For Quiet Time to become a daily habit, you must persevere until it becomes second nature to you, that is, Quiet Time becomes part of you, much like brushing your teeth has become a part of your life. Why do you need to perseverance to make Quiet Time a habit? Take brushing teeth as an example. When your mother first taught you how to brush your teeth, you would probably find it hard to execute the steps, including how to brush the teeth at the back of your mouth. You might also have found it burdensome to brush your teeth. With daily perseverance, however, brushing teeth has become almost effortless—you no longer need your mother to nag at you. Brushing teeth has become a habit, and a good one.
Dear brothers and sister-in-Christ, you must be convinced that you need to maintain this holy habit of reading the bible and praying daily. Then you will make time to do so. First, by reading daily God’s Word, the bible, you will receive spiritual food for the day: “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deut 8:3). Just as you need food daily, you also need spiritual food daily. When you truly believe and desire spiritual food, you can be sure the Lord will feed you: “Whoever has will be given more” (Luke 8:18a). When your heart truly hungers for God’s Word, God will give you even more spiritual food. And your Father in Heaven will feed you because “if you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit [including spiritual food] to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13). You must first be convinced that you need God’s Word. Then you will overcome all obstacles to read the bible daily.
After you have read a bible passage, apply it to your life: “Is there anything I need to obey? Is there anything I need to change?”
Second, after God has spoken to you about some things, pray. By prayer, I mean pray to God to help you obey what he has just told you. It could be something about your personal habit, study or work attitude, your relationship with someone, your responsibility to church, etc. Pray to God by asking him to give you strength to obey. Then, do God’s Word, not just by waiting for an opportunity but creating an opportunity to be a doer of God’s Word. Then God will bless you.
How long is the duration of the Quiet Time? It can be as short as 15 minutes a day. What matters is not how long the duration, but how frequent. If you do your Quiet Time daily, you will experience the presence of God that keeps your heart at real peace. Most importantly, God directs your life daily because you hear him speak to you daily. Sometimes, what you read is relevant for that day’s challenges. More often, however, what you read today may be in preparation for the challenges that will come later. But what matters is you read the bible daily and pray daily. Then you will walk in safe paths and be blessed. Start your Quiet Time today, not tomorrow.