Quiet Time — Stephen Olford

Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone

Chapter 8, and thus one. The words of God through Moses to his people. Words from which our Savior quoted, you remember, in the Temptation in the Wilderness. All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live and multiply and go in possess the land which the Lord sware unto your father.

And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no.

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna which thou wouldst not, neither did thy fathers know. Now notice this, all this happens, all this happens, that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only.

That may be important to keep body and soul together. Most of the world is doing nothing but living for bread. That he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only. But, this is the positive statement, by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord, doth man live.

Now I don't know if that hits you with the impact that reached my heart this morning in re-reading it. This is all that really matters outside of tent-making, just to keep soul and body together. That I hear his voice every day.

That a word is spoken to my heart every day, and that I live by that word. Well now, just a moment's prayer, and then right into our message. O Lord, open thou our hearts and our minds, that we might receive wondrous things, out of thy word, for thy blessed name's sake, amen.

The Vital Necessity of a Daily Quiet Time

If I were to come down alongside of you this morning and ask you whether or not you considered the quiet time, or the devotional hour, the morning walk, whatever you like to call it, was important in your life, there wouldn't be one of you Christian workers here, who would say yes, this was very important indeed.

But I wonder how many of you would look up and say, ah it's far more than important, it's far more than important. This is absolutely vital, absolutely vital. I want to confess, and confess very humbly, that throughout my whole Christian experience, I've never found anything more difficult than having my quiet time.

It's harder to have my quiet time in that disciplined fashion today, than when I was first converted, when I yielded my life to the Lord Jesus, in totalitarian surrender, or during the crusades and missions and churches I have pastored.

I find it harder today, than all the years behind me. And I've discovered that the devil's far more concerned at wrecking my quiet time, than he is at stopping me from talking to people, or even preaching, or even engaging in Christian work.

For if he, if he strikes strategically enough, at my quiet time, and ruins me there, the rest is only a matter of time, and it'll all collapse. I know missionaries, and I've toured some of the mission stations, where plenty of work is being done, where the medicines are being dispensed, the school teaching is going on, the bible readings are being taken, but the mystery is being, listen carefully, is being sabotaged, slowly, subtly, but surely, by the neglect of his quiet time.

And sooner or later, incompatibility will follow. Sooner or later, the nervous breakdown will come. Sooner or later, spiritual, spiritual decadence and departure, backsliding will come. Sooner or later, the mission will collapse under some moral pressure.

And it happened again, and again, and again. Do you have a quiet time? Do you have a daily quiet time? I want to discuss this morning a terrific few, you'll have to take your notes in shorthand, three very simple, very simple principles, but I want to say quite a lot about them.

The Quiet Time as Deliberate Communion With God

First of all, what I'm going to call the reasons for your daily quiet time, and by that daily quiet time, I mean that deliberately planned time when you're alone with God, in the light of his word, in the atmosphere of prayer, to do business with him.

I'm now not speaking of study period, please mark that. I'm not speaking of sermon preparation, I'm not speaking of study period, nor am I speaking of reading the bible for the knowledge of the word. That is to say, book by book, book by book, seven or eight books a day.

No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about this shut-in time with God, where you are exposing your soul to his light, and your heart to his voice, and you're going to spend time alone with God, frequently, to take in the breath from heaven, and his word from this holy revelation.

I'm talking about the quiet time in that sense. Now, the reason for the quiet time. Well, I believe Jesus summed it up for us in his quotation from Deuteronomy chapter 8, when he said in Matthew 4 -4, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

It's an interesting phrase, that the word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Many people imagine that having the quiet time is memorizing scripture. I'm all for memorizing scripture. I'm constantly doing it myself, but that's not having the quiet time.

Using the sword of the Lord isn't carrying the bible in your pocket, and it isn't merely repeating it parapsychal. I'm interested to discover, Dr. Maxwell, that that word means every spoken word of God.

Every spoken word of God. I believe that the quiet time is a living encounter with the living word in the written word. Not just reading, not just reading poetry, not just reading literature, not just reading theology, not just reading biblical truth.

It's meeting Christ livingly through the word. Every spoken word. He must speak to me. I mustn't leave the place of prayer until I know he has spoken to me. And Jesus said, man shall live by it. That's how life is maintained.

Man shall live by every word that is spoken out of the mouth of God. Now stop a moment and just think. There isn't anything that exists today that hasn't come out of the spoken word of God. The entire universe and its vast outreaches came into existence by a spoken word.

Every blade of grass out there, if you can see it this morning, or every of every tree, stands and exists and comes it by the outgoing of divine all the time. There is nothing that exists or comes it held together but by the outgoing of the word of God.

What is true in the physical realm is equally true in the spiritual realm. My life is maintained and sustained by the outgoing of the word of God to my soul every day. In other words, the word of God is absolutely vital for a number of things.

Scripture for Spiritual Growth and Constitution

We'll put down the first one for your spiritual constitution, your growth. If you happen to be newly born in the Christian family, then listen. Peter is speaking. He says, you born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

And I'm prepared to challenge the reality of the Christian experience of anyone in this audience this morning who says they can go through one week, two weeks, three weeks, a month and months without reading the word of God, dear mother Christian.

For just as that tiny little baby that's normal cries out for its mother's milk without being taught to do so because God has given it the nature to desire the milk by which to grow, so every true Christian is given a nature, a spiritual nature, a nature from heaven which cries out for the milk of the word.

And without the milk of the word, there'd be utter dissatisfaction and crying of heart. A newborn babe's desire the sincere milk of the word that she may grow thereby. I, you say, but I'm not a newborn babe.

I've been on the way a long time. Very well, there's a verse for you. Strong meats belongest to them that are full grown. So you can't get out of it. Whether it's the milk or the meat, it's absolutely vital for your spiritual constitution.

All that you might pray with Solomon every day, feed me, Lord, with food Solomon vital for spiritual constitution is absolutely vital for spiritual cleansing or correction. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for approval, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works.

It's vital for correction. Did you notice that correction? Now I hold very firmly the conviction that when I come to the cross as a sinner and I'm cleansed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that blood speaks for me forever.

And as I walk in the light, as he is in the light, that blood continues to speak before and upon the throne for me continually. And cleansing can be made real in my life by virtue of that blood once and forever shed.

But do you notice in your reading of the Old Testament that whereas the priest had the blood applied once on his right ear, on his right thumb, on his right toe, once what he had to do every day was to wash at the labor.

And I believe that's reading the Word of God, the washing of the Word at the labor. And you know what happened to any priest only by to try to touch the work of God or offer a sacrifice without washing at the labor?

He was death at once. Have you ever asked yourself why the work of God which you do and touch seems to be dead and without life? Have you ever asked yourself why it is, why it is? Life doesn't quicken, doesn't come from heaven with the breath of the Spirit upon your preaching and upon the work of your hands.

It may be that you're not washing at the labor. Do you remember how the Lord Jesus said to Peter when Peter said, no you're not going to wash me, you're not going to wash me very well, said Jesus. If I don't wash you, you have no fellowship with me, you no have no part with me whatsoever.

He said, well then wash me, said he forth. Wasn't that Peter all over? Yes, that's Peter. And Jesus said to him, listen, he that is bathed or bathed, one different word, not same, not same word as in your authorized version, it's washed each time there, he that is bathed or bathed, save not, save not to wash, save not to wash except his feet.

It's the feet, walking the dusty pilgrim journey that has to be washed every day at the labor of the word. The blood of the feet, I'm clean, I'm clean before I paint my feet. Why my hands? Well in the Old Testament it was hands and feet because, because man was still working for his salvation.

Now thank God, now thank God the work is done and it's our feet, it's our feet. Our daily walk has to be washed by the labor of the word. Let me go a little further. When the Lord Jesus Christ, when the Lord Jesus Christ had given that glorious upper room discourse, you remember how he finished?

He said, now you're clean or purged through the word that I have spoken unto you. Praise high priestly prayer. He said, father, sanctify them according to thy truth. Thy word is truth. Sanctify them according to thy truth.

David cries in psalm 119, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? Answer, by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Correction and cleansing every day. Incidentally that word youth in the psalm there is a tremendous word.

Harnessing the Energies of Youth According to Scripture

We've not had time to break it up. Dr. Campbell Morgan points out in one of his, one of his books that that word youth in that psalm derives from a root which means the mane of a lion. You ask yourself what on earth has that got to do with me?

Remember it's youth. I've been in the bushes of central Africa, 13 years of my life. I've watched the great monarch of the forest. I've seen him cut a car with his mighty majestic mane waving to and fro.

I've seen him nappied in blood in conflict. I've seen him standing erect in fury. I've seen it pouring from side to side with his restive restlessness. And I said, that's the picture of youth. Emotions, sometimes battle, sometimes in conflict, sometimes in fury, sometimes being misunderstood, sometimes not understanding.

Wherewithal shall all those created energies that want expression but no, don't know how to express themselves, how will they be harnessed? How will they be brought into, into line with the purpose of God?

David says, by taking heed therefore according to thy word. It's vital for spiritual constitution. It's vital for spiritual cleansing. The quiet time is absolutely vital for spiritual guidance. Therefore counsel, counsel me according to thy word, says the Father.

And again, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. What for? For doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in the right ways of living, righteousness. And I believe this is a book, not of rules, but of great principles.

And I believe that no one can read this Bible continuously in the presence of God and in the atmosphere of prayer without being, without being equipped with the great principles of right and wrong that bring, that bring decision and decisiveness and purposefulness in all matters of counsel and direction in everyday life.

Though the Holy Spirit uses the word of God, and although the Christian testimony of the church and of history, and although the experience counsel of believers in my own day are all helpful, finally it's the word of God which is our guidebook.

Our guidebook. It's absolutely vital for spiritual conflict. Now here we're touching a great subject. We could spend the whole time on this, spiritual conflict. My dear young friend, you can't win the battle against the devil without this living word.

The Word of God in Spiritual Conflict

When the devil is discovered to us in Ephesians chapter 6, in all his ugliness, you notice what Paul says, having discussed the defensive armor, he now talks about the two offensive weapons. One is all prayer, but the other is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

And you know in the Greek, that word, the word of God there, is exactly the same as Matthew 4 .4, the spoken word of God. How many Christians have said, have you got your sword? And they put up the Bible.

The Bible there is absolutely nothing, unless it becomes personal living experience in terms of battle with the enemy. Let me just give you a little bit of sanctified speculation and imagination. I trust, I trust I'm not going beyond, but I have the feeling that when the Lord Jesus, after being baptized in Jordan, was carried by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tested and tempted of the devil, he was reading the book of Deuteronomy.

Because I believe Paul 1 is a beautiful picture of my Savior upon his law, that he meditates day and night. He never missed his quiet time. He opened up my ear morning by morning. And he literally lived in that book.

Because it is the great battle book of the children of Israel. It is the book of joy. It is the book of deliverance. It is the book of victory. He knew, he knew what he might be in need of. The devil attacks him along the line of the body and out comes the sword of the spirit from a living experience of Deuteronomy.

And he quotes, it is written. The devil attacks him along the line of the soul, out comes the spirit again. It is written, the word of the spirit. The devil attacks him along the line of the spirit, out again comes that sword of the spirit from personal experience.

It is written. And the devil leaves him for a season. John the Apostle writes to his converts and he says, I write unto you young men because you are strong and the word of God abided in you and ye have overcome the evil one.

And I want to tell you from personal experience, quoting text doesn't drive the devil away. It's when I face the devil in the light of the word which has become living to me. And Revelation chapter 12 becomes true.

They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and what? The word of their testimony. The word made live in me in terms of personal experience. That's the false trust that made the devil there. It's absolutely vital for conflict.

Communion With God Through the Word

So let's go further. If that is not reason enough for the quiet time. And I could add many more. I want to add one last one as time is going and I've got other things I want to say. I believe the quiet time is absolutely vital for spiritual communion.

These people who tell me that they can go out into the countryside and look up into the sky and see the trees and the birds and have communion with God, have my sympathy because nothing, nothing awes me more and draws out a sense of worship than to be in the countryside.

I remember the first time I ever went to Switzerland looking out of the window having arrived at the dead of night. I hadn't seen the hills. I hadn't seen the snow and I hadn't seen that glorious country of Switzerland.

And I looked out of the window. My wife was with me. We were celebrating our 10th anniversary. And one look at that glorious, panoramic scenic beauty made me drop on my knees and wheeze like a child. I was so moved.

That isn't that I'm not aesthetically affected in that way. But my dear friend, I want to add very quickly, deep, beautiful, intimate communion is only in the book. And beware of the oxford group people and the moral rearmament people who tell you to sit still and wait blank until something comes into your mind, then write it down and go and do it.

It's a lot of satanic lies. Communion is in the word. And I believe the Lord Jesus meant this when he looked into the face of a frauded, shameful, sinful woman at the well-cited by car and said, the Father speaks of such, such as you are, such as you are, you woman of Samaria, to worship him.

The Lord Jesus didn't want a drink of water from the well. You know that as well as I do. Nor did he want the disciple sandwiches. Jesus was looking beyond water to the now that these children worship of a redeemed soul.

And he was waiting for that glorious moment when that woman would see the truth and stoop and drink and leave. And Jesus said, I want to drink from your mouth. Give me a drink. But she didn't understand.

Jesus said, the Father speak of such to worship him. For they that worship him must worship him in faith and in truth. Where truth can carry the thought of reality and integrity and sincerity. We all know that, but I believe it has more than that.

It's according to truth. We worship God according to truth. And I believe with all my heart that the Bible in the final analysis is a love letter from God to me. And I've had many a love letter from my wife in which there's been rebuke or instruction or a searching remark.

I needed it. And there are many things that search, many things that exhort, many things that command in this book. But most of it is God's self-disclosure of a heart of love to me. And he waits to meet with me.

Did you know this, my beloved friend, that God has a Christly place, as we say in England, a Christly place with you every day. I wonder how often you disappoint his heart by never keeping the appointment.

There was a time when my quiet time was a duty and a demand. That's all gone now. That's all gone now. The incentive for having my quiet time isn't just a clear delight. And if I've got to go through storm and fire and telephone calls and all the manner of things and even the misunderstanding of my best friends and even of my family, I must lock myself away to keep my Christ with God.

He wants to meet with me. The God of the universe, the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal God of the universe wants to meet with me. He wants to drink from my life of legions and devotion. He wants to turn into deeper discipleship.

He wants me to worship him. Could there be a greater incentive than that to meet with him? To be vital for spiritual communion. Can you tell me that you're ever going to miss your quiet time again? Now, just for a change, and as fast as I can go, let me just suggest what I'm going to call some requirements for the quiet time.

The Bible, Notebook, and Prayer List

Here I'll pass along very swiftly because I know most of this is elementary. But let's start fundamentally. First thing you need is a Bible. And a good Bible. A Bible you can read. You discourage yourself from having your quiet time by having something so tiny that you can't read.

I suggest, and this is not being dogmatic, I'm just suggesting, that you never put annotations in your quiet time Bible. By all means cover your study Bible with all the annotations you like, but not in your quiet time Bible.

So that as you come through the page, it's absolutely fresh. And there are no notes that are going to start your mind operating along lines that you've studied before. You may have, like my dear friend Ivor Powell, pigeonholed mind.

And the moment one thought is suggested, his whole mind travels along prepared lines. He was telling me that yesterday. And I share that largely with him. One tiny little note in the edge of my Bible will give me a whole line of proof that I've studied before.

Keep your page clean for your quiet time. Secondly, so that you won't miss anything, have a notebook. While you don't put any marks on your Bible, keep your notebook. A quiet time notebook. I have a whole shelf of them and I would sell most of my commentary rather than lose my quiet time notebook.

Practically all my ministry subsequently, subsequently, have derived their first thought, their norm, their suggestiveness, from my quiet time book as I've gone back to them. We'll come back to that in a moment, as to what we put in the notebook.

Have a prayer list, or a little prayer book. I suggest a loose leaf book, so that you can always add pages and subtract pages when all the matters that are there for consideration in prayer has been answered.

And please have a system for your prayer life. Learn how to be systematic in your intercessory prayer. We're not talking about worship and adoration at the moment. We'll come to that. I'm talking about your intercessory prayer.

A Systematic Pattern for Intercessory Prayer

Some of you heard me say the other morning that I prayed for Ivor Powell on a Wednesday. Well, I meant that. That wasn't just the drop of a word. No, I mean that. You say, how is that? Because I have a very simple mind.

And I use a very simple method. In fact, my wife and I share it. And although it can be developed ad infinitum, the simple method is just this. We start at Monday and go through to Sunday. Monday, M. M stands for missionary.

For all our missionaries get a very special praying for on a Monday. P Tuesday is Thanksgiving Day. A girl at Moody Bible Institute convicted me tremendously on one occasion when she came and said, Pastor Olford, you know, the greatest blessing I ever had in my life was having completed the reading of the Psalms to put down side by side how many times David praised God and how many times David asked God.

When I learned that proportion, she said, I decided to set aside one day for Thanksgiving every day, every week. Now, thank God every day. And in a general sense, I pray for missions every day, but they're specifically prayed for every Monday.

And Tuesday is Thanksgiving Day. When my wife and I, when we have our quiet time, devotional times together, by the way, we always have our quiet time separately. Always. There are some things I want God to do in my heart that require absolute apology.

And although we have our devotions around the table with our two little boys and we have our prayers together, my wife and I in the evening, my quiet time is always alone. Always alone. But we like to thank God for all the answers to prayer, especially on a Tuesday.

Wednesday, workers. And I make the distinction between home workers and foreign missionaries in the term workers. I pray for this man every Wednesday. I pray for Billy Graham every Wednesday. I pray for Alan Redcott every Wednesday.

I pray for some of my evangelist friends in England every Wednesday. Tuesday, Thursday, past, past. The job God's given me to do, in a sense in which I pray for that every day, but particularly to have a complete work over on a Thursday.

Friday, the family under fire. We pray for every member of the family, especially unconverted ones, on a Friday. Every Saturday, the faith. Have you ever thought how often the Apostle Paul speaks of praying for the saints?

And our whole church constitution and constituency are brought into the presence of God on a Saturday. And especially the babes in Christ. Do you know why we're not seeing better Christians today? Because there's not enough prayer for faith.

There's not enough prayer daily until Christ is formed in them. And then Sunday for sinners. You'd expect that, wouldn't you? And all the people I'm contacting, some folk I've met over television and so on, I put down for Sunday prayers that God will bring them through into the kingdom.

Now, here's a simple one. Now, work one out for yourself. Bible, notebook, prayer list. Then, my friend, this is not going to be difficult here because you're in a training center where time is made for you and a place is made for you.

Time, Place, and an Expectant Spirit

But three little things, a time, a place, and an expectant spirit. A time, a place, and an expectant spirit. But since there are visitors here, my friend, they can ask me how long you should spend with God.

My answer to that is this. I can have more, more intimacy and blessing and power and meaningfulness and sacredness and a quiet time in five minutes than five hours with my eye on the watch. Samuel Chadwick says hurry is the death of prayer.

But my answer to your question is how long I'll say as long as you can give God. And if that means three times a day like the psalmist, morning, noon, and evening, fine. But the system I am sharing with you that I have used now for many, many years, one full hour every morning to God for my quiet time.

And my friend, you've got to plan that time. That time will not come fortuitously. It won't come by chance. You'll never drift into having a quiet time. May I tell you when's the hardest time to ever have a quiet time?

When I'm on holiday. When the whole day is mine. And I just say, well, all the day is mine. I'll soon have an hour. And it's evening before you've really got to drift with God. But in my planned day with a quarter of an hour scheduled right throughout the day of administrative work, out of thousands of letters from television and radio, with all the pastoral responsibilities and the preaching commitments of a city church, every hour of the day has to be planned.

And the hour with God comes first. Have a quiet place. You may not be the type I am, but I cannot have a quiet time really intelligently with a lot of noise around. And by noise, I mean, intimate noise, people speaking and carrying my thoughts away.

I don't mind distance noise. You say to me, but you don't know where I live. We have 16 children in our home and television and radio going the same time. Well, listen, my friends, where there's a will, there's a way.

The Lord Jesus hadn't a place to lay his head, but he never missed his quiet time. Mark 1 .35, he rising up a great while before it was day, went out into a solitary place and there prayed. That was his want.

He never missed it. And if the green sod was his praying mat, and if the foliage of the mountains his womb, and the canopy of heaven his quietness, well, he had his quiet time. Now an expectant spirit, you know, an expectant spirit is, is part of three ingredients.

Discipline of Body, Moral Cleansing, and Obedience

Spirit, soul, and body. Let's start with body first of all. That's where discipline is needed. Paul says, I keep my body under. I tumble it like a, like a bully, like a pugilist, like a boxer. I tumble my body.

Let's have him preach to others. I myself be a dachshund. Listen, you've got to, you've got to discipline your diet. You've got to discipline your sleep. You've got to discipline your exercise if you're going to have a daily quiet time of any sense.

Don't come to me and say, Mr. Olson, I cannot, I cannot pray. Because when I kneel, my mind absolutely wanders all over the place. And I happen to know that you didn't go to bed until two o 'clock or three o 'clock the previous night.

You've got to learn to discipline social contact. You've got to discipline your time. You've got to sleep if your mind's going to be alive and you're going to be tight to meet with your God. And then there is the matter of the moral issue.

First of all, the physical, then there's the moral issue. And the moral issue needs the question, listen carefully here, yes, of cleansing and forgiveness. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

If I look with approval on anything in my life which is out of adjustment to the will of God, the heavens will be as brass. And if you have an unforgiving spirit to any brother or sister, leave your gift of prayers at the altar and go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.

And then there's a spiritual issue, factor. And it's the matter of obedience. Obedience. That little verse in John 7, 17, he that willeth to do shall know. I am persuaded after years of study and experience that the revelation of God to my soul and the blessing of God through me in terms of the Bible is dependent upon obedience.

As I obey, God reveals. As I obey, God reveals. When I teach to obey, God teaches to reveal. I may get secondhand stuff from the pulpit and secondhand stuff from books, but God will not teach to me so long as I disobey.

Like received, bringeth life. Like rejected, bringeth life. Revelation and obedience are like two railway lines, and I move in the purpose of God as I obey and he reveals. I obey and he reveals. I obey and he reveals.

That's why I like to have a notebook, because invariably when I get down on my knees and test my heart as to why I can't get anything out of this chapter, I can't get anything out of this chapter. It seems a lot tougher to me.

Invariably, I turn back to what God said to me yesterday, and on a mission of obedience, I haven't gone through with him. God says, right, I hold it up. I'll hold it up for 40 years. I'll hold up redeeming my faith to you for 30 years until you obey.

Now you put those three things together and you've got an expectant spirit. And in conclusion, some of the regulations of a quiet time, and I'm going to give you contemptance form, seven movements in this matter of quiet time.

Waiting on God Before Prayer

The first one I'm calling waiting. When you come, now remember this, you've got your Bible, you've got your notebook, you've got your prayer list, you've got your place, you've got your time, you've got your method of your quiet time, you have an expectant spirit, you're convinced, you're convinced that you must have a quiet time if it's only for communion with God.

Now you're in the place of quietness, and you're going to have your quiet time. What's the first thing? Here it is, waiting, waiting. Be still and know that I am God. Let me quote Samuel Cadwick again, hurry is the death of prayer.

Don't rush into God's presence. Be still. And I've learned something, Dr. Natchapol, from dear old George Buller about it. George Buller learned after years of being a mature Christian that he couldn't pray.

He wondered why he couldn't pray. And in that little pamphlet from one of his books called No Soul Nourishment, it's explained he discovered that why he couldn't pray was because he was trying to speak to God before God had spoken to him.

So I never attempt to pray. I just say a little prayer like, open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Waiting. Then next movement, reading. Come to the book. Come to the book.

Reading and Meditating on Scripture

And when I say come to the book, I mean come to it reverently. I mean come to it systematically. I mean come to it intelligently. Please don't use your book like a promise box. Don't let it fall open anywhere and say here.

That's irreverent. That's disrespectful. Use your Bible rightly. If you're using a system like Scripture Union or some other systematic devotional reading, fine. My own system is as simple as ABC. I read from Genesis to Revelation.

When I finish with Revelation, I go back to Genesis. I never read more than a chapter or half a chapter for my quiet time. Plenty of reading for study, but only a chapter for my quiet time. Read it through three times, more if necessary.

One, generally. Two, specifically. Three, personally. Personally. Personalize the whole thing. We're moving to the third point. Waiting. Reading. Meditating. Meditating. Pondering. Ask yourself questions like this.