Quiet time: Who Am I Meeting?

I often come back to the issue of a quiet time because time is required to build a relationship. I come to my times with Him to get to know Him, to value Him above my doing, and to love Him. So let’s look at the quiet time.

Quiet time errors

I don’t have to go outside my 3-foot circle to find erroneous thoughts. Nope, they’re right here in me, I need look no farther. Is my quiet time a job? Am I going to work? Do I look to achieve a task? Well, now I’m blushing. Yes, I have caught myself more than once tackling the time rather than settling into it. I function like I have a job to do, and come hell or high water, I am gonna do it.

One day I sat down and said to the Lord, “This is about You. I’m not on stage and I don’t have to perform. No, I am here for You.” Then I sat and waited. The pressure to produce was off me; I was there for His pleasure.  It’s not like I was making some magnanimous gesture of philanthropy. I need this quiet time so much. My life’s focus is to be Him. I need to know that He is where all my days begin and end. I need to prefer Him to myself. But as far as the performance of a quiet time goes, He’s the director. He is the guide, and I’m just presenting myself. “Here is my life, my time, my heart (with all that entails). Here am I for You.”

An Issue

I think I occasionally come to Him as a servant rather than son. I look at it as if I am the one with all the needs, seeking the One with all the provision. Oh, that’s so wrong. When I position my heart in this way, no wonder I come to get a task done. I have a shopping list that has to be filled by the Great Grocer and my payment is whatever gyrations He requires. Three worship songs, two chapters of scripture reading, thanking Him for what I got yesterday, a possible tear or two and then I get my order, right? Not for the son!

A son comes to the Father with everything because all things are his. He comes to be with the Father out of love, not duty. A servant looks to get and a son looks to be. This removes all the pressure off the function of a quiet time and places all the focus on the Father.

What happens when…

If I’m sitting with my Father, as a son, and stillness and silence is the result, that’s what He wants. If worship, reading, confession, or supplication happens, it will be by His leading. I’m not here to perform; I’m here for His will.

Sure, I can punch my time card and look for how the job needs to get done, but I prefer to build a relationship with my God. I am a son, not a servant. I seek my Abba, not my employer.

* Trying to Abide also talks about the quiet time with God, and The Real Father speaks on being a son rather than a slave.