Daily Time Alone with God

During my years as a follower of Jesus Christ I have dabbled in various daily devotions, prayer time, and Bible reading. I say dabble because I never found anything that I could stick with. To be honest, most of the devotional time I had, seemed simply shallow. I guess I thought that if it was just shallow, do-it-out-of-duty "devotions," why bother? Still, I never completely gave up. I would try something new from time to time. Furthermore, I would sometimes feel guilty about reading books by Christian authors because "I hadn't even read the Bible yet today."

It's been a struggle.

In the fall of 2005, Life Action Ministries visited our church for two weeks of revival meetings. One of the things they taught was how to spend "a daily hour with God." An hour? I hadn't even managed a consistent daily five minutes at this point. My thought was, "Yeah right."

Earlier this year as I was reading an issue of Life Action's Spirit of Revival magazine, I came upon an article that re-outlined the Daily Hour with God.

At that point I was up to a usual 15 minutes of some prayer and a little christian-author reading. So, I decided to give this "daily hour" a shot. Getting out of bed 20 minutes earlier and getting ready for work 10 minutes quicker would give me about 45 minutes. That was about three months ago. I can honestly say that during the past three months I have spent consistent, meaningful, daily time with God.

I think I have only missed four days during the three months. I don't say that to brag. I'm just super excited about what God has shown me through Life Action. . . how to spend time with Him.

Here's the Hour with God outline:

• Confession: Sin is the greatest roadblock to prayer; early in your prayer time, confess and ask for forgiveness - agree with God about your sin. (Psalm 139:23-24; 51:10-11; 1 John 1:9)
  


• Praise: Dwell on God’s attributes. He is an awesome God! (Psalm 34:1-3; 63:3)
  


• Waiting: Quiet your mind and heart before God; focus on Him, being quiet in His presence. (Psalm 37:7; Isaiah 40:31)
  


• Scripture: As you open your Bible, ask God to bless you with concentration and understanding as you read His word. (2 Timothy 3:16; Psalm 19:7-8)
  


• Intercession: Develop a list of names of others to uphold in prayer. (1 Tim 2:1-2; Psalm. 2:8)
  


• Petition: Make a list of your own personal needs, and check them off as God answers prayer. (Matthew 7:7; James 4:2)
  


• Thanksgiving: Thank God for what He has done. We have so much to be grateful for!
  (Philippians 4:6; Psalm 100:4)
  


• Singing: Sing Scripture back to the Lord, or use your favorite hymnal or worship CD.
  (Psalm100:2; Ephesians 5:19)
  


• Meditation: Actively ponder and digest a passage of Scripture or a character trait of God. (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1-2)
  


• Listening: Ask God for specific direction concerning the day’s activities. (1 Kings 19:11-12; Psalm 46:10)
  


• Psalms: Read a psalm, and pray back portions to the Lord. (Psalm 95:2; 147:1)
  


• Praise: You began your time with praise. What better way to end it? (Psalm 50:23; 150:1-2)

A few thoughts.

• I usually spend 25 - 45 minutes for my Time Alone with God. (Not a whole hour.)
  


• Three of the days I missed were Saturdays, when I'm not in my usual routine. I don't have much of a routine during the summer either, so it will be more of a challenge. (August 2008 Update - Summer was more of a challenge. A lot of days Landen was awake before me, which really threw off my routine. I did lousy in July. I'm ready for the routine of the school year again.)
  


• I usually skip the Singing one. I would like to get an MP3 player or something I could use for that though. (August 2008 Update - We did get an MP3 player with speakers so I can listen to it in the shower.)
  


• Sometimes I read Proverbs instead of Psalms. If I read Proverbs, I read the chapter that corresponds to whatever day of the month it is.
  


• Having 12 items to work through during this daily time helps keep the time focused, although I still have to fight against simply daydreaming. (Yesterday, during the Waiting time, I had half of a novel written about two sets of twin sisters, the "good" set and the "bad" set, then in the end one of the members of the bad set accidentally kills a member of the good set.) I know, hardly quieting my mind and heart before God. But like I said, I have to fight against daydreaming.
  


• My favorite parts of this Daily Time Alone with God are Confession and Listening. Confession, because it removes barriers to God and helps me live according to God's will. Listening, because I get the chance to practice listening for the Voice of God.
  
  
• I'm not rigid about how long I spend on each, skipping here and there or being interrupted. (I always appreciated how my mom would drop her "quiet time" for me if I needed her. Maybe she was setting the example of how God is always there for us.)
  


• If daily time with God is something you struggle with, I hope you will give this method a try.
  


• I will ask Life Action if I can post a scan of the page from their magazine. But for now, here is a link to a pdf file of the plan. (August 2008 Update - Life Action did grant me permission to post their magazine page - here is the pdf of that page.

One last thing,

this guy also blogged about Life Action's Spend an Hour with God plan. He's got a slightly different take than me. But it seems to work for him too. And hey, he typed the plan so I didn't have to. I think I owe him a link.