Hi there. My name is Lisa Van den Berg with The Ways Of Wisdom, and I want to welcome you to God Today. You know, there’s a question that I’ve been asked much over the years, and I’ve had this question so much myself too: what does quiet time look like? And I remember as a new Christian, I’d go, okay, quiet time has to be super structured. I’m a structured person. I like structure. So I’d wake up at a certain time and then I’d spend 20 minutes reading the Bible and it had to be a part of the Old Testament and a part of the Psalms and a part of the New Testament. And then when 20 minutes was done, then I had to pray. And then I had to read a piece of a book and everything was super structured and well, I mean, I got a lot done, but I was so stressed, but I just thought, oh, there has to be a better way. But what happened in that structure was that I would feel super guilty if I didn’t wake up on time or if I missed a part of it or if I didn’t understand a part of the Bible. And so the aim of quiet time, which is just being able to have a quiet time and connect with your, connect with your Dad, connect with Jesus, connect with the Holy Spirit, that all went out the window because my structure was so structured that I couldn’t actually have a conversation with my Dad, right?
And I remember watching something on GodTV actually many years ago, and somebody was speaking. They said, hey, quiet time is just this opportunity to have a relationship with your Dad. So if I was talking to my daughter, I wouldn’t go, okay, we’re starting our conversation at 3:00 and at 3:20, we’re going to be switching to the subject and at 3:25, we’ll be doing this, and then it’s your time to talk. That’d be ridiculous, right? So I began to realize, oh, okay, that’s not the way we have normal conversations in life. What could a normal conversation with God look like in quiet time in the morning?
And then a couple of years later, I heard somebody talk about, hey, what’s the thing that you love to do? And I love to walk in nature, whatever it is that you love to do, whether you love to snuggle up under a blanket on a chair, whether you like to read something or go for a walk, whatever it is that you love to do, that’s what God created you to love to do. So then I realized, wow, I could actually go for a walk in the morning and have a conversation with Him as I go, and that would be my quiet time. And so some days that looks like a walk in and talk, some days that looks like putting a podcast on and listening to something. Sometimes that looks like having some worship on and walking with Him. But it’s way more of a relationship now. There is still structure in it, ‘cause I still wake up at the same time. It’s still my intention to have my quiet time each morning, because that’s the connection time with God. So that gets to stay because that’s what helps us create this habit and love this habit, right? And then as we do that, if we create a relationship in that quiet time, that is the best quiet time to have.
So let’s pray. Thank you so much, Lord, for the invitation to have a quiet time with You, to be able to come and dedicate a time in our day where we say, look, this is just You and me. I’m going to switch off the phone. I’m going to switch off all the other distractions, and I’m just going to concentrate on You. This is the time when I want to hear what You’re thinking, what you have to say and what that looks like. And I get to talk to You, too. So I bless you with this openness to be able to have a quiet time that you and God just love to be together, whatever that looks like in Jesus’ Name, Amen.