Quiet Time

My quiet time with God is in the morning. Shocking, I know, as I am not a morning person. But I’ve come to realize if I don’t get it in then, it’s not getting in. So, I get up each morning and pray over my family, my day, my home, and anything else on my prayer list.

Except when I don’t. Get up that is.

Anyone else struggle to keep their regular appointment with God? And it’s never because He’s late to show up or a no-show. Nope. He’s always there, waiting for us. And you know what I’ve discovered? Life doesn’t work quite as well when God’s not in the middle of it.

That’s because He designed us to have a relationship with Him. And, quite frankly, prayer works. Through it God orders our days. He softens our hearts. Through praying in the spirit, bonds are broken and freedom is released. Prayer is so important that we are admonished in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing".

So what happens when we cease praying? From personal experience I can tell you things start to fall apart. And it doesn’t even have to be the big things. No. A whole pile of little things can make your day just as miserable and wear you out at an even faster pace. Anyone else agree?

I rediscovered this a few weeks ago when I started sleeping in. I was beyond tired and thought one morning off wouldn’t really hurt. Well, one morning quickly turned into a week—my bed was super comfy and, truly, I didn’t notice all that big of a difference in my day. Until Wednesday came. Oh, that Wednesday was a day. I mean…a day! And when I spoke with Hubby I found his was similar. After church that night I was driving home thinking over all the things that had led to our bad day and realized something. Every single issue we experienced was directly related to things I’d been regularly praying over up until that point—and hadn’t prayed about at all in the past week.

It was like a lightbulb.

And here’s the picture God illuminated for me.

A birthday cake.

Nope. I’m not kidding.


Have you ever fallen victim to those fake candles? Someone thought it would be hilarious to watch you try and blow them out, only to see them flame back to life? You realize pretty quickly the only way to keep them put out is by constantly blowing on them. You stop, and soon they are burning again.

See, the issues we pray about are just like that. When we are in daily prayer over a subject, we are blowing the breath of God over them and keeping the issue ‘put out’. God is at work. Change is occurring, sometimes even when we don’t see it. In fact, that same spot in 1 Thessalonians that instructs us to pray without ceasing goes on to say "do not squelch the spirit." We need to let it loose in our lives, and that happens through our prayers. When we cease praying, we stop His presence over the very items we're praying about, and they flame back to life.

If you want to keep those fires put out, you cannot minimize the importance of quiet time with God, but don't set yourself up with unrealistic expectations to attain it. It doesn't have to be an hour on your knees. It doesn't have to be in a special prayer room. Take a walk, lock yourself in the bathroom, sit on the back porch...wherever. And start with fifteen minutes--just you and Him. Shut off your phone, turn off the t.v., find yourself that quiet place, and talk with Him. Pray over all the areas in your life, not just the big ones. If He only cared about the big things, He wouldn’t bother to keep track of the number of hairs on your head. God’s all about details. So bring them to Him. Let His Holy Spirit blow all over them, and watch all those flames start disappearing.

So what about you? What works for you to find your time with God? I'd love to hear!