Category: 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time

Treasure: To Hold or Keep as Precious; Cherish

Who is a God like you . . .?
(Micah 7:18a NIV)

Children are precious. We treasure their tender hearts and we learn from their curious minds. Their laughter is contagious. Their quiet moments are rare, but when they are still, we usually find them nestled in their parent’s arms or curled up under the covers sleeping sweet dreams.

Jesus celebrates and welcomes the little ones. He encourages a childlike faith. In your quiet moments do you ever act childish? I don’t mean those spiritual tantrums, I am thinking about approaching God with wonder. When is the last time you got out a box of crayons and colored a Bible story? Or gathered some scissors, old magazines and a glue stick to make a collage?

Coloring and pasting appeal to my curious nature. I like to see what comes together with the images and colors. And often, I discover a topic that God wants to dialogue with me about. Like in the above collage, I sensed God asking me and possibly you: 

What do you treasure? 

And the reason I know this is a question God may be asking is that the Bible also speaks of this topic. (See Luke 12:34)

In 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time, Pam Farrel suggests, we approach our time with God like a child, literally. She suggests reading a children’s Bible, or reciting a child’s prayer or coloring a Sunday School paper or even having a quiet time with a child.

Here is what happened when she took her own advice:

 . . .one Sunday morning, I asked our eight-year-old son what he learned from Daddy’s sermon. Waiting for the typical, “Jesus loves me” answer, I was pleasantly surprised when he said, “You shouldn’t make up excuses not to obey God.” Wow! 

©Pam Farrel from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time (IVP). For more devotional books by Pam www.Love-wise.com


What youthful activity will you incorporate 
into your quiet moments today?


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Connect: To Place or Establish in a Relationship

[Jesus] said to them,
 “Come with me by yourselves 
to a quiet place and get some rest.” 
(Mark 6:31 NIV)
Jesus invites us into the quiet. He wants us to come away with him in the midst of our busy days. The day that Jesus beckoned his disciples, Mark recalls that so many people were coming and going that the disciples and Jesus had no time to eat. 

Jesus knew what his disciples needed. And He knows what we need. He wants to connect with us. He longs to offer us the rest we so desperately need, both physically and spiritually.

If you have been following Jesus for very long or have been around church people, you have heard of “having a quiet time.” Today, I want to explore and answer the question of why? Why are we encouraged to have a quiet time? Why does it matter?

The first point that Pam Farrel makes in her book, 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time, is that Jesus himself valued quiet time. She wonders aloud about the motivation of this sacred time we call quiet. She poses this question: “Why is it the right thing to do?” 

She looks to Jesus’ life and notes three outcomes of Jesus’ time with the Father. (There are more, I’m sure, but these three are a place to start.) 

Times that Jesus spent in God’s presence were instructional, relational and powerful.

Here are some insights, Scripture references and questions to ponder from the book:

Instructional: 
Jesus knew the Scriptures. Once around age twelve, his parents found him listening and asking questions with the teachers at the temple. (Luke 2:41-47) 

“time in the Word is like our physical skeleton, it is the framework on which our whole life is built.”

Relational:
Jesus listened to the Father. Before his ministry began, he spent forty days in the wilderness. “To discipline his heart to hear the voice of the Father. That’s why he knew how to handle Satan’s temptations.” (Luke 4:1-13)

“Like Jesus we need to communicate with the Father continually…”

Powerful:
Jesus’ power to raise Lazarus from the dead and to provide food for the crowds happen in conjunction with praying to the Father. (John 11:41-43, Mark 6:30-44, )

“Jesus wanted a connection. Before all the big moments of his earthly life, he connected to the Father.”

Ponder the following questions, 
during a quiet moment today:

What motivates you to spend time with God? Why have you been having a quiet time?


(Italics are either paraphrased summaries or direct quotes from Pam Farrel’s book, 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time.)

©Pam Farrel from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time (IVP). For more devotional books by Pam http://www.Love-wise.com


Posted on by kelrohlf 10

31 Days of Quiet


But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 
for it is light that makes everything visible. 
This is why it is said:

“Wake up , O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.” 
(Ephesians 5:13-14 NIV)

Think of the 31 Days of Quiet series as your personal pantry to spice up your devotions. Click here to see what’s been stocked so far.

Do you ever get bored or stuck in your relationship with God? Even if you did, would you admit it? Sometimes, I get stuck in a spiritual rut. Nothing seems to quicken my spirit. I feel dried out and thirsty. To help me overcome my spiritual apathy, I am dusting off a favorite book of mine from Pam Farrel. In her little book, 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time, she offers thirty suggestions to add variety to your times with God.


Each day this month, I will share some tidbits from her book, practice it in my own quiet time and then report in on how it went. I would love for you to join me here. If you do, feel free to drop by the comment box and let me know how it’s going.

Now, let’s listen in on what Pam has to say about variety and our quiet times…

As we creatively spend time with God, God becomes more real.

. . . the task at hand [is] to make the words of the Bible so real that Jesus isn’t some flannelboard God, but the intimate Savior, the indwelling Holy Spirit and the caring always-present Father.

I want to experience God with the range of emotions that he created me with. I want to see him work in a variety of settings to conform me to his image, so I want to give him lots of opportunities and lots of tools.

This book is dedicated to fellow travelers who long to respond to God, to be attentive to his voice.

These ideas are designed to counteract dryness or boredom, to provide relational connectedness if your quiet times have become academic or intellectual exercises or just to allow you to have a little fun and enjoy the presence of the One who created you. The ideas here are meant to spark your own ideas. Picture them as spiritual caffeine for your soul. Pour a big cup and drink your fill.

©Pam Farrel from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time (IVP). For more devotional books by Pam http://www.Love-wise.com

Linking up with the 31 Dayers at The Nester.

i'm doing it!
Posted on by kelrohlf 5