A PLAN for success

Bible study: Igniting a passion for God’s Word through effective Bible study practices and methods

Here are some ideas to get you off on the right footing with your quiet times:

a. Make time for God.
Prioritize Him into our lives. We make time to eat, rest, play, work, etc. But for some reason we neglect the One whom life is all about — Jesus. Eternal God stepped into time, became a man, suffered and died for us on a cruel cross. He gave His whole life for us — surely we can make time for Him. Set apart a regular time to have a quality meeting with God. How much time? Ask the Lord to lead and help you in this.
You know, we basically make time for the things we really want to do. And Dr. David Jeremiah probably said it best with, “We have about as much of God as we really want.”

Take a look at your day — write a list of what you do and for about how long (including sleep). Ex. Sleep: 8 hours; breakfast 10 min.; work & travel: 9 hours; lunch time: 1 hour; time with family, including dinner: 3 hours; TV & reading 1.5 hours; Quiet time: 1 hour.

Would you be willing to give up a meal time for the Lord? A half hour of sleep? Some TV? Use your lunch hour to spend time with God? Most believers have some kind of desire to spend time with God, but fall short with prioritizing it. They have crowded out God. They put people before God — food before God — sleep before God — TV before God — and work before God. And so they have put other “gods” before the One true God! In the first commandment we understand God’s heart to have Him in priority: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt — you shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exod. 20:1)

There are probably at least two mindsets about spending time with God:
“How much time do I have to spend with God?” (You know, so I won’t feel guilty about it)
“How much time can I spend with God?” (What can I not do so that I can spend more time with the God who loves me and in whom I have my whole purpose for living?)

What mindset do I have?
For those of us who see the importance but lack the motivation — we can begin by praying a little each day asking God to increase our motivation and help us to work out a plan to make a Quality Time work. Give the Lord time (days, weeks, months) to work into you the thing you are asking for. I often go to the Lord in my weakness and pray something like:
“Father, You are good. I am weak and unable in my flesh to do this thing I know you would have me do. Please help me in my weakness, Lord. Please work in me to have the wisdom, strength and motivation I need. I give You permission to change my desires, schedule, plans in order to accomplish this thing. Amen.”

b. Prepare our hearts.
Through repentance and prayer (1 John 1:9), let’s get our life and hearts clean so that nothing hinders us. If you have something against someone else — forgive them (Matt. 6:15). If we have grieved the Holy Spirit by acting or speaking “in the flesh” — confess it and seek the Lord’s cleansing. Have a clean heart before the Lord — if we don’t, then we cannot expect our QT to amount to anything.

c. Use a reading plan
Unless you have a specific study focus in mind, yearly reading plans are great to give us some direction each time we get before the Lord. They also help us to have a structured way to read all the way through the Bible. If a “through the Bible in a year” plan is too ambitious — do it in 2 years, or 3 years, or 5. And even if you have another focused, more in depth study, these yearly plans are great to do in addition.

d. Mix it up
A great recipe for a boring Bible study/ quality time with God: do it the same way day after day, month after month, year after year. Find ways to approach your QT with God that will make it fruitful and exciting for YOU.
• Use a good devotional book • Shift the weight of time between these: Bible reading, prayer, memorizing, in depth studies • Worship! • Sing to God •

e. Write it down
When the Lord teaches or reveals something to us in our QT, write it down so that we can revisit it often. Being a “forgetful hearer” (James 1) should not be our goal!

f. Apply what we learn
Learning is not our goal: heart transformation is! What good is it if we do not only learn? Better to learn a little and apply it than learn a lot and it only be “head-knowledge.”