The Importance of Quiet Time
Lisa Barry: Welcome to this Tuesday edition of
Gateway to Joy. I'm Lisa Barry sitting at a table with two women whom I have profound respect for. On my right is Elisabeth Elliot, the host of
Gateway to Joy, and on my left is Nancy Leigh DeMoss, the host of a brand new program called
Revive Our Hearts, that will be heard starting September 3rd.
What a thrill to have both of you here today because each of you represents a rich heritage of faith passed down to you from godly parents. It's something that those of us with children want to do, but often we don't know where to begin. Something that I know each of you will point to as foundational is the establishing of a daily quiet time. I'd like both of you to comment on that, if you will. Elisabeth, let's get started with you. Why is a quiet time important?
Elisabeth Elliot: Well, that, too, reminds me of an old hymn that we used to sing, "Meet Him in the Morning Each Recurring Day." My father set the example for us in that he got up at five o'clock in the morning and I do the same thing when I'm at home. It's impossible sometimes to keep a schedule when we are traveling. But when we are at home, we go to bed usually before nine o'clock. Sometimes we go to bed at 8:30 and just read in bed. But almost always we turn the light off at nine o'clock. People say, "What a boring life you must lead. You never go any place? You never do anything?" And of course, we don't feel the least bit bored; we feel greatly blessed.
But as my father would always say to people that said to him, "How in the world do you ever get up at five o'clock?" he would say, "You have to start the night before!" It's that simple!
Nancy Leigh DeMoss: That sounds so much like my father!
Elisabeth Elliot: Yes, you have to start the night before! There is something very wonderful about it because the Bible says that Jesus got up a great while before day and He went up into the mountain to converse with His Father. Why shouldn't we imitate Him in that way?
Nancy Leigh DeMoss: We children laugh affectionately about my Dad saying to company in our home in the evening, "Y'all be sure and lock the doors and turn out the lights when you leave," and he would excuse himself because it was so important to him to get to bed at an hour that he knew he needed to be if he was going to be up and meeting with the Lord. And he was,
every single day, from the first year he came to know the Lord until the day he went home to be with the Lord 28 years later. It was not something legalistic for him. He had a motto: No Bible reading, no breakfast, and no other reading before reading the Scripture. He really reverenced the Word of God and to this day I follow his pattern. I find it difficult to put anything on top of the Bible, not because the physical pages here are anything sacred, but just out of reverence for the Word of God.
What an example for us growing up in that home, to know that before we were awake, our Dad had been up meeting the Lord although he was a very busy businessman. That was the number one priority of his day. And he could sooner have skipped meals, which he did not skip. He was a man of great routine. He ate three meals a day, the same time every day; but he could sooner have skipped all that than not have that appointment with the Lord. It really was a foundational thing in his own life and has become that in my own life.
Lisa Barry: Did your parents share that kind of commitment to devotional time?
Elisabeth Elliot: Well, I've told you about my father and he was on his knees with his Bible praying long before we came down to breakfast. My mother had her quiet time after breakfast--and school--when we left for school, then she had her quiet time. She didn't get up at five o'clock as my father did. She probably got up at 6:30 or so as we had breakfast usually around seven.
Lisa Barry: How do you handle "dry times" when you are reading God's Word and you want to get a spiritual blessing from what you are reading, but it's just all falling flat? What do you do?
Elisabeth Elliot: Well, there certainly are times when I feel as though I am wasting my time or it has fallen flat. But the best thing, I guess, is just to lift it up to the Lord. I do start my quiet time not with my Bible but with an ancient praise song. A song of praise from way back to the 3rd Century or something. It begins with "We praise Thee, O God. We acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship Thee, the Father Everlasting. To Thee all angels cry aloud; the heavens and all the powers therein..."
It's a long prayer, but it sets the tone for the rest of my quiet time. Then I take my Bible reading and following the Bible reading, I pray. I have lists that I pray from for different days of the week and, of course, special lists for things that have just come in. Undoubtedly I would say that it is because of our father's constant, perfectly regular quiet time that he had. And he encouraged us all to do the same.
Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I think there are "dry times" and really that is not all so bad in the sense that it requires us to walk by faith. And faith pleases God. The Christian life is not ultimately about feelings. It is about faith and we cannot see Him face to face now as we one day will, and so we are forced at times to just acknowledge
by faith that He is God and He is present in our praise and in our worship and in the Word.
As Elisabeth indicates she opens her quiet time with that prayer, there is a prayer that I have prayed for many years before opening the Word in the morning that has helped me be more tuned to the presence of God in the Word. It's taken from a number of different verses from the Psalms but I pray:
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your Law. Give me understanding and I will keep Your Law and obey it with all my heart. Show me Your ways, O Lord. Teach me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and teach me. For You are God, my Savior; and my hope is in You all day long. That which I see not, teach Thou me. If I have done iniquity, I will do no more.
You know, it's interesting I find that as I pray that prayer from my heart that the Lord really does answer it. He quickens my spirit, quickens the Word within me, and I'm really saying in effect, "Lord, You speak to me and whatever You say, by Your grace I will obey."
I'm actually, in effect, handing God a blank sheet of paper, signing my name to it and then asking Him to fill in His will and the details, rather than saying, "Once I see what I see here, if I like it, I will live it out." I am committing myself in advance to say, "Yes, Lord" to whatever He says. And then He does come and meet with me through His Word.
I will say that even in the days when I find myself trudging through, maybe the first nine chapters of I Chronicles, which are just lots of lists of names. And I do believe, by the way, that all those passages are valuable and important and inspired and necessary for our walk with God. But some of them, it's a little harder to see what all the significance is--but even in those times I liken it to your physical eating habits. Not every meal is a great feast. When I'm home I eat a cereal mixture for breakfast and it's not the most wonderful meal; but I know that over the course of time a balanced, nutritious diet is going to leave me in better physical condition. And I know that over the course of time the regular habit of intake of the Word into my life, of setting aside that time to be quiet and still before the Lord, is going to reap spiritual benefits in my relationship with the Lord.
And I might add, the purpose of the quiet time ultimately is not for how it benefits me anyway. Ultimately it's for my allegiance and my loyalty and my surrender and my submission to God and for His glory. He says in the Word that He wants to see our face and He wants to hear our voice. So really, whether we feel like it or not, whether it's meaningful to us or not, in taking that quiet time we are obeying God and saying, "I will let You see my face and I will let You hear my voice."
Lisa Barry: What would you say to the people listening who would agree, "Yes, I think having a quiet time is probably good; but you know, I forgot to read my Bible for four days in a row and it didn't really hurt me at all." What would you say to somebody like that? Is there something else that maybe they are missing for the quiet time?
Nancy Leigh DeMoss: My experience is that you don't necessarily see the benefits of having a quiet time or the consequences of not having a consistent quiet time in the short run. If I miss a meal today, I'm probably not going to notice it; it probably actually would do me some good to miss a meal today. Or, if I run through a fast-food restaurant and eat something that isn't particularly healthy, I probably will not feel the consequences of that in the short term. But if I make that a habit, I'm going to reap consequences and all of a sudden I wake up one morning and I realize I'm not well physically. Well, when did it start? What caused it? It was a whole series of smaller choices, a habit pattern built over my life. How does a person become healthy? It's not one particular meal that makes that person healthy. It's a habit pattern, a routine of correct eating and exercise and rest and the things that our bodies need physically.
So, if we want to be spiritually well nourished, we've got to pull aside (even as Elisabeth reminded us that Jesus did) out of the busyness and the hectic pace. I watch women today so frazzled, so frantic, so harried, so out of control with their emotions and their tongues and their attitudes and not wanting to be that way, in many cases. They say, "How do I stop this treadmill?"
I believe a key to that is taking that time on a consistent basis, and it does need to be consistent. I really believe that is the pattern of Jesus. If we are going to be like Him, we need to make that our pattern and consistently set aside that time to be still, to be quiet, to let our minds stop racing, and to let God give us His agenda for our day, for this season of life, and to get spiritually fed.
Lisa Barry: What if I'm just beginning a quiet time for the first time? Where do I start?
Elisabeth Elliot: Mr. L.E. Maxwell was the founder of Prairie Bible Institute, which I attended for a year after college. Somebody had come to him and said, "How in the world do you manage to get up early enough in the morning so that you can have the whole day in front of you?"
And he said, "How do I do it? I get up!"
And the other person just seems to be stymied by that. So when I've told that story, I've added to it. "Put your feet on the floor. You know, when the alarm clock goes off, put your feet on the floor. And the next thing you do is pull yourself up out of the bed."
"Oh yeah, but you are just so tired..."
"Well, so what! Just do it...Just do it!" And that's another maxim in my life. I went to a boarding school where we had a long list of things that we had to do every day, taking care of our rooms and classes and all that sort of thing. The Headmistress would say, "Just do it!"
So, we come from a home where it was taken for granted that the things that needed to be done were clearly understood; and if they were not taken care of, there would be consequences.
Lisa Barry: And we, too, will have consequences to face if we don't wrap things up in a timely fashion. So allow me to break in and let our listeners know that they can get a copy of today's program on a series entitled "Passing on a Godly Heritage."
I'd like to thank our special guest, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, who is with us all week. And then, beginning September 3rd we will be starting a brand new program
called Revive Our Hearts.
I want you to know that even in this time of transition, your support is needed. Elisabeth Elliot has been a strong voice in support of biblical womanhood for many years and Nancy will carry on that value into the future, as well. It's not something that our culture is teaching. It's what God says. And that message needs to be heard. As you support, you have a part in helping other women hear what the Bible says about women's roles and responsibilities. Your prayer support will help us finish strong and then begin again strong.
As always, we appreciate your input into what you hear. So please know that your letters and comments are welcome at any stage of this transition. Here's how to get in touch with us. Call us anytime at 1-800-7594-JOY. That's 1-800-7594-569. You can also write to: Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, NE 68501. And if you are on the Internet, be sure to check out our Web site at gatewaytojoy.org.
Gateway to Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.
Tomorrow Elisabeth and Nancy talk about the importance of training children. It's all coming up on the Wednesday edition of
Gateway to Joy.
