I think that spending time by yourself, in a quiet place, with your thoughts, can be a pretty powerful thing. I never used to be very dedicated with my own ‘quiet time’, but as the years go by, I can really see and feel the benefits that can come from it.
Quiet time for me, is about grounding myself. It’s about taking time out from a busy world and choosing to sit in a space that allows me to appreciate myself and my surroundings, in an environment that is calming. For me, it’s mainly about seeking peace.
Your own quiet time can be a moment where you get to remind yourself of what is most important to you and what you are grateful for. It can be a chance to sift out all of the distractions running through your mind. It can also be an act of meditation, mindfulness and/or to simply take a moment to focus on your needs for the day, if that’s what you choose. Your needs may be about seeking strength, patience or joy. Whatever it is that you need to do in these moments you deem as your quiet time, don’t you almost always feel a little less anxious and a bit more peaceful by the end of it?
My quiet time typically involves a journal, a couple of colourful pens and pencils, my devotional book and most importantly, my bible. I like to take the time to delve deep into my thoughts, reflect on my feelings and to be mindful of the moment I am intentionally dedicating to myself. I like to read a bit, write and spend a good few minutes praying or worshipping. Praying or worshipping being my personal choice of meditation. This is how I prepare myself for my day. It’s how I get to check in with myself and prioritise my thoughts and feelings. It’s most importantly the time that I get to take out of my day to check in with God. And I can almost always tell the difference between a day where I start off with my quiet time compared to a day where I don’t. When I do take time out in my day, I feel lighter, more positive and more energetic.
I like to have a source of inspiration, not only for the year ahead, but also for each month. I hope to share this with my readers because it’s something to look back to or keep in mind through any circumstances you encounter during the month ahead. In saying that, I hope these blog posts dedicated to explaining the choice behind the sources of inspiration can be incorporated into your own personal quiet time routine – where you can maybe read and spend some time reflecting on your thoughts regarding our topic of conversation for the week. I hope it turns into a moment where you can check in with yourself and hopefully it can be considered as time well spent. Even Dr. Caroline Leaf states that we need to dedicate a minimum of 16 minutes a day to “thinker moments” where we let our minds focus on our thinking, while also allowing our minds to wander and/or daydream (https://drleaf.com/blogs/news/the-benefits-of-alone-time).
For the month of May, I have chosen Proverbs 3: 5-6 as our source of inspiration. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path.”
In last weeks blog post, I spoke a little about trusting God when He is and wants to make big, long-lasting changes in your life even though it may be hard to understand what He is doing. If you haven’t yet read it, please go back and read the blog post titled “Renovations”. This week I want to continue that conversation by focusing on the verse Proverbs 3: 5-6.
Trust can be a pretty rocky road. I don’t know about you, but I definitely go through good days where I feel like I have all of the trust in the world and then I go through days where I feel like I don’t have any trust at all. On these ‘not-so-easy days’, I like to remember the promise Proverbs 3: 5-6 reminds me of. If you look close enough, it’s actually a 4 step guide on how we get to trust God.
Firstly, the verse reminds us that all we have to do is “trust, with all of our hearts”, through the good days and the bad days. A simple start, right?Secondly, we are reminded that we shouldn’t “lean on our own understanding”. I feel like this step is important because sometimes we can get so caught up in figuring out what God’s plans are, especially when our circumstances feel more negative than usual. I think that this step is essentially a form of protection, for if we get too caught up in trying to come to a place of our own understanding and acceptance, it can be a time-waster. We can get caught up in worrying about things that don’t need or don’t deserve our time and energy when we should rather be investing in and focusing on God. This step also reiterates the first step, trust – all we have to do is trust that God understands and sees more than we can comprehend or are prepared for and that no matter what, He has our best interests at heart. Thirdly the verse reminds us to “acknowledge him”. This step also directs us back to step 1 – trusting God. When we remind ourselves, in our minds and in our hearts, to acknowledge God, acknowledge who He is and His sovereignty over everything, we get to keep our focus on the right places. We get to keep our focus on things that are ever-lasting and eternal by choosing to keep our trust in Him. I think that sometimes this can be really hard for us to do because acknowledging God, even when it isn’t the most popular thing to do, takes a lot of bravery and maybe even a bit of judgement or disapproval from others. Lastly the best part about this verse lies in the end, in God’s promise, where it says that “He shall direct your path”. God is reminding us that the simple task of stepping out in faith, by trusting Him, will lead to Him directing our paths. He will take us to the places we need to be and where He needs us to be. I think the best thing about this verse is that if we can successfully keep in mind these 4 simple steps when trusting God, through it, we are also blessed with abundant peace. We are blessed with peace because God takes the responsibility out of our hands. I feel like He’s saying “Don’t worry, I’ve got this. All you need to do is trust me”.
I think that God blesses us with His word like the verse Proverbs 3: 5-6 because He knows that our hearts and our minds can become filled with doubt sometimes, especially when we feel out of control, when we can’t see the outcome of our circumstances or when we aren’t certain about our futures. God sends us direction through His word so that our time isn’t consumed by any irrelevant worries, stressors and/or distractions. We have Him to focus on and that is enough. He has plans to only lead us down the paths we are meant to walk on and He wants to walk along those paths with us. He also only wants us to experience a life filled with peace. He is reminding us that He has every detail of our lives already sorted out. He has used the past to teach us lessons and to help us grow. He has a future waiting for us filled with His promises and blessings and all we have to do is trust in His ways and meet Him in the present, with our eyes and hearts set on the truth that comes from trusting in Him.
How do you usually spend your quiet time and how do you affirm your trust in God?
Until next week xx
