![]() I was frustrated as I discovered the Bible was not just one book but actually a collection of sixty-six books, numbering over a thousand pages. That wasn’t going to deter me from doing my first quiet time! However, my enthusiasm quickly changed to frustration and my curiosity was overshadowed by a sense of feeling overwhelmed and in over my head. There was a brief teaching on how to do one, but it might as well have been in a foreign language, because I left more confused than before. The camp leaders taught us that “personal quiet time” is a term used to describe the time you sit down with the Bible and study it. I remember feeling the same about my first personal quiet time with God. I just knew what it was supposed to look like on the outside. I knew nothing of the contents inside the book. My request was fueled in part by a curiosity about Christianity but mainly out of fear of being the only kid at Bible camp without a Bible. Now, I wish I could say that I described it with the same passion as Ralphie, from A Christmas Story, requesting “a Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle”. I anxiously asked my parents to buy me a Bible, but not just any Bible, a “black leather Bible with the letters ‘NIV’ on the side”. I was a thirteen-year-old boy heading off to my first winter camp, with a youth group I had just begun attending. I actually found much frustration while digging into Scripture the first time. Slowing down enough to put words to thoughts can really help take what might be random ideas and solidify them into real ideas and discoveries.I wish I could say that I instantly fell in love with reading the Bible. You can use a journal, the notes on your phone, or a doc on your computer, but it's important that you physically write/type your study. There are tons of resources online that you can use to help expand your research and enrich your discovery experience. You don't really need anything but a Bible and access to the internet (preferably!). ![]() Level 3: Return to this prayer in the future to evaluate how God worked in your life in response to your requests.Level 2: Write out your prayer to help slow down and to serve as a record of your own spiritual growth. ![]() Make requests for your own spiritual growth. Thank Him for helping you understand or ask for more clarity. Level 1: Talk to God about what you have learned.Level 3: Make a plan for making at least one beneficial change to your life, behavior, or ways of thinking as a result of what you have learned.Level 2: Consider how this passage points back to Jesus, God's character, and/or the Gospel of Jesus Christ.How can you use this new knowledge to change your life for the better? Write down your discoveries. ![]()
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