Lord, Teach Us To Pray
Series: Part 5
Daily Quiet Time
gtcotr/ws110106
Tonight we continue our series on Prayer. I will be reading mainly from the New King James Version as we explore the biblical pattern of having a Daily Quiet Time.
The first commandment given through Moses to the Children of Israel was:
Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.” (NKJV)
God wants to be number one in the lives of His children.
Perhaps one way of putting God number one in our lives is putting Him number one in our day.
Lets begin with a familiar passage out of Psalms 5. Here David is fittingly writing a ‘morning psalm’. He has just finished the fourth Psalm, an evident ‘evening psalm’, wherein he is happy and content, concluding it with:
Psalms 4
6 ¶ There are many who say, "Who will show us any good?" LORD, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us.
7 You have put gladness in my heart, More than in the season that their grain and wine increased.
8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
He now rises the next morning and his first thoughts are on God, His goodness and mercy, and calls upon Him once again.
Psalms 5
1 Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my meditation.
2 Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray.
3 My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.
There is something special and powerful about going to sleep with thoughts of God’s peace and rising to seek God early in your day.
Throughout the bible we see great men and women of God with this pattern of life. Rising early to have a personal quiet time with the Lord.
Abraham did it:
Genesis 19:27 ¶ And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
Jacob did it:
Genesis 28:18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.
What was Jacob doing? He was communing with God, ministering to Him, making sure that he connected with God as he rose early in the morning.
This is where Jacob made his covenant prayer of tithing.
Genesis 28
19 And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on,
21 "so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God.
22 "And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You."
Moses continued the pattern by rising early to build an altar to God in Exodus 24:4
Exodus 24:4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
The bible says Gideon rose early in the morning to squeeze the fleece and find the answer to his prayer.
Judges 6:38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water.
God called Job a righteous man, perhaps one of the reasons why Job was right with God was because he had a habit of rising early in the morning to seek God for himself and his family.
Job 1:5 So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did regularly.
Scripture gives us insight into Jesus prayer habits.
Mark 1:35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.
Jesus also showed us that He likes to meet with us early in the morning, even when He was on earth.
Luke 21:38 Then early in the morning all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him.
He still wants us to come to hear Him in our early mornings.
David, a man after God’s own heart, said it this way:
Psalms 63:1 O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You …
God wants to be Number One in our lives.
Perhaps one way of putting God number one in our lives is putting Him number one in our day.
Let’s look at three practical things we can do to help us put God number one in our day.
1. Pay Attention To Bedtime
* Not just to get a good night’s sleep, which is important in itself, but also to mentally prepare for our night time meditations.
* Dr Cho said that success in getting up early to seek God begins the night before by going to bed on time.
* Settle your thoughts on God as you drift off to sleep.
* Prepare yourself for early morning success
2. Get A Plan For The Morning
* Think about it: What time would you have to get up to spend 30 minutes with God? Set your clock.
* Have a place in mind that you are going to spend this time.
* Begin with prayer
* Read the bible alone with God
* Ask Him questions for your day … He will answer you in time
* This is also a great time to work on scripture memorization. Choose one scripture and write it down and refer to it several times during that day.
* Perhaps you will find it useful to keep a prayer journal with requests, scriptural support and answers.
3. Make A Commitment
* Start with one day
* Then do a week
* Then commit to a month.
* If you fail, get up and try it again.
When we make an appointment with God for our morning time, He will be there with something special just for you. Treat it like the appointment it is. An appointment with God.
God wants to be Number One in our lives.
Perhaps putting God number one in our lives begins with putting Him number one in our day.
Develop A Daily Quiet Time!
* It will become one of the most enjoyable and looked forward to time in your life.
