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How to Do Quiet Time – Time Alone with God

Quiet time is one of the most essential aspects of your Christian life. Many Christians take some time reading the bible everyday. While it is very useful, just reading the bible will not lead you to much fuller Christian walk with Christ. You need to spend time in his words, study and learn from it everyday. Without daily regular quiet time, our spiritual life can be seriously malnourished just as our body can be mal-nutritioned without proper food and water!

Here I am presenting simple steps for how to do your daily quiet time.

Time

Quiet time should be about 10-15 minutes long. You can choose time according to you schedule. For some, morning works better, for others, night may work well. While, I recommend the morning time as you are much calmer and fresh, any time can work fine. It is also important to set fixed time everyday, as it brings discipline and consistency.

What do you need?

  • Bible (Book or an App)
    • Simple Bible or a good Study Bible
  • Note and Pen

You can occasionally refer to bible commentary or dictionary for difficult passages of bible. But I would recommend studying bible as it is and ask God for his guidance to understand the passage. It is a very good practice to take notes in your quiet time. You will be amazed when you will see your quiet time notes years later!

How To do Quiet Time?

Start with prayer:

  • Spend just few minutes in worship and thanksgiving.
  • Spend some time in asking God for forgiveness for our sins.
  • Ask for his guidance in today’s quiet time

Passage for Quiet time:

It is good to select any book of bible and read it continuously. It will help you to get the whole picture and can enjoy your quiet time more.  Select about 8-10 verses, don’t select whole chapter, as you may not be able to cover it all. Select small paragraph according to passage.

  • Read the paragraph for 2-3 times. This bible study method is also called ASPECT method. From the paragraph, ask the following questions. Don’t be too quick to come to application, before you understand the passage.
    • A – About God – What can you learn about God through this passage?
    • S – Sin – Does it talk about any sin?
    • P – Promise – Is there any promise in the word?
    • E – Example – Is there any example, I can follow?
    • C –Command – Which command I need to obey?
    • T – Teaching – What can I learn from this passage?

Concluding Prayer:

(Also check Inductive Bible Study Method: How to Guide)

Quiet Time Resources on Amazon:

Check out Quiet Time Bible Guide: 365 Days Through the New Testament and Psalms


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—Amit Christian (BibleSEO Editor)

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By Amit Christian

Founder and Author of BibleSEO (Bible Study Exposition Online), Bible study topics website, which offers free small group bible studies on various topics. His passion is to train, equip and inspire individual and small groups for life-changing bible study experience.
(Check my Google+ Profile at https://plus.google.com/u/0/108196373225656079903/)

41 replies on “How to Do Quiet Time – Time Alone with God”

I love this ASPECT method.
I sing some worship song with guitar, and read morning or evening page of Daily Light and after that, I choose one section that mentioned on the footnote of Daily Light, read some verses taking notes by ASPECT method. That works really well.
And I write down some prayers…

Praise God for his words. I am very much blessed by the guidelines given by you in your blog. I came to know very firmly that in the busy work schedules I must give time to study God’s word. i thank god for that. God bless you for your good efforts.

Thanks for this. Our Quiet Time is the most precious part of the day for my husband and me. Not only does it bring us closer to the Lord but also closer to each other as we share our walk together. Without God I doubt that we would have survived some of the traumas that have assailed us.

It’s good to see sites like this on the internet. I began writing 25 years ago when the Lord told me to comfort others with the comfort I’d received, and I have a number of books (including a No. 4 bestseller) and articles published since then. I’ve always had a heart for the lost, and a couple of years ago, I felt that the Lord was telling me to change the focus of my writing. So my latest book, based on my own experience, is written with non-Christians in mind, and deals with the subject of what it is to be a parent in pain (when your child goes off the rails) – a parallel with the Parent in pain (God) when we turn away from him.

I speak on the subject frequently at churches and conferences, and all proceeds from talks and sales of my books goes to two charities: Care for the Family (‘drug-proofing’ teenagers) and Tearfund (for HIV and AIDS projects). My blog, unlike yours, is not overtly Christian because I want it to be a place where non-Christians feel comfortable. My objective is to ‘bring hope to the hurting.’

Mel Menzies, author of A Painful Post Mortem, a story of love and loss.

That ASPECT plan is cool. I also saw this plan for daily devotions listed at http://www.dailydevotions.me:

HAVE A BASIC PLAN:
It’s been said, “lf you aim at nothing, you are sure to hit it!” To have a meaningful daily devotions, you will need a plan or some kind of general outline to follow for your quiet time. It could be something as simple as this:

BRIEFLY PRAY:
Invite Jesus to be with you (Psalm 139:23-24; 119:18).

PRAISE GOD:
Read a Psalm out loud to God or sing a praise song to get your heart and spirit in an attitude of worship. Daily devotions are a form of worship.

READ THE BIBLE:
Read slowly, systematically (not randomly) and read only a small amount. If you are on a Bible in a year reading plan then after you have finished your assigned reading choose a smaller portion of Scripture that you just read to review again more devotionally. You might want to try reading out loud as if the Lord were speaking to you personally.

MEDITATE:
You can meditate on Scripture by reading the passage out loud a few times, asking questions, memorizing a verse, reading in a couple of different translations, paraphrasing it in your own words, and so forth. Talk with God about how this verse relates to your life and how He wants you to practically apply this truth.

JOURNAL:
Write down any thought God gives you, as well as any applications.

CLOSE IN PRAYER:
After God has spoken His Word to you; speak to Him. Include times of adoration, worship, thanksgiving, confession, intercession, and petition. Occasionally vary your physical positions in prayer (kneeling/standing). Tell God how you desire to respond to Him today.

Thank you so much for this blog. I do my morning reading but I find myself just rushing through it sometimes when I am running late. I will take your suggestion of just reading verses instead of chapters in the morning and writing in my journal.

God Bless!!!

At this time where gadgets dominates our world, we tend to forget the One that gives us all this blessings. Thanks for this blog.I hope many Christians will be reminded to continue to spend quality time with the Lord.

[…] In all three answers, Jesus insisted on the ‘written’ word of God. Today, we have so much resources available related to the ‘Word of God’, that sometimes we are distracted from ‘the Word’. There is no alternative to the study and meditation of the Word of God daily. If Jesus learnt and used the God’s word, how much more do we should! (How to do quiet time – Time alone with God) […]

Thanks for the article. Recently started spending time with God and I will gladly try the ASPECT method. What I have discovered is that I find myself led to spend about 2 hours in the morning. I am just curious why “Quiet time SHOULD be about 10-15 minutes long”? Thanks again.

Thank you Stanley,

15 minutes should be the minimum time, one spend on their quiet time.
Psalms 1:2 – “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

I bless the name of the Lord on your behalf. Your article really bless my life. By morrow am to give a talk on “The Pastor & his quiet time”. ASPECT will be part of the methodology I’ll suggest. Thanks and God bless you.

I am a baby christian. I trying the quiet time with God. I printed the example on 1 John 4:7-12. Please explaine how the keywords came about and are they needed in future quiet times.

Thank you
Tammy

Just a little note to say thank you – this was a very helpfull site to read about QT

Dirkie du Plessis
Namibia

Thank you for this. I received confirmation from the timing of this post. I’m on the right track and I’m diving in… breaking through. I have been revealing my walk with the Lord and how spending time with Him is a great reward. As I walk through the fire, I diligently seek Him and bam… He guides. Check it out if you have time. I pray it blesses you –
Day 1 of turning to Him – http://serious-things.com/jesus-quenches-the-fire/

Day 2 – http://serious-things.com/faith-calms-the-storm/

and more to follow I’m sure..

Thanks for your obedience in posting.. I finished praying and asked God for continued guidance, and here it was. Praise the Lord.

ive been a Christian for so long., about 6 yrs. i was once serious about doing my daily devotion up to a certain time that i became busy of many other things other than doing my quiet time.,

now am having a hard time to bring back the quality of spending time with God,
thanks to your tips., simple but gives me the tendency to do it again., God bless., (*

I am blessed by the short but very important Article. I recall the “Quiet Time” as “Mountain Time”. Most saints ,starting from Moses,Prophet Debora,Prophet Elijah,Elisha, Habakuk, and also Lord Jesus, they take time in the mountain,i.e the quiet Time.In The Bible I found more than 50 names of mountains. God choose mountains to give his laws, God chose the Lord Jesus sucrificed and ascend on mountain. Therefore on mountains we will be filled by the HolySpirit for ever.

GodIsGood!

Nice “ASPECT”.. Im using “SPEC” only, but n0w i read this article maybe i can adopt your “ASPECT” now.. More power and Godbless.

Quite time is more necessary in our lives. One needs to meditate the word of God after being read. Remember, reading the bible must be distingushed from reading a news paper. May the love of God greatly abound in you guys and keep it up!

Interesting article on quiet time! It is really educative, informative and inspiring. I love it. God bless you real good.

I am a new christian and I was having a hard time trying to learn the bible on my own. This aspect method has opened up a new light and I am blessed because of it. I now know how to real study the bible and how to use it more in my life. Thank for such an uplifting site. Please keep it going. Bless you all.

I APPRECIATE THIS PIECE . I READ IT WHILE IN CHINA AND I HAVE POSTED TO MY LOVELY ONES TO FOLLOW SAME.
WE CHRISTAINS NEED A COSTANT REMINDER OF HOW TO TALK AND WALK WITH GOD.
THANKS FOR YOUR LOVE AND GOD BLESS YOU .

[…] with God so I’ll refer you to a great article I’ve come across entitled…you’ve got it, ”How to Do Quiet Time-Time Alone with God.”  Reply to this blog  and let me know what you think.  Again, the word says that we should, […]

i am so happy when i looked for this page, because i can study about God. there are a lot of knowledge i dont know. i pray God will help me understand the word of Him. i try to spend quiet time in prayers, read Bible which is the word of God.

I become a Christian a month ago and Father has blessed me with so much love.All the years he patiently waited for me and so readily embraced when I turned to him. Fellow brothers never give up on anyone Father wants us to be strong for them.

I cannot wait to get started as I am going through a very difficult time in my life. My 27 year old son is athe Duke Hospital waiting on a double lung transplant.I am left in Winston Salem NC with my 24 year old son that has no feet or no hands and only half of a tongue and a 92 year mother in law but my God will never put more on me than I can take. This study will help me get through these dark days.

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