How to Find a Good Time for Devotions

In a book on leadership Warren Wiersbe writes,

‘The most important meeting we as leaders attend is that daily personal meeting with the Lord, before the day begins, when worship and meditation increase our faith as we receive the orders for the day.’

We live in a very busy culture so it can be difficult to make a time to meet with God every day, but as my husband says, “You can always make time for something if you really want to”!

Before children I would always try to make my devotions first thing, as doing it later in the day often meant either that I forgot to do it, was distracted, ran out of time or even fell asleep.

But since having children I have found that depending on the circumstances, first thing might not necessarily be the best time for me. Often I am up in the night with the children, and then I can’t get up in the morning before the kids are up or I’m falling asleep because I’m so tired.

David Wilkerson was greatly used by God in founding Teen Challenge, and when I read his biography, ‘The Cross and The Switchblade’ I noticed how it all started from him giving up his 2 hours of TV every night and praying instead. And the prayer was at night, not first thing in the morning.

Here are some guidelines I use to figure out when is the best time for me to meet with God:

1. Consistency

The reason why my morning devotions didn’t work too well when I was up in the night is because it wasn’t consistent.

Now I look for a time that I can consistently meet with God. When my youngest took naps I made it his naptime, as that was a time I would nearly always be at home and could have an hour free.

Incidentally this is also why first thing in the morning is a great time, because once you get into the habit of getting up early it is easy to be consistent as there are usually no other appointments or phone calls at 6am!
It is also said that something that is done at the same time every day is twice as easy to do, and since the devil will do all he can to prevent us from meeting with God, that in itself is a great help!

2. Quality

We should want to give God our best, because He is our King. So that means giving Him the most quality time that we can in our day though obviously we still have responsibilities like work, cooking, families etc.

Again that is why first thing in the morning is generally best, because after we have got rid of our sleepiness we are most alert then, and thinking well, and can meet with God before anything else happens.

3. Flexibility

Ideally it works best if you can have a set time for your devotions and always stick to it. But there are usually things that happen to disrupt your plan. That is why it is important to be flexible and have a Plan B.

Plan B might be to read your Bible in the train on the way to work, or pray while you’re watching the kids play, or right before bedtime. But if your first appointment doesn’t happen for whatever reason, try and get it in somewhere, because the devil loves to get us off track, and one day where we miss it can easily lead to another day, and another.

When we’re not praying regularly and hearing from God we more easily fall into temptation as well as missing out on the blessing of a personal relationship with God!

At the same time it is also important not to beat yourself up if you miss your devotions one day! It is not a law that we must have it, and we shouldn’t do it in order to earn favour with God because we already have that. Sometimes if we find ourselves missing it a lot, we might have to change things around – go to bed earlier, or change the time, for example.

At the beginning of the week I had this blog post written up, and then all week it has been crazy and I’ve only managed to make one quiet time where I’ve intended it to be! But I have done things like praying in the chair in the garden while I watched the kids play, and was so blessed by the beauty of the clouds as I prayed, “Our Father, who art in heaven”!

This week is what made me come back and write down no.3 – to be flexible. Because when I failed to get up early each day what I did instead was to write Bible and prayer down as my no.1 priorities on my To Do list and then slot them in somewhere.

So try to find a time that is consistent and quality every day. But also be flexible for when things don’t go according to plan, don’t get downhearted, and don’t give up!
Linking up to Spiritual Sundays, Faith Filled Fridays.