She asked this question on her blog today:
What motivates you to spend time with God? Why have you been having a quiet time?
I share here how I answered, because it’s the whole bottom line of Living (Out) Love, the theme unfolding in recent posts*:
Neglecting [having quiet time with God] is like neglecting to drink water—or take in oxygen! Anything good that happens through me in my life happens by His Spirit’s working. I desperately need to keep connected to Him, for that. And I love Him, and He loves me, and so how could I not want to have time alone with my best Beloved Lover of my soul?
What about you?
Do you have quiet times with Him regularly? If so, what do they contain? Just personal petition, or intercessory prayer? Or do they include thanksgiving, praise, seeking His truth and guidance, listening to His voice in His scriptures, surrendering burdens, drawing strength from His presence, or…. what?
One important aspect of time with one’s Beloved is looking at Him (rather than self), seeing His beauty and greatness, realizing reasons to pour forth His praise.
It’s been awhile since I’ve listed scripture-supplied reasons to praise Him. (I’ve already discovered how there are more than ten thousand.) So, here, today, are more:
MORE REASONS TO PRAISE HIS NAME—
(AND TO HAVE THAT “QUIET TIME”!)
(this time from Proverbs):
- Because reverence for Him is the beginning of wisdom (1:7;9:10).
(From 2:5-8) Because…
- He is the giver of wisdom
- from His mouth comes knowledge
- from His mouth comes understanding
- He stores up sound wisdom for the upright
- He is a shield to those who walk uprightly
- He guards the paths of justice
- He preserves the way of His sanctified people
- He corrects those He loves, as a father does his child he loves
- His chastening/correcting is for good, and not to be despised
(From 3:19-20) Because…
- By wisdom He founded the earth
- By understanding He established the heavens
- By His knowledge the depths were broken up
- By His knowledge the clouds drop down their dew
(From 3:26) Because…
- Seeking and holding fast to His wisdom will keep your foot from being caught
- If you do seek it and hold it fast, He will be your confidence in times of trouble
(From 3:32-34) Because…
- while the perverse person is an abomination to Him, His secret counsel is with the upright
- though His curse is on the house of the wicked, He blesses the home of the upright
- He scorns the scornful but gives grace to the humble
(From 5:21…)
- Because the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD
- Because He ponders all his paths
(From 6:16-19…)
- Because He hates these hateful things and finds them abominable:
- a proud look
- a lying tongue
- hands that shed innocent blood
- a heart that devises wicked plans
- feet that are swift in running to evil
- a false witness who speaks lies
- a person who sows discord among brethren
(From 8:22-31) Because…
- He possessed wisdom at the beginning of His way, before His works of old
- wisdom was with Him before He made the earth or the fields or the primal dust of the world
- wisdom was with Him when He drew a circle on the face of the deep
- with wisdom He established the clouds above
- and strengthened the fountains of the deep
- and assigned the sea its limit
- (because) He does not let the waters transgress His command
- with wisdom He marked out the foundations of the earth
- wisdom is daily His delight
- wisdom from the beginning rejoices always before Him
- wisdom rejoices in His inhabited world
(From 9:10-11…)
- Because the knowledge of Him as the Holy One is understanding by which one’s days are multiplied and by which years are added to one’s life
***
*{In the series on “LIVING (out) LOVE,” PART ONE is here , PART TWO is here, PART THREE is here, and PART FOUR is here.}
I’m so glad you wrote this and shared it with me. You took the time to express what I did not have time to construct. I am going to update my post with a link to this one.
Thanks, Tereasa. And you’ll notice I have a link (to Nourishment for the Soul) at the beginning of this post myself. (Good read.) That’s what got me going on writing all this up and spending so much time trying to get the format right on the sub-points and all (and failing), while my list of today’s to-do’s is screaming at me from the background. But. first. things. first! (Right? 🙂 )
There is so much wisdom in the Proverbs, and your have laid out an excellent study for reminder. Having quiet time with God is at different times for me. Even at my computer reading a post such as yours stills my spirit and speaks direct to me from our Lord. Driving in the car just me and Jesus finds another quiet time. Slipping into bed and counting my blessings is perhaps another quiet time.
It is so valuable to have those quiet times sprinkled throughout the day, isn’t it, Hazel? Just one in the morning doesn’t give me enough “fuel” to run well on all through till the next morning. I like all those you mentioned and find them to be ‘quiet times’ for me, too—if I don’t forget the opportunity, like the last time I was out driving on errands and wasted what could have been a great time with just with Jesus, as you said, if I hadn’t wasted time trying to find something worth listening to on the radio (which I didn’t!)
I’ve been planning on blogging about different ways to get those times in when there doesn’t seem to be time. You named some good ones! I am grateful to God that this post was useful that way for you.
God bless! Hope your eye is healing up well.
Quiet time really is so important! Thank you for discussing this, Sylvia! Proverbs – such an amazing book! I’m in that one right now, too. Thank you for sharing!
And thanks for stopping by here, Mary. Good to “see” you again.
Sylvia,
Yes…how could I not spend time with my wisest and dearest friend…Grateful God wants to spend time with me/ us 🙂 Blessings to you 🙂
Yes, that’s an breathtaking thing, isn’t it, Dolly? The God of the vast universe…