Do You Have a Quiet Time?

You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:4, NIV)

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. (Philippians 3:4-9, NIV)

Do you have a quiet time?

If you were raised a good Southern Baptist, like me, you have probably heard of the term. It is a daily time that we are taught to spend with God in devotion, Bible reading and prayer at the beginning of the day. If you were like me, you were taught that this was a good thing to do if you wanted to be a good Christian.

Let me give you my testimony. From the spring of my seventh grade year to my first semester in college, I had a quiet time every day, except one. That day was July 29, 1993, when, coming back from our church choir tour to Alaska we departed the airport at 10 PM Alaska Time to fly overnight to Atlanta, and then take a bus back to Birmingham. My routine was to pray and read a daily devotional magazine in the morning and then, before bedtime, to read chapters of the Bible as part of a plan to read the Bible through in a year. I did that – five consecutive years, to be exact!

Now before you judge that I am tooting my own horn or before you say “I wish my teenager would do that” let me tell you the pitfalls. I never understood why I was doing it. When I prayed, I prayed according to my needs and my little world. When I read a daily devotion, it rarely illumined a portion of scripture and helped me to understand God’s purposes in the world. Rather, I got bits and pieces of nice thoughts for youth. At least those devotions were written in solid prose rather than the “cool” language of youth today (I could not stand to be patronized as a youth). And, while reading my 1977 NASB (the most literal, but most difficult of the modern English Translations – I did not own an NIV until Christmas of 1994), I had nothing to guide me through the history of Israel, the prophets, the writings or the book of Revelation. Nevertheless, I read it. That was what I was supposed to do.

I imagine that many of you my age or older were taught in church that you are supposed to perform certain religious acts because that is what you were supposed to do. We are to worship each Sunday and Wednesday, give ten percent of our money, read our Bible and pray daily, and avoid certain vices like cursing, drinking, and sex outside of marriage. Rarely was it communicated why we are to do it. When people would ask why, either we were told not to question or we were told that God would bless us – meaning that God would twist our circumstances for our benefit in this life. As we get older, we realize that this is often not the case, yet we still are left with no answers to our questions.

God uses these habits to mold our character so that we can survive and thrive according to His Kingdom Vision in the midst of this chaotic world. We do not pray, worship, read scripture or brag about our private devotional lives so that others can see us. What they are to see are not our religious practices, but the fruit of them. They are to see people from all walks of life who have been changed by Christ and committed to His vision of the Kingdom of God coming together in community to use their gifts, talents and resources to transform society in word and in works.

We do not practice religious habits because God arbitrarily wants us to or because they “witness” to the world. Rather, God’s Spirit works through these habits to produce what the world is to see – fruit, and lasting fruit at that.

Grace and peace,

Tim