180: 5 Tools to Help You Have an Effective Quiet Time
Are you looking for ways to have a more effective quiet time? Do you feel like your time with God is stale or that you can’t discern what He has for you?
While the Bible is in itself sufficient to help us live out our faith, we sometimes need a tool or two to help make the time we spend in God’s Word more effective where we can learn something that God has for us.
In episode 180, I will share with you my five favorite tools that I have used at one time or another to help me have a more effective quiet time. So grab your favorite beverage and settle in as we learn about these tools.
I’m always looking for ways to improve my systems, whether it’s how I manage my time, my home, or my work. Often, though, I get distracted by the number of tools there are available to help me streamline my systems.
The same thing happens when it comes to living out my faith. There are so many tools and resources we can use to help us study the Bible better, pray more consistently, or just live out our faith in general. The options can be overwhelming wouldn’t you agree?
Five Tools for an Effective Quiet Time
These tools will help you focus on what you are doing, whether it is studying the Bible, praying, or journaling your thoughts to God. And I think that is important for you to know. These are not tools meant to distract you from the important work of spending time with God. We have to be tuned into God to be able to hear from him and understand just what it is he wants us to do. These tools will help you do just that.
Monthly Scripture Writing Plan
If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you should know that I create a new plan each month and have done so for the last six years. Writing out Scripture daily helps me to focus my thoughts on the Lord. The plans I create are themed, so each day my thoughts are focusing in on what the Bible says about that theme.
YouVersion Bible App
You may have heard about this app before because it is probably one of the most popular Bible apps out there. But you may be like me and not aware of all it does. For the longest time, I just used it to look up certain verses or read short passages from them. But it does so much more.
There are Bible reading plans with devotions you can use. There is also the ability to have the Bible read to you. I had someone contact me after the episode I did on fitting quiet time with God into your schedule where I talked about listening to the Bible while you were driving. She asked me to recommend a tool for that. The YouVersion Bible app is the one I recommend. It will even read the devotions in the plans it offers. There is also a community aspect to the app if you are looking for something like that.
Readscripture.org App
This app helps you read through the Bible. But the key feature it offers is videos on each book of the Bible from the Bible Project. I love watching these videos before I tackle a book of the Bible to study because they provide excellent background information and a framework for helping me to understand what I read. You don’t have to follow their plan in order to access the videos. So even if you don’t plan to read through the Bible in a year, you can still use the videos to help you understand different books of the Bible.
Study Bibles
I love study Bibles because they give so much background information on each book of the Bible, what is going on in each passage, and will often have helpful articles to guide your understanding of what you read. My personal favorite is the ESV study Bible. That is my favorite version. It has tons of maps, outlines, and other resources that help make the Bible come alive. So if you don’t have a good study Bible, I encourage you to get one if you can. Make sure it has enough features to help you understand what you are reading.
A Journal
Whether you use it to keep track of prayers, write down what you learn from studying the Bible, or journal your thoughts to God, a journal is a great way to help you stay focused in your quiet time. It helps you to keep a record of what God is saying to you through your prayers, Bible study, and thoughts to God.
I encourage you to try out one of these tools to see how they can help you have a more effective quiet time.
