CSSM MB Summer Missionary Manual - General 7
SUGGESTIONS FOR YOUR QUIET TIME
A regular daily QUIET TIME with God is essential for growth toward Christian maturity. Here are some suggestions that you may find helpful in developing your own quiet time. Later you will want to share your practice with a friend and help him/her start a time. (2 Tim. 2:2)
The following comes from a tract by Bill McLeod of Canadian Revival Fellowship, entitled “STARTING THE DAY WITH GOD” (Box 584, Regina, Saskatchewan S4P 3A3). Our days so often go wrong because they do not START right. With the world, the flesh and the devil all bidding for our time you simply cannot afford the luxury of imagining that the day will go all right without guidance.
Here are some simple guidelines that have been a real blessing to many people.
1. Before rising from bed begin the program. First of all simply give God thanks for the night’s rest. Remember many people don’t even have a bed... Thank God for yours!
2. The second thing to do is to give the new day to the Lord. By an act of faith just put the day into the hands of God... The Bible says that our times are in the Lord’s hands. Psalm 31:15 We want Him to have the entire day.
3. The next thing to do is to pray the prayer found in Psalm 119:113, “Order my steps in the Word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” Gal. 2:20 Pray that God will not allow any sin to be master in the day.
4. The last thing to do is to ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit. Remember that Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist, used to say, “We are leaky vessels and we need to stay under the fountain all the time.”
This simple program will hardly take 5 minutes but if rightly done will bring blessing to you daily. This is not the entire devotional but simply a way to start the day with God.
Here are some thoughts from the late Dr. A. W. Tozer on “How to have Constant Victory in Christ”.
1. Get alone - Have your Bible - Set a specific time and place. Arrange the rest of the day around it.
2. PRAY THIS PRAYER. Father, turn the searchlight of the Holy Spirit on my heart and show me what is in my life displeasing to You. Psalm 139: 23, 24.
3. When God shows you something, admit it as sin. 1 John 1:7b - 9.
4. Give God your entire body - feet, hands, mouth, etc. Rom. 6:13; 12:1;
1 Cor. 6:19.
5. Give God your will - mind, emotions, desires. Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:2.