Choosing the Time, Passage, and Study Tools Well first, let's address the time of day to have your daily walk with God, I find the earlier the better, our example is in Mark's Gospel where we see Jesus getting up before the break of day to pray to the Father, for years I set my alarm clock at 4 .30am to set aside enough time to meet God and get in His Word, and a pastor friend of mine at the time who I was playing to church with, when he found out about how early I was having my daily quiet time, he made me promise that when I woke up, I would give him a telephone call to wake him up as well, because he wanted to do the same, well bless his heart, it didn't last long, his wife complained about those early morning phone calls at 4 .30, but you friend must choose a time of day that works best for you, if not first thing, then perhaps on your lunch break or some other time where you can slip away and have some privacy and get alone with God, but I personally have found rising early in the morning before any members of my family will give me the solitude to get alone with God, and that's the key and the key emphasis friend, your goal is to experience more of God and increase your faith and strengthen your walk with Him, now let's address what to study, some folks will do a lucky dip, they'll flip open their Bible and just study what turns up, I don't do it that way, sometimes I'll start in Genesis and slowly walk through the books of the Bible seeing if a certain verse or passage of scripture speaks to me that particular day, I may stay in the Old Testament or I may camp out in the New, but I pick a passage of scripture and carefully and prayerfully read over it, I meditate on it kind of like a cow, June or cud, you want to go over it until you digest it, I always have a pen in hand and I mark up my Bible and this is something that's been very helpful to me through the years friend, marking my Bible, I keep a pen in hand, I use a blue ink pile of G2 to mark and underline my Bible and if you were to go through one of my Bibles, you would find that just about every page is marked up in blue ink indicating where the Word of God has spoken to me and spoken to me there, I have words circled, underlined, I write my comments in the margin or on top of pages and at the bottom of pages, I draw pictures that are beside these texts that are meaningful to me that may signify a certain passage that spoke to me that morning, I'll highlight it and write the date beside it, I'll draw perhaps a little picture of a seascape to draw my attention to it, I know it's time to get a new Bible, when it becomes so marked up, I can't even read it anymore, now what kind of Bibles do I find helpful in my daily quiet time, I usually have three Bibles handy and I rotate between them or cross use them but they're all King James version, you can use what you choose but I choose the old King James, I preach out of the King James, I know I'm a dinosaur and most everyone else uses a more modern translation but the key is to use what you like to read but I do want to address the study Bibles which I prefer and which have been most helpful to me through the years, I find the following three study Bibles indispensable, the first is the key word study Bible, it has all the original Hebrew and Greek meanings which are extremely helpful to you if you don't speak Hebrew or Greek, next I use the Matthew Henry study Bible with the commentary of the Puritan Matthew Henry alongside each passage, George Whitefield kept the Matthew Henry Bible commentary beside him in his daily quiet time and Whitefield read his Bible on his knees, well I tried to do that for a season friends and I soon learned I was no Whitefield, I can't read my Bible on my knees but I can say I have learned from Matthew Henry a great deal that has enriched my walk with the Lord, the third Bible I find indispensable is the Thompson chain reference Bible, it's a systematic way to study the Bible through linking up words and themes, I wore out two copies through the years of this Thompson chain reference Bible and you may prefer to use it as well friends, I have a doctorate in biblical studies so these three Bibles helped me to stay sharp, now what is the emphasis of the daily quiet time, the obvious is Bible study and prayer, Stephen Oldford trained thousands of pastors from all over the world and he shared with me the shocking news that the average pastor he learned only spent 10 minutes a day in prayer, some believers well would like to have a prayer card or a prayer list of names to pray for and I found out it's helpful to get a copy of Operation World which has the statistics on spiritual needs for all the nations of the world, I kept a world globe in my study and I would read the needs of a country from Operation World, I'd read about China or Africa and then I'd kneel and place my hands on that particular country on my globe and I'd pray over it, oh the tear stains on that globe from those desperate times of prayer through the years, how we limit God friends by praying selfish prayers that only address the needs of our family and friends but are we praying for our communities, are we praying for our nation, are we praying for other nations especially those in the 1040 window, do we pray for missionaries like we need to, do we pray for Bible translation which is so necessary, do we pray for Bible distribution as we should, do we pray for the spread of the gospel like we should or are our prayers just preoccupied with only God bless me mine and ours, a man once confided to me he didn't know how to pray and he asked for some advice.