The Quiet Time is the term often applied to the efforts a Christ-follower makes to experience closeness with God, usually one or more times a day.  It often includes getting alone, silence, prayer, Bible study, meditation, and often the recording of thoughts gleaned from the experience.  Christians consider this time their life-blood or their oxygen hose, so dependent are they on it for their spiritual health, happiness, and effectiveness.

During this time, we can grow to think God’s thoughts about life (and our situation), rather than our own amateurish thoughts.  It is like taking the time to read the owners’ manual of some new device we just bought, or actually having a personal question-and-answer session with the maker of the device himself.  What we learn in this exercise can untangle our knotted thoughts and bring direction out of confusion.

One important function of the quiet time is open our eyes to the many ways we are messing up our lives and the lives of others, which also sabotages our Creator’s wise intent for our lives.  The quiet time process can both point out these dangerous flaws to us, as well as move our hearts to actually want to change them.

“I will stand on my guard post
And station myself on the rampart;
And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me,
And how I may reply when I am reproved.”                    Habakkuk 2:1

How we reply to God’s reproof is dependent on how we view His correction.  If we see it as Someone sticking His nose into our business, though uninvited, we will resent it, lick our wounds in self-pity, sorry to be caught.  But if we welcome His intervention, as though our kindly coach were showing us how to more skillfully run the race, we are grateful and eager to apply His advice.

“For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”                              2 Corinthians 7:10

Lord, give us watchful, vigilant, eager, teachable, obedient spirits as we seek Your healing and guidance in our lives.  Fix us, O Lord!