The Daily Quiet Time

My Bible reads in Mark 1.35, And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. This verse speaks volumes to me, friends, on the significance of having a daily, vital, quiet time with God in prayer. I say daily because it must be a regular habit in our Christian walk.

I say vital because we go there to refuel and reignite our love relationship with our Lord Jesus. And I say quiet time because as Christ got away from those in his company, the disciples, so he could be alone to communicate with the Father, so we as well need to have a regular meeting place with our God each day. This message is not on prayer per se.

It is on the necessity for prayer every day. This message is on the devotional life of a believer, the importance of it, the necessity of it, and the benefits gained from it. I normally don't do a three-point message, but in this case, if the shoe fits, wear it.

There are three vital aspects to the daily quiet time I want to share with you today, friends. 1. The priority given. 2. The person sought.

3. The benefit gained. Let's examine these friends one by one as they pertain and fit together like a well-worn glove. Let's look at the first of these, the priority given.

When I examine the lives of men and women that God has used in former times, I see a common denominator between them. They each had a vital life of prayer. George Whitefield read his Bible on his knees every day alongside Matthew Henry's commentary.

Well, one day I decided to give that a try. I still have the date I wrote my Bible when I attempted this, June 1, 2008. I'll be very frank with you friends.

I'm no George Whitefield, for I soon abandoned that idea of reading through my Bible on my knees each day. Perhaps Whitefield was a much younger man than I when he did that. But it got me to study the prayer lives of saints that God had used, and it encouraged me as I read about them.

That's why I'm a firm believer in reading Christian biography. It's a deep well to dip into for refreshment. I read about the prayer life of John Sung, and it shamed me.

I'll quote you what his daughter wrote about him. He would kneel and pray every night, even after a long and grueling day, during this period of his convalescence. And this was, friends, after Sung underwent surgery for cancer on his colon.

He would pray on his knees for hours after Bible study sessions with fellow workers. Five hours at a stretch were not too long for him. He also prayed with his wife every morning after she had changed his dressings.

In the evenings, he led his family in prayer and Bible study. He would kneel on one knee when he found his wounds too painful to do so on both. Well, that shames me.

I don't know about you, friends. But my own testimony in regard to the reasons for having a daily quiet time go back to my friendship with my homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen Oldford, who taught me how to have a daily quiet time with God. It was Dr. Oldford's influence of the necessity of the daily quiet time that so transformed my own life.

He wrote a little booklet entitled Manna in the Morning. It's only a few pages long, but it's worth its weight in gold. So there is a priority given to having a daily quiet time.

We must make it a regular habit in our lives. Secondly, the person sought. We see the intimacy between Christ and his disciples, with the disciple John with his head nestled in his bosom as they recline at the table with Jesus, resting there, delighting there, feeling the safety and security there, beneath the master's shadow, so to speak.

As Psalm 91-1 intimates, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. The disciples sought out Jesus and they found him praying. We read in Luke 11-1, And it came to pass that, as he was praying, in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

I had for years discipled men in my home, often twice a week with different groups of men, and the main purpose I felt led to host a discipleship group was to influence the men to incorporate a daily quiet time in their home and to grow in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. The person sought in that daily quiet time a prayer. I placed great emphasis on the daily quiet time with them.

As I do now to you, friends, I know the benefits of it. And that brings us to my final point, the benefit gained. Let me share with you my introduction to my biography on the evangelist, Rolf Barnard, so you can get a sense of this, friends.

And it's a word of encouragement to my preacher brethren as well. The germination of this project is the result of the following story. While rereading David Wilkerson's book, The Cross and the Switchblade, I was impressed by a facet in Wilkerson's life.

Early in his ministry, he was a country pastor who spent the hours of midnight to 2 a.m. watching television to unwind and relax. One evening, God challenged Wilkerson to give that time to him. Wilkerson sold his TV and never replaced it.

From that point forward, he gave God midnight to 2 a.m. And it was during this time that God called Wilkerson to New York City to minister among teen gang members, eventually starting Teen Challenge. I realized that God did not reveal this wider ministry opportunity to Wilkerson until he chose to go deeper with God in a sacrificial daily quiet time. I had maintained a regular daily quiet time for many years, but lately my time with the Lord was missing something.

There was no sacrifice attending it, and the God of the Bible delights in sacrifice, for he sacrificed his only son. Well, during this time, after reading Wilkerson's story, I made a covenant with God to rise at 4.30 a.m. and give God the first hour and a half of each day walking with him. It's amazing how God honored that time.

During this period, I became familiar with a man I never heard of, Rolf Barnard. No man told me about Barnard, but God did. God called me to write this biography on Barnard and gave me great assistance in performing this most impossible task.

This book would not be in your hands had it not been for a willingness to go deeper with God. Let me ask you a question, and please be honest, friends. Does your daily quiet time with God have a sacrificial aroma attending it? Is your sweetheart love for Christ more passionate today than yesterday? His desire is to spend time with you.

God is looking for a man to walk with. Those Enochs would be translated to a deeper walk and wider usefulness to him for his glory. Well, I hope this little message on the daily quiet time has been helpful to you, friends, as it has been to me.

It is my prayer that your own life will dramatically take on new spiritual dimensions from the time you spend walking with God in the cool of the day as Adam did in the garden. Let us pray.