Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Discipleship Tuesday: The Quiet Time


After playing a rousing game of Clue as a family, we had a spontaneous discussion as a family about how to spend time alone with the Lord on a daily basis.  Evangelicals call this habit the quiet time, or the devotional life, or the morning watch, or the daily watch. 

Whatever we call it, it is one of the primary disciplines that Christian parents can pass on to their children.  The biblical witness shows godly men and women who learned to draw their strength from God day by day through prayer, Bible meditation, and the leadership of the Spirit of God.

My wife and I made age-appropriate suggestions to each child as to how they could spend time alone with the Lord daily.   Our eleven-year old daughter asked, "How do you decide what to read in the Bible?  Do you just open it and read whatever you find?"  Great question, honey.  So we talked about various ways to have Bible intake. 

We also encouraged the use of devotionals, while stressing that the most important thing to read is God's Word - not just what people write about the Bible.  The next morning it gladdened me to see my thirteen year old sitting on his bed with his Bible open and his copy of A Hobbit Devotional: Bilbo Baggins and the Bible.  Hendrix enthusiastically told me how the author compares the complacency of the Hobbits at the opening of Tolkien's story to that of the Israelites during the time of Deborah. 

Whatever methods we use, let's all take time to spend with our Maker each day. 

Adrian Rogers had great, simple advice in his article How to Have a Meaningful Quiet Time.

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