How's Your "Quiet Time" With God Going?

Well, here’s a finding from a number of surveys on spiritual growth that have been done over the past few years. Ready? Here it is:

Engaging in personal spiritual disciplines is the most powerful catalyst for spiritual growth.

I know, this doesn’t exactly qualify as an earth-shattering insight for those who are relatively familiar with the Christian faith. The helpfulness of the finding is in the understanding of it’s level of IMPORTANCE to spiritual growth. The results of these surveys are not saying that “personal spiritual disciplines” are the ONLY catalyst for spiritual growth, however, they are saying that this factor was discovered to be “the most powerful catalyst.”

Here is what is meant by “personal spiritual disciplines”: personal Bible reading and study, including reflection on Scripture; prayer in which sins are confessed and time is spent talking to God and quietly listening to God for direction and challenge; and time spent in solitude with God.

Here’s another way of saying all this:  The most important factor—again, not the ONLY factor—but the most important contributing factor to spiritual growth is for a person to have a personal “quiet time” or “devotional time”. Think about the numerous references in Scripture to Jesus going away by himself to a quiet place to pray; this would be a “personal spiritual discipline”.

Here’s a comment that I have read several times in literature that has to do with this finding about the importance of personal spiritual disciplines: This practice “cannot be overemphasized”.  So, I’m presenting this information to you as something that I cannot overemphasize.

If spiritual growth is important to us—and I believe it is—then it’s really important for us to learn to develop a private devotional time and make a firm commitment to engaging in that personal time regularly (daily).

By the way, do you have a daily quiet time with God?

I’m just asking because it is the most powerful catalyst for…alright, I know, you’ve heard that part already.

Again, I know that for many of us this is really obvious information. It’s basic. You’re saying, “Gee Dan, tell me something I wasn’t already aware of! This isn’t anything new.”

Okay. Okay. I realize that you’ve probably heard about personal spiritual disciplines before but: #1) just because you KNOW about them doesn’t mean you DO them—consider this is a gentle nudge to do them.  And #2) I’ve been assured that this “cannot be overemphasized”. So, I’m emphasizing it. But, apparently, I’m not OVER-emphasizing it, since it “cannot be….” oh, you get the point.