The False Guilt We Feel When Our Quiet Time Falls Short
Prioritize Jesus
Quiet time is this idea that we are spending time alone with God in perfect quiet. We’re alone, so we are in solitude and there are no interruptions. We have a stack of study resources at our disposal. We’re probably going to spend an hour or two pouring over our Bibles and in prayer. There’s definitely some soft worship music going on in the background, and there’s perhaps a hot cup of coffee in an inspirational mug.
This is our idea of quiet time and then when we don’t reach it, we feel guilty and we feel like we failed. The reality is there is no command in the Bible about having a daily quiet time—at least not as we think about it. God wants us to prioritize Jesus and spending time getting to know who he is through the power of his Spirit.
Help for the Hungry Soul
Kristen Wetherell
In Help for the Hungry Soul, author Kristen Wetherell offers 8 encouragements to spur an appetite for God’s word—the only thing that can truly satisfy a soul hungry for more.
He’s not wanting us to perfect an ideal quiet time. He wants us to know him and not necessarily put together a nice formula and follow that. Quiet time was spearheaded in the seventeenth century. It was a good thing that came through the Pietistic movement. It was about promoting individual Christian experience, because it’s good for us to walk with the Lord on our own.
And yet this has infiltrated our culture and caused us to think that if I cannot have this ideal time—this quiet time with the Lord—then I have somehow failed and I’ve not done what he’s asked me to do. And that’s just not true.
God wants us to prioritize Jesus and spending time getting to know who he is through the power of his Spirit.
What God actually commands is better. It’s freeing. It’s broader. It’s “love the Lord the your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” It’s “abide in me and my words in you.” And how we do that could be numerous and plentiful.
There are so many ways to get into God’s word. We are free to be creative in how we walk with God in his word. And that is really good news for people who feel defeated.
Kristen Wetherell is the author of Help for the Hungry Soul: Eight Encouragements to Grow Your Appetite for God’s Word.
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