Do Not Depart

Encouragement and Tools to Abide in God's Word

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What is Prayer?

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Pray without ceasing.  ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Praying Hands

“Talking with God like you’d talk with a friend.”

“Communing with the One who loves you more than you love yourself.”

“Listening and resting in the presence of God.”

I’ve heard people describe prayer as all of the above.

But for most of us, prayer is confusing, overwhelming, and even a little scary.   For many it’s the one area of our disciple-life where we feel the least confident.    A quick Google search on “What is prayer?” yielded over 53 MILLION posts.   Certainly this is a question many are asking.

Over the coming weeks we want to share with you what the Bible teaches us about prayer.   We’ll be studying the Lord’s Prayer and several other prayers found in Scripture – digging into the treasure chest of God’s Word on this important discipline in our spiritual growth.   And we want to help you grow your prayer life. From developing a prayer calendar to establishing a prayer notebook, we’ll be offering practical insight and suggestions for building a solid foundation in your prayer life.

I love to read about Susanna Wesley.  Her life and her home were grounded in prayer.  As we begin to study prayer here at Scripture Dig, I leave you with these two of her prayers …

In the morning, pray that “Every work I do below, I do it to the Lord.”

In the evening, pray “I give Thee praise, O God, for a well-spent day.”

How would you describe your prayer life?

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Would you pray?

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The entire Scripture Dig writing team is together at the She Speaks conference hosted by Proverbs 31 ministries. Many of us have taken book proposals and sample chapters to offer up during meetings with publishers. All of us are anticipating the knowledge and skills we will gain at this event.

Thank you so much for your kind support of all our ministries and the work we are doing here at Scripture Dig. We have all be blessed by your encouragement and hunger for digging deep into the treasures of God’s Word.

We’ll be meeting together Saturday night to plan out the next several months of topics and posts. And we’d appreciate your prayers as we travel, listen, learn, share, meet, and plan!

Enjoy your weekend!!

Let God talk first

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A couple of weeks ago, I had the joy of sharing my quiet time spot with you. I even posted a photo of my desk! (See that post here.) In that post I gave a fairly general overview of the components of my time with God. Today, I’d like to linger a bit on how my Bible reading and prayer go hand in hand.

Occasionally I go to my desk to spend time with God with something specific weighing heavily on my heart. Those days I have to pour out my heart to God in prayer before I can do anything else. But those days are the exception.

Most days I begin my time with God by seeking to hear what He has to say to me through His Word. I ask Him to speak to me and to open my ears to hear. Then I begin to read the Bible. My goal is to make what God has to say my priority. I work to let Him begin and guide our conversation.

Because I’m a Type A personality, it’s easy for me to fall into the mistake of reading too quickly to make sure I “finish” the day’s reading assignment. So I have to remind myself that the purpose of reading is for God to speak to me. I need to stop when God prompts. When a verse or phrase “jumps off the page” I pause and linger there, meditating on that passage.

About a month ago, I wrote a post about meditating on God’s Word. (You can review that here.) Biblical meditation is not emptying your mind, but filling it with God’s Word. It includes asking God questions about the passage. For instance, does this text reveal something I should…

  • Believe about God?
  • Praise or thank or trust God for?
  • Pray about for myself or others?
  • Have a new attitude about?
  • Make a decision about?
  • Act on for the sake of Christ, others, or myself?

As I think deeply on the passage and ask God questions I “listen” for His answers. I want to understand what He is saying to me through His Word. I record what He says in a journal. This process is the heart of my daily time with God.

Usually there is additional prayer time to talk with God about things that have not already come up. And often there is also some “follow up.” Something I need to do, someone I need to talk to, something I need to make right. In other words, I need to be obedient to something God has told me during our time together.

Donald Whitney, author of “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,” writes that “meditation is the missing link between Bible intake and prayer.” He explains that meditation helps us digest what God says to us in His Word and then speak to Him about it in a meaningful way. He also quotes from several Puritan writers who passionately wrote about the same thing.

Although this type of interaction with God is my goal, I still sometimes struggle to let Him speak first and guide our time together. Some days my own schedule or own agenda gets in the way. Maybe you can relate. I forget that it’s not all about me! What about you? How do you focus on what God has to say to you?

Blessings,     Kathy

Coffee and Conversation with God

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Everyone has a story to tell. For Susan, the story revolves around how God has taught her to believe that the joy of the Lord is her strength. While she has faced the struggle of living through depression and other family illnesses, Susan desires to use the story of her struggle to point people toward the Source of hope. She longs for people to embrace the God who dances over them wildly with joy (Zephaniah 3:17).    Susan is a college professor and also the founder of Defiant Joy Ministries.   {Susan and I competed together on the speech and debate team at Southwest Baptist University and have recently reconnected via Facebook.   What a joy to see how God is using her to touch the lives of so many!  I know you all will be encouraged by her “My Time to Dig” post today! ~ Teri Lynne}

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My favorite singer/songwriter Sara Groves captures the beauty of listening to one another’s stories this way:  “Every heart has so much history.  It’s my favorite place to start. Sit down awhile and share your narrative with me.  I’m not afraid of who you are.”  For me, all things of importance flow from relationships and I am easily swayed by any opportunity to have conversation and coffee with a friend.  After all, life was meant to be shared over coffee, wasn’t it?!  Over the years, God has taught me much about how He desires to hear my narrative and how He definitely is not afraid of who I am.  God is by far the best listener I’ve encountered and that is why I affectionately refer to my quiet time with God as C&C:  coffee and conversation with God.

One main theme that has emerged from years of conversations with God over many cups of coffee is that my knowledge of God is useless without knowing God. Just like I learn about a friend by listening to her narrative, I learn about God by studying His story through His word as well as sitting quietly before Him.  Knowledge of God is gained through purposefully getting to know God.  I can memorize the entire Bible, know the names of God, recite the lineage of Christ, etc. but knowledge is useless without being rooted in relationship with the Living Word.  It’s not that knowledge of any kind is useless in and of itself.  My C&C time with God has caused me to reflect on what I do with the knowledge I have. In 2 Peter 1, I am encouraged to use my knowledge about God to know God.  That can be a difficult pursuit for one like me who is comfortable taking in knowledge for knowledge’s sake.  God has taught me that I need to go beyond the words on the page and look to the One who inspired the words.  After all, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

One of the ways God has taught me to put my knowledge of Him into action is by bringing my daily life with me into my C&C time. I’ve learned to abandon a pre-determined set of rules (made by others and/or me) about what should or shouldn’t be said to God during our C&C time.  In fact, thinking of it as having coffee with a friend has helped me to learn that God is relational and He wants to hear me share what’s going on in my life.  During my day, if I have a thought about something, a need arises, or a reflection about scripture emerges, among other things, I write it down on a 3×5 note card.  I then use the note cards to help guide my C&C time with God.   So many amazing insights have come from not separating my daily life from my C&C time—it’s all one in the same.  God has encouraged me to see my life as one big conversation with Him—if only it could always involve coffee!

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Thanks, Susan!  What an encouragement to see life as “one big conversation with Him.”

How do you incorporate what you receive from the Lord during your quiet time into your daily life?

My Prayer Couch

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Kristin chronicles life as wife and mother of four with daily musings about what’s cooking at The Schell Café. Passionate about cooking and gathering family around the table, she knows the truth that man cannot live by bread alone and shares her faith story and love for Jesus Christ at The Kitchen Mission. Someday, Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise, the two sites will merge. Until then you can find Kristin at her blogs or on twitter @theschellcafe.

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The Schell Café is more than my little nook in the blogosphere, it is quite literally my kitchen. By day, the command center bursts with activity generated by our family of six – meals, snacks, homework, crafts, home office, portal to the backyard and catch-all for backpacks, Legos and tutus.

In the pre-dawn hours of the morning, this normally chaotic space is a quiet refuge. It is my meeting place with the Lord.

For my 40th birthday Husband gave me a prayer couch for the kitchen. Before you google ‘kitchen prayer couch’, rest assured it’s just a regular old sofa I placed in the kitchen, but it is special. This is where I meet the Lord in the throne room of grace.

What does my morning couch time look like?

From an earthly perspective, I guarantee it’s not pretty and bed-head is definitely involved. Very early I make my way downstairs. After several years of this early morning time with the Lord, we’ve both come to expect it, and I usually wake up without an alarm about 5:30 am (although this morning He moved the appointment time up to 4:45 am!).

Cozy on the couch, still in darkness, I greet the Lord with praise and adoration, something like this:

Good Morning Lord. Thank you for the gift of this peaceful, quiet morning. You are an awesome God – the author & perfecter of our faith. You are merciful, righteous & steadfast. You are my rock & my redeemer.  My protector.  My shepherd. You alone are worthy of all my praise.

As I reach to turn on the lamp Psalm 119:105 floats across my heart:

Your word is a lamp to my feet

and a light for my path.

What follows next varies but I always dig in to scripture with my prayer journal close by. Currently, I’m participating in the Bible in 90 Days Challenge. I spend about 30 – 40 minutes on the readings taking notes in the margins of my Bible or in my prayer journal for further study.

During the academic year, I attend our women’s bible study at church. I use my couch time for daily scripture reading of our study. I’m part of the leadership team, but I don’t use couch time for ministry work, although I certainly pray for it!

After time in the Word, or as the Holy Spirit leads, I pray. Really the entire morning is a continuous prayer, but I focus more intently after my readings and like to follow the ACTS prayer. Adoration. Confession. Thanksgiving. Supplication. If the Littles remain asleep, I close my couch time quietly listening to the Lord.

By now the sun filters through the windows and my kitchen begins to buzz. Throughout the day, my prayer couch will host a child needing a band-aid, another wanting hugs, and a hungry Husband waiting for dinner. I smile and my heart is in anticipation of my next meeting with the Lord whose mercies are new every morning.

Blessings,

Kristin

Call Me Crazy

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My friend Emily loves the Lord and loves to share His love through teaching and counseling others. Today, she shares thoughts about her quiet time with you. Dr. Emily Edwards is the author of Ready and Waiting: A Biblical Approach to Singleness, Dating, and Preparation for Marriage. The book and its companion workbook are powerful resources for helping singles put on their “biblical glasses” to find the one God has prepared for just for them. More information on Dr. Edwards and her books can be found at Living Hope Publishing. Dr. Edwards is currently working on a book on helping believers through the difficult problems and trials of life.

“In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” – Psalm 5:3

When people ask me about my quiet time with God, I almost don’t want to say because they often don’t believe me. Or they get mad at me. Yes, I’m one of those crazy people who gets up and spends 40 minutes in the morning with God.

When I told her I was writing this article, I have a friend who said, “Nobody wants to hear that because it makes them feel bad. It makes them feel guilty that they aren’t doing that (or don’t want to do that), too. It sounds like you’re bragging.”

That made me think about why I spend so much time in the morning. The honest answer is, it’s because it doesn’t do me any good if I don’t.

I’ve tried spending less time. Even now, there are some mornings I wake up late and I only have 15 minutes. I spend as much time as I can in prayer. I might read a verse or two, but I feel rushed. It almost feels like a chore instead of a desire. I don’t get anything out of it. (I don’t think God gets anything out of it, either.)

That’s why I try to take at least 40 minutes. This gives me time to reflect and really meditate on God’s Word. When I’m reading Scripture, I try to think about the application. I reflect on what I read for the day and ask, “How does this apply to my life”? or, “How can I apply this to my life”? This way, it becomes real to me instead of just more words on a page.

I am also very conscious of my sins. I spend time working through areas of unforgiveness and repenting where necessary.

This is critical time for me. What I do with my time at the beginning of my day affects the rest of my day. I need that time or I struggle.

Not everyone needs their quiet time this way. Some of my friends find their quiet time with God in other ways, like while driving to work or taking a jog. That time is as productive for them as my quiet time is for me. I can’t do that because I don’t multi-task very well. I am easily distracted by things I see and hear around me.

Everyone’s quiet time is different. Everyone is wired differently and God works in their lives in different ways.

That’s why I encourage everyone to figure out what type of quiet time is most productive for them. When can you focus on God most easily? What time is He able to reach through to you? When are you most likely to let Him break through the clutter so you can hear Him? It’s worth thinking about.

My Time to Dig ~ Adrianne

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Adrianne is a special young lady in my life. Scott was her youth pastor throughout high school and he was privileged to perform her wedding last August. Adrianne is the Multi-Media Specialist at the crisis pregnancy center where I volunteer. She has redesigned all the websites and also manages the social media component of the ministry. In addition to that role, Adrianne is helping lead the student-driven abstinence education program called Braveheart. Thanks, Age, for sharing your quiet time story!! ~ Teri Lynne

I became a Christian in 1999, when I was twelve years old. Like most middle schoolers, I was pretty clueless, especially when it came to my quiet time. From what I had gathered from all my friends at church, your quiet time was this special, ceremonial time of day (that usually lasted an hour or more!) where you got completely alone with God.

Our youth pastor gave us these devotional books to use in our quiet times, so then I FELT READY. That night I went to my bedroom, locked the door, and cleared out a space in the bottom of my closet. (Please pause for a moment and imagine me sitting there, clothes hanging above my head. It was not a large closet by any means.) I got my devotional book out, got out my Bible, turned on some great inspirational worship music, and got started. Unfortunately, I finished five minutes later. FIVE MINUTES!?! I thought this was supposed to last for hours! What did I do wrong? Was I a bad Christian?

I also gathered from my friends that they had quiet times every day. I assumed that they never missed a day. However, I didn’t seem to be that consistent. I would forget one day, oversleep the next day, and sometimes just not feel like it. What was wrong with me? Surely if I were a good Christian I wouldn’t do this! I felt like the only person who was having these problems.

Those experiences understandably caused a great deal of guilt to form up in me. I felt that because I couldn’t spend daily quiet time with God I was a terrible person. Every time I would forget a quiet time I felt more and more defeated. I felt so guilty that I couldn’t set aside time for the Savior of my life. So I would try even harder to have a quiet time, if only to avoid those feelings of guilt, of failure.

It took several years for this thought to occur to me: I was thinking about it the wrong way. God didn’t want my quiet time with Him to driven by guilt. The attitude with which I was approaching God was one of “OK, God. I don’t want to get in trouble with you, so here I am.” Gee, what a wonderful heart of worship I was presenting. I’ve come to realize that the motives that govern our desire to have a quiet time are extremely important. God wants our hearts to be hungry for Him, seeking Him, desperate to know Him. This concept has really set me free. I don’t have to feel guilty if I miss my daily quiet time because God’s GRACE covers my shortcomings. I simply need to focus on God and continue to seek Him. If I keep doing that, then having my quiet time won’t feel like a chore. It will become a NEED.

Break the Grip of the Rip

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I knew how to dog paddle when it grabbed me and pulled me away to danger, little match for the water of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Rip currents surprise unwary swimmers and threaten to pull them from shore and to disaster.

Last week I saw a warning sign posted along the Gulf Coast:   Break the Grip of the Rip. If we’re going to swim in the ocean, we need to be aware of potential dangers and how to respond:

  • Know where the dangerous currents are and avoid them.
  • Know how to get out of a rip current if you’re in one. (Swim out and AWAY)
  • Know how to reach out and take a hand of rescue if offered.

Trying to have quiet time with the Lord can be like fighting the rip current of life’s distractions and interruptions. Just when we are enjoying the warm rhythm of God’s truth washing over us, something grabs at us and threatens to pull us away to the dangerous place of drifting without Him. It may look different for each of us, but Satan knows what to use to pull us under and away from our Lord.  The solution for facing these Quiet Time Busters is similar to facing ocean currents:

  • Know what distractions are dangerous and avoid them.
  • Know how to get away from distraction when it comes. (Turn out and AWAY)
  • Know how to take help when offered to you.

We can break the grip of the rip, because we have the Holy Spirit to empower us to face things that would pull us from God’s path. As we feed on His Word, we gain strength and wisdom to recognize and resist dangerous currents. As a child I was no match for the rip current, but God sent rescue in the form of an older, experienced, unselfish hand of rescue.  We hope we might be that hand here at Scripture Dig, and we pray you will be that for those around you.  Look around … someone may need a hand to break the grip of the rip in their lives.

Your distractions probably don’t look very different than mine, so I’ll leave you with my “Alphabet Priorities.”  Print them out and put them next to your towel in the morning, so you’ll be ready to “Break the Grip of the Rip” as you dive in.

ALPHABET PRIORITIES
No adoration, no agenda

No Bible, no breakfast

No Christ, no computer

No devotions, no duties

No exaltation, no errands

No Father, no fun

No God, no goodies

No heaven, no housework

No Immanuel, no itinerary

No Jesus, no job

No King, no Kindle

No Lord, no laundry

No Master, no memos

No kneeling, no networking

No obedience, no occupation

No prayer, no planner

No quiet time, no quality

No reflection, no rush

No Savior, no schedule

No trust, no tech

No understanding, no undertaking

No value, no vocation

No waiting, no work

No ‘xpectation , no ‘xercise

No Yahweh, no yoke

No Zion*, no zoe**!

*Zion refers to heaven, the hope and ultimate home for believers.

** Zoe = LIFE!

Click here to read more about overcoming the grip of the Quiet Time Busters in your life.

The Type A Quiet Time

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I have loved reading about everyone’s personal time with the Lord … and have gleaned some great insights from each post so far.  I’m already trying to figure out how to add photos like Kathy and incorporate those Sabbath principles shared by Julie.

My life is routine-driven.  In fact, that might be the understatement of the year so far.  I’m definitely a “type-A” personality.  I like lists, schedules, and plans … I do not thrive in chaos nor do I enjoy spontaneity.  It should, therefore, not be any sort of surprise that my quiet time is much the same today as it has been the past 10 years.

As I mentioned in a Your Turn post, I generally get up before my family … remember my rule, “I don’t speak to anyone until I have listened to God”?    I have a comfy corner of the couch where I can look out the patio doors and watch the sunrise as I spend those early moments of my day with the Lord.

Sunrise on March 17, 2010: the view from my couch

I always begin my quiet time by journaling.  As I write out the events of the past day and what is coming in the day ahead, I find myself processing … that becomes a blend of recording specific events and feelings merged with prayers and verses that the Lord brings to my mind as I write.  For me, getting all of that out helps me prepare to hear from the Lord as I read the Bible.

I read a chapter of Proverbs every day. Sometimes I also read from another portion of Scripture as well … savoring the passages and making notes/prayers as I read.  But, honestly, there are many days when I simply read a chapter of Proverbs, choose a verse and focus on it for the rest of that day.

In addition to reading the Bible, I prefer devotional material that is at least 100 years old … something about the lasting nature of these writings draws me to them.  In 2009, I used Streams in the Desert which is not quite 10o years old but certainly qualifies as a Christian classic.  This year, I am reading several books by various authors … currently, I am reading The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross.  Using this type of material helps me gain perspective on the difficulties and joys of daily life.

My prayer time is filled with lots of stops and starts … generally I begin by just sitting.  Practicing the discipline of stillness … which does not come naturally to me.  As thoughts or individuals come to mind I pray for wisdom or healing or peace, whatever the situation demands.  Often I will use a Psalm as a prayer, taking a passage and praying it as it applies to me.    I use my prayer calendar as well during this time – dedicating each month to praying for a specific person or group.  Finally, I grab my Daytimer and to do list … I pray over each moment and task – in my life and for my husband and daughter.

Instead of trying to fight my organizational nature and my lists and plans, I use them to guide me … and in the process I lay them down before the Lord’s plans, trusting in His over mine.

Ho does your personality influence your quiet time patterns?  Maybe you are having such a difficult time because you are trying to fit your personality into a quiet time format designed for someone else … embrace the way God made you and commune with Him!


For Further Reading:

A Quiet Time Routine – Additional insights on quiet times from my blog.

Prayer Calendaring –  An example of how I have used a prayer calendar.

Books I have found useful:

Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas – Identifies 9 different “pathways” to connect with God.  This book has been very useful to me in helping others figure out how to improve their quiet times.

Streams in the Desert by L. B. Cowman – If you are facing difficulties right now, this is a great one-year devotional book packed with insight and encouragement.

Also, please check out our new Devotional Materials and Resources page for more book and website suggestions on this topic.

My Time to Dig ~ Julie’s Sabbath

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If you’re reading this, you know about computers.  Odds are, you’ve had to hit “ctrl/alt/delete” when your system is unresponsive or technically stuck. There are times when this describes my life and heart.

One spiritual discipline I have practiced is that of practicing the principle of “Sabbath.”  While mine looks different than that God explained to Moses in Exodus 31:12-18, the purpose for me is largely the same: undistracted time to pause and focus on God.

This spiritual habit isn’t for those of Jewish descent alone; for anyone pursuing God there’s value in setting aside time to focus on Him.  With all the world’s noise today, we have to carve out space to hear from, consider, and respond to the One we worship and serve.

Resting ~ God showed His own example of choosing to set aside rest time when He paused the 7th day in Genesis 2:3.  When I try to rest it can seem like everything in life is against me.  Can you relate?  God told Israel to “practice” taking a Sabbath; it provided rest from their work, but it did so much more than that.

Remembering ~ Practicing the principle of Sabbath gives me time to remember who I am and who God is. This habit was meant to endure in the lives of those who follow the One true God. “So the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant,” Ex. 31:16. This means I have to resist my fleshly instinct to bend to the urgent and my routine, remembering God’s covenant, instead. If we are believers under the New Covenant, we still benefit from stepping aside from life’s commotion in 2010 to sit quietly at the feet of our Lord.

Refilling ~ We are talking about carving out a day to waste; the intent is not so ordinary are ignoring work.  It’s a chance to to spend uncrowded time enjoying and listening to Him. God knows I need time to be with Him and be refilled by His truth and direction.  I need regular reminders that I am the beloved of the God of the Universe, the One Who has redeemed me and planned my steps. I have a purpose to fulfill, and His Word shows me how when I listen to it.

Reordering ~ “It is to be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute,” Lev. 16:31 I must take the reins of my schedule and multi-tasking mayhem and allow God to trump the visible things of life! Simply, I need to slow down, remember my dependence on God, worship Him for Who He is, and listen to His truth. This requires humbling myself and reordering my life God’s way.  This is my life hitting “ctrl/alt/delete.”

The world around me doesn’t “do” a Sabbath, but I need to regularly make unique chunks of time for the Lord alone. I have to plan and provide for my immediate world of people, work, email, trash pickup, etc to wait while I go to be with the Lord. It takes a little work to make a Sabbath happen, but the pause it provides is well worth the resting, remembering, refilling, and reordering.

If you want to read more about how I’ve made Sabbaths happen in my own life, a 4 part series starts here, and you can read examples of how it looks here and here.

Another great feature of “ctrl/alt/delete” is that it produces a “black screen,” maybe a first step to some of that sweet time of Sabbath for you with your Lord. Enjoy ….

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