EP 81: Elisabeth Elliot on Hints for a Quiet Time

 

As Christians, we all desire to grow more and more into the image of Jesus. We want to “keep killing sin”, we want to “love others as we love ourselves” and mostly we want to know and love Jesus more because all those other good things will follow if that is our first pursuit.

You can read the post below in (6 minutes) or listen in to the podcast (18 minutes) where I share more content.

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Related links:

Logos Bible Software Training Webinar

Spiritual Disciplines Series

My Daily Time with the Lord

EP 15: Prioritizing God’s Word When Life is Busy

Cousin Camp by Susan Alexander Yates

Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot

God’s Word is clear that He wants me to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

“I don’t know what you’ve been taught, I don’t know what you’ve been told about sanctification. But I will tell you this: the clear word of Scripture is that your sanctification is directly related to your pursuit of the knowledge of Christ in all His glory. It’s not passive. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. The Word, the revelation concerning Christ, let it dwell in you richly.”

~ John MacArthur

Spiritual growth is an essential step in our role as Christian wives and mothers. We desire to offer our family true wisdom and true wisdom only comes from the Lord and knowledge of Him.

Spiritual growth is an essential step in our role as Christian wives and mothers. We desire to offer our family true wisdom and true wisdom only comes from the Lord and knowledge of Him. Click to Tweet

I like to switch my devotional books (this is the one I previously finished) around, and I’m back camping in Elisabeth Elliot’s, Keeping a Quiet Heart. I want to share with you some guidance she gives to busy women on what time with the Lord might look like.

I’m always looking for resources to share with you to help you grow in your relationship with the Lord. I desire to point all of us to the importance of reading, meditating, and praying God’s Word. I hope to continually “spur one another on to love and good deeds.”

Elisabeth Elliot’s wisdom is a gift to us as Christian women from the Lord. If you’re not currently spending time with the Lord, then I pray this will be an encouragement to you today as you see how easy it is, but you just have to do it.

Here is the excerpt shared on Hints for a Quiet Time:

Having a quiet time with the Lord every day is absolutely essential if you expect to grow spiritually. But you have to plan it. It won’t “just happen.” We’re all much too busy.

Early morning is best, and there are plenty of scriptural precedents for that (Jesus rose “a great while before day”; the psalmist said, “In the morning shalt Thou hear my voice”). If you meet the Lord before you meet anybody else, you’ll be “pointed in the right direction” for whatever comes.

God knows how difficult it is for some to do this, and if you have a reason you can offer Him why early morning won’t work, I’m sure God will help you to find another time. Sometimes the children’s afternoon nap time can be a quiet time for a mother.

At any rate, plan the time. Make up your mind to stick with it. Make it short to begin with—fifteen minutes or so, perhaps. You’ll be surprised at how soon you’ll be wanting more.

Take a single book of the Bible. If you’re new at this, start with the Gospel of Mark. Pray, first, for the Holy Spirit’s teaching. Read a few verses, a paragraph, or a chapter. Then ask, What does this passage teach me about:

1. God
2. Jesus Christ
3. The Holy Spirit
4. Myself
5. Sins to confess or avoid
6. Commands to obey
7. What Christian love is

Keep a notebook. Write down some of your special prayer requests with the date. Record the answer when it comes. Note, also, some of the answers you’ve found to the above questions or anything else you’ve learned.

Tell your children, your spouse, your friends, some of these things. That will help you to remember them. You’ll be amazed at what a difference a quiet time will make in your life.

~ Elisabeth Elliot, Keeping a Quiet Heart (page 130)

More Encouragement for a Quiet Time:

Please remember that spending time with the Lord doesn’t earn us any favor with God. God’s favor is already upon us if we belong to Him through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.  He will not love us anymore or any less. Just spending time with the Lord will not be a guarantee to make us spiritual – let me just have you take a look at the Pharisees as an example. They knew God’s Word.

There needs to be an inner transformation. Our ultimate purpose in our time with the Lord is not just to gain more knowledge about Him but to truly get to know Him, and that is where true heart change begins. The Lord changes my desires to His desires during my time with Him.

We should desire the Lord to cleanse us from within in our time with Him. Our prayer should be that of Psalm 139:23-24, for Him to search our hearts and reveal our sins before Him so we can seek His forgiveness and restoration.

God’s mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23), so I desire to seek Him in the morning because my weary soul needs to be refreshed. 

I love that I have access to the ultimate Teacher. I desire to know His ways and seek His wisdom. I can only do this by spending time sitting at His feet.

Your Turn:

What does your quiet time look like?

What do you hope it can look like?

Can you start afresh tomorrow if you have been neglecting this wonderful discipline we have available to us?

“The Word of God I think of as a straight edge, which shows up our own crookedness. We can’t really tell how crooked our thinking is until we line it up with the straight edge of Scripture.”

~ Elisabeth Elliot

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