Is My Quiet Time Quiet?

This was originally posted on 08/28/2008.

 

I recently read a devotional in "Our Daily Bread" called Quiet Times.
This is how it began:

 

My friend Mary told me that she had always valued the time she spent fishing with her dad. Not being a fishing aficionado myself,
I was curious about what she found so enjoyable.

“I just like being with my dad,” she said. “So you just fish and talk?” I asked her.

“Oh, no, we don’t really talk,” she said. “We just fish.”
It wasn’t the conversation—it was the company.

 

Then this was contrasted with our quiet time, our time with God, our time in prayer. It got me thinking.....am I hindering the development of a close relationship with God because of all the noise in my quiet times ~ am I enjoying His company?

I pray ~ I praise God, I thank Him, I ask Him for things ~ in other words, I talk and talk and talk! I read the Bible or a devotional or ponder (and even sing) the words of a hymn ~ but I never stop. I'm never still, my mind is always full.

My quiet time isn't! Quiet that is!

 

I don't listen....I don't pause....I don't ponder. How can I hear an answer or instruction if I'm never still? "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10) ~ I don't think this means stop moving ~ I think it means just stop!

I have a picture in my head of the Lord standing next to me with His arm around me
and His hand gently covering my mouth.
He's saying "quiet, slow-down, stop, rest, listen and hear". I'm going to try real hard to do that ~ because I truly want to hear Him.