Ok, so I haven’t walked into a gym since college. I’ve spent my workout time doing outside workouts or just plain running. Well that’s about to change as I prepare to go to a gym for the first time since college. I’m realizing now I have no idea what I’m doing.
Que my searching the internet for gym workouts. Which, as you can imagine, was a bit overwhelming.
This got my wheels turning and brought back a lot of the same emotions I felt when I first starting delving into the bible. Much like now I was overwhelmed and had a ton of bible study tools at my finger tips.
I began to realize the similarities and how those emotions drove me farther away from truly understanding his word. If you’re at that spot in your faith and you find yourself staring at bible study books like I’m staring at gym workouts, this ones for you. So I’m going to share with you how I lay out my time with the Lord in hopes that you feel a little less overwhelmed when you’re staring at your bible.
I do pick up devotionals and bible studies with groups but my quiet time is something I cherish because it truly is an experience with the Lord. During my quiet time I journal for many reason but mainly because it works for me. It is not necessary.
First, I go into it my quiet time with no time frame in mind. I may be there an hour, I may be there fifteen minutes. In the beginning I would only a lot for 15-30 minutes, I now give myself an hour or more. This is not by my own accord. Gods’ goodness and faithfulness has changed me and I look forward to the time now. It was not always like this, though. It took a lot of baby steps.
Next, I put on some worship music and I ask for forgiveness. I present the sins I am guilty of and I lay them down to the Lord. Once done, I ask the Lord to use this time to fill me with him so that I can enter the day doing better than yesterday.
I don’t dive into the bible just yet and here is why. I get sooooo distracted you guys. There are things I have to get out so that I can truly just be in his word. This is when I lift all of my prayers. I say all my thankfuls and all the prayers. If I’m praying for certain people, I lift them up here. I write all of these down. I write these down because one day those prayers will be answered and you better believe my journal will be proof of the Lord to my girls.
After I am done getting all of those prayers to the Lord, I ask for wisdom. Often, I will specifically ask for wisdom on a certain struggle or issue I personally am facing. God makes it very clear that if you ask for wisdom, he will give it to you. So I do. I then read two verses of proverbs. I literally started with proverbs 1:1. I pray over them and then I pray that I can use that wisdom to understand the words that I am about to read.
Finally, I dive in to the bible. I pick a book of the bible and read a chapter a day. If it’s a longer chapter, I split it up. I’m not going to go into the specifics on how I read the bible because I think that is a post for another day. I will say, I highly recommend starting in the new testament first. Get to know Jesus.
Once, I’m done reading his word and journaling through it, I bow my head in prayer and ask for the application. I look at the issue in the chapter. Is it a chapter about hope, justice, forgiveness, obedience, anger, leadership, pride, etc.?
Lastly, I do some self reflecting and end in thankfulness and prayer over the application in my own life.
This lay out has grown me closer to the Lord in a huge way. Each part of this set up can be shortened so that it fits into your time frame. I didn’t dive into proverbs in the beginning of my walk. I didn’t always journal the way I do now. I’ve added and taken away over time. You will too.
No matter what, remember, God just wants the time with you. He wants to share his love with you. The beautiful thing about that is, he can do that in minutes. He doesn’t need an hour, he doesn’t need a devotional, he just needs you.
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