The Daily Quiet Time: Preaching Institute

In this session we will touch on the importance of maintaining a daily quiet time. I had a friend in ministry share a story with me that I will never forget. He said he used to work as a park ranger in Yellowstone National Park and one year a mysterious thing occurred.

He said some of the bears were found dead and there was no obvious explanation as to why they had died. There were no puncture wounds from an attack or something noticeable like that. It was a great mystery to the staff until they realized that the bears had gotten so accustomed to the tourists feeding them that they had forgotten how to feed themselves.

The bears simply had starved to death. Well that story friends should encourage each of us to examine our daily devotional time with God. Are we feeding on his word and leaning upon his spirit to further the gospel and bring him glory? We read in the Gospel of Mark the following record of the prayer life of Jesus.

In Mark 1 35 we read and in the morning rising up a great while before day he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed. Notice friends two significant aspects of the prayer life of Jesus. Number one he being the sovereign son of God still needed to spend time in prayerful communion with God the father.

Secondly he knew the sacrifice of rising early to be alone with the father. Jesus walked everywhere in his earthly ministry and he knew physical exhaustion. In this incident a prayer recorded here is recorded after a grueling and demanding day of healing the sick and casting out demons.

Yet despite our Lord's physical exhaustion he makes it a point to rise early. Our text gives us the time a great while before day meaning in the small hours of the morning in the darkness long before daylight Jesus rises to depart from the little house from his disciples and friends to go to a solitary place where he can be alone with God the father. Well how about you friend? What does your daily quiet time look like? It has been estimated that the average pastor only spends 10 minutes a day in prayer.

10 minutes isn't that incredible? If that's the case with pastors then what does the average Christian spend daily in prayer? Five minutes? Two minutes? If Jesus the son of God needed to spend time regularly with God the father in prayer should we not make this a burning priority in our life in our devotional life with God? My homiletical mentor Dr. Stephen F. Ulford taught me personally how to have a daily quiet time and he used to tell me that a man was only as tall in the pulpit as he had spent time long on his knees in prayer. I am reminded of an old painting hanging in a Spanish art gallery but there in the painting is a farmer who is kneeling beside his straw hat. He has just laid down his farm implements and his plow.

In the distance is a town and a bell tower of a church and it's obvious from looking at this painting that the church bell has just rung to call the village to a time of prayer but if you look more carefully at this painting in the top right corner you'd see the form of an angel that has just picked up the reins of the team of oxen and is behind the plow as it turns a fresh furrow in the ground. There is a brass plaque below the painting with in capital letters in Spanish three words and those three words are no time lost. Do you get it? No time lost.

When we pray all of heaven is enlisted on our behalf we get more done in prayer than out of prayer. No time lost. What cost counts and what counts costs.

Jesus died to his flesh and rose early to spend time with the father. Do you? There is a story that had a significant impact on me friends and I'd like to share with you now and I hope it'll be a word of encouragement to my preacher brethren. The germination of my writing a biography on the life and ministry of the evangelist Rolf Barnard was a 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 revealed to him and 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 begotten son for sinful man. 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 is amazing friends how God honored that time.

During this period I became familiar with a man I'd never heard of Rolf Barnard. No man told me about Barnard but God did. God called me to write the only biography on Evangelist Barnard who was used in powerful church and city revivals all across America in the early to mid 20th century.

It was when I had a willingness to go deep with God that he revealed this special ministry project to me. Let me ask you a question friend and please be honest. Does your daily quiet time with God have a sacrificial aroma? Attending it? Is your sweetheart love for Christ more passionate today than yesterday? God's desire is to spend time with you.

There was a boy who grew up on a farm and he had a dog who he found as a stray and soon they became fast friends. The boy would often ride his bicycle through the fields and woods with his faithful dog happily running beside him every day. When the boy woke up and walked out to the front porch of his family home the little dog would be waiting for him with his tail wagging to join him on his adventures for that day.

But the boy grew up and soon a freckled faced girl with ponytails captured his attention and it was she that the boy now wanted to spend time with and the dog just got in the way. He would wake up go out on the porch and tell the dog to stay and walk away from it. He would ignore it.

He stopped spending time with the dog. One day when the dog tried to follow him he beat it with a stick to stop him. Finally the broken hearted dog ran away.

That dog looked forward to spending time with his friend and it broke the dog's heart that his friend no longer wanted him. Like I said friend God's desire is to spend time with his children. When we neglect our quiet time we neglect our God and his heart aches to spend time in close love relationship with us.

God is looking for the man to walk with in intimacy with him. Those Enochs will be translated to a deeper walk and wider usefulness to him for his glory. Do you desire more of God? Do you long to have more usefulness to him? Take this time now friend to reflect upon your own daily quiet time with God and how you can make it more vital more sacrificial in a closer walk with him.

Let us pray.