REFILLING, drinking of the Living Water of His Word & fellowshipping with Him in the Communion of Prayer & the sweet loving Him in the Spirit. It just totally renews you & completely refreshes you & gives you new vision & fresh inspiration, new strength, rest & peace & joy! For “they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, & not be weary; & they shall walk, & not faint!” (Isaiah 40:31)
We get too busy sometimes. We get so busy serving Him we forget to love Him. So it is good to try to make it a habit of having some “quiet time” first thing in the morning. Read the Bible and pray.–Start the day off right, hear from the Lord. He’ll solve a lot of the problems before the day even starts if you listen to what He has to say. If you go plunging into all your problems and troubles and your work without stopping to talk to the Lord and get directions from your Commander in Chief, then you’re going to be like a soldier who’s trying to fight the war all on his own without listening to headquarters, with no organization from his chief. You need to have prayer and listen to the Lord.
Those with successful, productive, fruitful, multiplying groups invest in their daily personal Word and prayer time. A survey of Christian pastors showed that leaders who spent 90 minutes or more every day in their quiet time bore enough fruit to multiply their groups twice as fast as those who invested less than 30 minutes daily.
You cannot do the Master’s work without the Master’s power! — and to get it, you must spend time with the Master! We all need more quiet time alone with the Lord in rest and refilling, drinking at the Living Water of His Word and fellowshipping with Him in the Communion of prayer and the sweet loving Him in the Spirit! “Take time to be holy” — Wholly His and whole in body, mind and spirit! He can wipe away all your fears and tears with just one … little restful moment in the peace, that perfect peace He gives when your mind is stayed on Him.
From the basis of knowing the how-tos of studying the Bible, we felt the children needed to develop a lifestyle of meeting with the Lord. A “quiet time” is spent alone with the Lord for the purpose of fellowshipping with Him. It contains the same elements as any relationship: Listening, talking, confessing failures, sharing successes, praising, thanking, making plans, sharing events of the days past, present or future–the list goes on. It is not simply a time of Bible study or prayer, although both may be parts of a quiet time. But most of all, a quiet time gives a sense of having been with God and having acknowledged Him as our foremost relationship of the day and an intimate part of our lives.
But seriously, the pressures today are many, and some people do have no other recourse, but the Christian does! The Christian has the quiet time, the time of meditation before God, where they can get rest. The Christian has that which can cool the fever of this hectic rush.
But the marvelous thing is that Jesus didn’t just take a few days off to get in the Word and that was it. No! He learned from that experience that He needed regular quiet time with His Father. Let’s all take a lesson from Jesus–if He couldn’t make it without that daily prayer time and Word time, then certainly neither can we!
It’s just about the same with depression, except that it all takes place in the spirit. But because it’s more difficult to see and detect, it’s easier to keep on going with business as usual, doing your work, existing on your average diet of Word time, quiet time, time with the Lord, and attending to your daily duties and routines. But that will only prolong the “healing process,” so to speak, if not actually worsen the condition. So when you notice these bouts of depression beginning to take hold, it’s a sure warning sign that your spirit is in need of some quality “rest and recuperation.”
Do you have a setup or location that is conducive to uninterrupted quiet time with the Lord? If not, what can you do to make it possible? If your circumstances are not ideal, make a plan for how to make the best of them, or how you can work around them. For example, listening to Word on the way to work, or spending some quiet time in a local park during your lunch break, or sitting in the quiet corner of a coffee shop.
Ask the Lord to keep you calm when you’re in your prayer closet. And you know, that’s not a bad prayer to pray. I’m sure you’ve experienced that sometimes during your quiet time you come into it so full of the thoughts of the day‚ or the distractions. Or even if you are taking your prayer in the morning, there’s a lot to think about and a lot on your mind about the day‚ and you have to fight to keep those distractions from overrunning your time with the Lord‚ and you have to fight to keep those thoughts from interfering with the time that you have with Jesus.
In the hustle and bustle of a busy day, it’s hard to find even a moment of peace and quiet, and once your day begins, you may find it hard to stop for this type of quiet time–not to mention finding a place where it’s quiet. And of course the best time to find out what you’re supposed to do each day is before the day starts. Those are three good reasons for taking your time with the Lord first thing in the morning. You might not always be able to do that, and even when you do, other things may come up later in the day that require you to stop and get God’s new perspective, but that’s the ideal.
Fight to discipline your mind! Especially when you first wake up in the morning, or when you’re lying in bed at night, or quiet time, make a conscious effort to review the Word, listen to Word audio files, or pray for yourself or others. Your mind is the door through which the Enemy finds entrance for his negativity, discouragement, and despair, so shut it!
The alternative to slowing down & taking quiet time with the Lord is to try to do it in your own strength, which means you’ll rush, rush, rush & go crazy trying to get everything done, which may eventually result in your having a nervous breakdown or your getting very sick. In either case, you’ll be completely out of commission to the point that you can’t do anything. The choice seems to be between slowing down & only doing part of what you’ve done before, but still getting something done, or keeping up a frantic pace until you collapse either physically, mentally or spiritually & you can’t get anything done! So which do you want to choose? If we would look at it that way, I think it would help us all to understand that it’s better to slow it down & still get a number of things done.
Of course, communing with Him as you go about your labors will make for a much more productive and fruitful and blessed day, but it’s different from just sitting quietly before the Lord and meditating on Him. Both are needed! And once you have that connection with Him from your quiet time with Him, it’s much easier to carry that spirit of communion and peace and connection with Him into your service to the Lord and throughout your day.
Even young children should be encouraged and taught, in simple ways, how to get quiet and think about Jesus. You can explain it to them simply by comparing it to when they are sitting beside someone they really like. Sometimes they’ll chat and sometimes they’ll just sit quietly and enjoy being together. Let them determine how long they want to spend this quiet time with Jesus. If it’s not forced, then they will learn to enjoy it and want it more.
Through the years the Lord has impressed upon us the importance of the Word and of spending time alone with Him in communion and prayer, in order to have not only the spiritual strength that we need to do His work, but also know what He wants us to do and how to do it. We’ve all been taught this is important, but with the ever-pressing demands of our work, the Lord wants to impress upon us even more how very important our Word time and quiet time is, and that we can’t operate effectively without it! We can’t even do His will without making sure we’re taking the time we need in communion with Him.
You wouldn’t worry & fret so & be so upset if you spent more time with the Lord looking up through that starry dome & breathing that Heavenly air & hearing that beautiful music! You’d find peace & rest unto your souls. You just cannot go on if you ONLY hurry around all the time in your service & you never step into the rotunda & look up through the dome, spending quiet time, seeing Heavenly visions & breathing Heavenly air & hearing Heavenly music & voices! It just totally renews you & completely refreshes you & gives you new vision & fresh inspiration, new strength, rest & peace & joy!
After you’ve studied the Word, take some quiet time with the Lord to ask Him to speak to you personally. Ask Jesus to answer any questions that you’ve had on your heart, lighten any burdens, strengthen your commitment, and guide you as you apply these messages to your life. His Words will encourage and lift your heart, so please do set this time aside.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)
“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3)
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15b)
“But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)
“But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:42)
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63)
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)
Related: Prayer, Bible Studies, Hearing from God
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