It seems pretty evident to me that just about all of us often struggle with our quiet time with God. For me it is hard to keep focused while I try to meditate on the things God is saying and it is sometimes difficult for me to not view my devotional life as work. On Tuesday night we discussed this issue of quiet time and went over the method called reap. Emma suggested that I post it on the blog. Hopefully this will be helpful as we follow Christ together.
First of all, this involves the Bible. Pretty simple I know, but sometimes we read other books and give less attention to the Bible. Get a reading plan or choose a book of the Bible to read through during your quiet times. Right now I am reading the upper room discourse in John 13-17. Try to actually make it through a decent section before flipping all over the place. This will help you to understand the context of what you are reading.
R - Read: Just read the passage. When a verse stands out to you this is something you should make note of. When it is highlighted in your mind that is probably the Spirit illuminating that verse because God is speaking to you there. Write out the verse and continue reading until you decide to stop.
E - Examine: This is not study time. This is where you go back and focus on the verse(s) that you wrote out and write what the text is saying. Reword the verse, making another way to understand it. When you examine the Scripture you are gaining a deeper understanding the truth of what God is saying.
A - Application: In this section you want to take the truth of what you have read and write how it will change your life. This is basically the section in which you will write how this affects the way you live if you truly believe what God has said. i.e. - I must pray for a heart to love Christ more if I will live out genuine obedience.
P - Pray: When you get here I recommend that you actually write out your prayer to God. Pray focusing on the things from the passage you read, examined and applied. Talk to God about it openly. It will be good to look back at what you have prayed about after a while.
Try it out. I think this can be a very helpful approach to our devotional times. One key thing is to not rush through each part of this like it is a task to complete. Silence and meditation is HUGE in our lives.
Peace of Christ to you,
Kyle
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1 comment:
R.E.A.P. really helped me to focus on my quiet times. I realized that reading five different things doesn't really make your quiet time better if you can't remember all those things.This method allowed me to gain more from the things I read.
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