I recently completed a Bible reading plan and was looking for something new to study when it struck me… is a new Bible reading plan what God really wants from my quiet time?

As I began Googling verses about this, what I found challenged me and really started to shift my perspective to what we modern Christians do every day.

Here are 6 things scripture talks about that we should practice during our quiet time with God:

Prayer

This is an obvious one, but so very neglected. Of course reading the Bible is important, more to come on that next, but scripture tells us that Jesus’s quiet time was spent communicating with the Father in prayer. So shouldn’t that be our number one goal too? CS Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, says that a lack of prayer is the goal of our enemy because he knows that prayer is our most powerful offense.

In Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus taught us to pray in reverence to God and to align ourselves with his will, to pray for what we need as well as for forgiveness and deliverance from sin and Satan. That kind of prayer can only be prayed out of a heart of humility, reliance on God, confession and mercy.

Key verses: Jesus frequently went to pray (Luke 5:16). Draw near to the Father and he will draw near to you (James 4:8). Pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17).

Conclusion: A goal for our quiet time is not only to read the Bible but also to communicate directly with God in prayer.

Scripture

All that said, scripture is literally God speaking to us, giving us instruction on how to live. When we feel silence from God during prayer, we should go to the Word for direction, not ourselves, not others. It is our plumb line, reference point. The Word is where we receive wisdom for life, correction if we’re wrong, plus the hope and endurance to continue.

Traditionally, Jewish boys around 10 years old had the entire Torah memorized. So when Jesus was being tempted by Satan in the desert, he used his knowledge of scripture against the enemy. Satan will try to entice us into pride, selfishness, hate or else make us ineffective to God with depression, fear, and shame. Our best defense is scripture.

Key verses: Scripture is breathed out by God for our teaching, correction, and training that man may be equipped for good work (2 Tim 3:16-17). We have hope through endurance and scriptural instruction (Romans 15:4).

Conclusion: A goal for our quiet time is to read the Bible for direction, encouragement, and power against Satan’s attacks.

Meditation

I’m not talking about crystals and deep breathing. I’m talking about dwelling on God, his Word, his Creation, and what he’s done for us. To drive it home, here are some synonyms for meditate: muse, study, think, consider, ponder, ruminate, dwell, imagine.

The word picture is to be with something for a long time. Think of an artist or poet with a muse, a student with books, a human in a dwelling, a child’s imagination, a cow chewing cud. That repetitive thinking on is what we do with God and scripture so that we might do what the Word says.

Key verses: I will meditate on your statutes (Psalm 119:48). His delight is in the law on which he meditates day and night (Psalm 1:2). I meditate on all you have done; I ponder the work of your hands (Psalm 143:5). You shall meditate on it day and night so that you may do what is written (Joshua 1:8). I have stored up your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against you (Psalm 119:11).

Conclusion: A goal for our quiet time is to think on scripture/God until it changes our behavior.

Distractions

James 4:8, below, tells us that we are sinners and double-minded. We stumble into prayer and God’s presence with our baggage from the day: bitter thoughts and worldly distractions. Only when we cleanse and purify our mind can we fully appreciate and tune into God’s presence and will, not because of his inability to be in the presence of sin or his weakness, but our own.

Key verses: Cleanse your hands your sinners and purify your hearts, you double-minded (James 4:8).

Conclusion: A goal for our quiet time is to optimize our prayers by first purifying and centering our thoughts on Christ.

Solitude

There are a few reasons why solitude is a command that Jesus gives during his Sermon on the Mount: first, he’s asking us to walk away from the pride we get at other seeing us pray; and second, he’s asking us to give our full attention to him. We must cut out the distractions as well as the unholy vanity and come before our maker.

Key verses: When you pray, go into your room and shut the door (Matt 6:6). Jesus prayed on the mountain by himself (Matt 14:23), in secluded places (Mark 1:35), in the wilderness (Luke 5:16), alone (Luke 9:18).

Conclusion: A goal for our quiet time is to be alone with God, in humility and with our full attention on him.

Positioning

The Bible mentions a couple postures of prayer: bowing, kneeling, prostrate, lifted hands and eyes. But that doesn’t mean we have to do this to pray. Like with solitude, there’s a reason we should do it, but it doesn’t mean we always have to be alone or kneeling to pray because we know we’re supposed to pray without ceasing.

Taking up a posture of prayer simply helps us to focus, humble ourselves, and position our hearts to receive from God. Imagine a knight kneeling to offer his sword and life to his king, bowing to symbolize the respect towards an elder, or the eyes and hands of a child seeking help from its parent.

Key verses: Moses and David bowed down (Exodus 34:8 and Psalm 5:7). Solomon knelt down (2 Chron 6:13). Every knee will bow before Christ (Phil 2:10). Daniel had his windows open to Jerusalem and was on his knees three times a day (Daniel 6:10). Ezra and Jesus put their faces to the ground (Neh 8:6 and Matt 26:39). Lifted hands and eyes (1 Tim 2:8 and John 11:41 and Luke 9:16).

Conclusion: A goal for our quiet time is to position our hearts to receive from God by positioning our bodies to show reverence and servitude.

Final thoughts…

These six purposes for our quiet time invite us to answer the question… what is the purpose of a quiet time? Instead of thinking of it as something to check off the list every morning, we should think of it as a time to set our intention for the day. That is… to align ourselves with God and his will as well as to sacrifice both our desires and the 10, 30, 60 minutes of our day that we devote to him out of love and a desire to discipline our spirit.

So what does God really want from our quiet time? It’s not a simple formula of pray, read, meditate, repeat. I’m sure you’ve felt that on certain mornings too: spouting off prayer requests without any emotion behind them, forcing yourself on to the next chapter in your reading plan unrelated to what you’re going through, feeling guilty every time you find yourself distracted by a Facebook birthday notification.

It’s all about the heart. The next time you go to pick a Bible reading plan, devotional, or as you go into your quiet time tomorrow, ask yourself: Am I doing this out of love for God? Am I putting all my heart into this? Am I ready to receive from God and cut out areas he reveals to me? Am I doing this to discipline my spirit in the practice of reverence, humility, servitude, and cutting out distractions?

If the answer has been no, it’s okay. Luckily, we serve a merciful God who keeps chasing after us when we walk away, continues to knock on the door of our heart even after we closed that door in his face yesterday, and who gave us the simple answer over 3,000 years ago in the first two Commandments.

Jesus told them: “The most important Commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest Commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:37-40).