Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith, Spirit-Led, Hearing from God, Sowing Truth

5 Tips for Having Meaningful Quiet Times with Jesus

• Audrey McCracken | Mom Encourager • Season 3 • Episode 89

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Can setting aside just a few minutes every day truly transform your spiritual health? Join me on Grace for my Home as we uncover the profound impact of daily quiet time with God. We discuss how abiding in Christ through reading the Word, prayer, and fellowship nourishes our spirits, much like food and water sustain our bodies. I'll also share the importance of knowing Jesus personally to avoid deception and grow in faith.

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5 Tips for Having Meaningful Quiet Times with Jesus

Click here to receive Draw Near to Hear: A Guide to Help You Start a Daily Quiet Time With Jesus.

For a look at my favorite devotionals check out this blog post:
My Favorite Quiet Time Devotionals.


Check out my new book! Covered in Prayer: 31 Prayers to Cover You and Your Children in God's Grace

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Audrey McCracken:

Hello friends, welcome back to Grace for my Home. I'm here this week to remind you that there is always enough grace for your home. God loves you, he loves your children, he loves your home, he has good plans for you and he promises to supply everything we need to accomplish what he's asked of us. So there is always enough grace. There's enough grace today for you and for your family. This week. I want to remind you of a few things. First of all, I am loving this new fan mail option on my podcast. When you go to the show notes, there's now an option where you can click text me and it will send a direct message to me and I'll get that in real time, and that's just the coolest thing to me. So you can send me messages and the only downside is I cannot respond back through text. If you want me to respond back, you'll have to include your email address. You can send me messages at any time and I want to invite you to do that. Number two, if you have enjoyed my podcast, if it has been a blessing to you, if it has encouraged you, I would encourage you to consider supporting Grace For my Home with a one-time gift. You can go to Buy Me A Coffee, which is the link in my show notes, and there you can send a one-time gift. You can go to Buy Me a Coffee, which is the link in my show notes, and there you can send a one-time gift donation to Grace For my Home. That will go directly to the support of this podcast.

Audrey McCracken:

This week I want to talk with you about abiding in Christ and keeping that connection through daily quiet times. At a very early age in my Christian walk, I had a pastor and I was sharing with him some of the struggles of being a new Christian and trying to figure this out, trying to do the right things, trying to grow in my faith, and some of the struggles I was having, and he encouraged me to daily spend time with Jesus. He told me this is something that you need to do to keep up your spiritual health. You have to talk to him, you have to read the word, you have to be with him because he is your strength and it really makes a lot of sense if you think about it. You know we wouldn't go days without real food. You know we wouldn't do that because our body needs it and we wouldn't be weak and eventually die unless we took in nourishment. And we took in water. And that's what it's like to spend time with Jesus. It is taking in the nourishment that our spirit needs. It is taking in the water that our souls crave. You know, jesus is the bread of life and we need him. We need to spend time with him if we're going to grow spiritually.

Audrey McCracken:

You know we, in and of ourselves, we're very weak creatures. You know we don't have the wisdom that we need. We don't have the wisdom that we need, we don't have the strength that we need. You know we cannot obey God without God. If we could, you know, if God, if it was just about obeying the commandments, if God, you know, gave people the commandments and they obeyed them, then Jesus wouldn't have had to come. But he knew we couldn't do that. You know, in our sinful nature and our broken self and our flesh, we cannot obey God. We might, can do good things for a while, but our very nature is corrupt and that's why we needed a savior, and so the only way to grow is to spend time with him.

Audrey McCracken:

You know, when you come into a relationship and you find somebody and you want to get to know that person. The only way for that relationship to grow and to be stronger and for you to really know that person is to spend time with them. And that's how it was and still is. When I came to the Lord, I needed to know this Savior, I needed to know him. You know, paul said that's my one desire is that I would know him, and that has to be our one desire too is to know the Lord. What is he like? What is what does he like? What kind of things does he not like? You know, those are the kind of things that we find out when we spend time with him. And when I say spend time with him, I mean time just you and the Lord, and prayer and reading his word and talking to him and fellowshipping with him. That's how you get to know him. Now Jesus said I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me, you will bear much fruit. And that's his desire for us is for us to bear much fruit, is for us to be like him.

Audrey McCracken:

And the wonderful thing about spending time with Jesus and getting to know Jesus is it not only does it strengthen our relationship with him, which it most certainly does, but it helps us to not be deceived. See, people will come and tell you what Jesus is like and what he's. You know what he wants from us and what we're supposed to be doing as Christians. And if we don't know the Lord for ourselves, then we can be quickly and easily led astray. I mean, we can be led astray if we do know the Lord. You know the Lord said that in time, if he didn't short the time, even the very elect would be deceived. So I mean, deception isn't something that any of us are above. None of us are above the risk of being deceived.

Audrey McCracken:

But knowing the Lord and knowing the things of God and knowing the word greatly increases our ability to detect things that aren't from God. You know, sometimes people will come to you and they'll say crazy things. And if you're not sure, if you're not, if you don't know the word, you know there's a temptation to even believe it, especially if that person has been serving the Lord longer than you. But when you know the Lord and you've gotten in the word and you know what it says, and people bring things to you that are just off the wall or that just don't settle right, then you can have the confidence of knowing that's not true. And so when we spend time with the Lord, we get to know what he's like, we get to know him, we get to fall in love with him and we get to, we get stronger in our faith, and we get stronger in our faith and we get more confident in our faith. That's why it's so important we would not go days without eating natural food, and that's how it is with the Lord.

Audrey McCracken:

If we're going to grow spiritually, we have to draw near to Him, we have to spend time with Him, and those can be some of the most special and precious times, when we shut out the world and we say okay, lord, right now I'm giving you my attention, I'm giving you my undivided attention. Reveal your word to me, and he will do that. He will show you the things that you need to know to live your life the way he has asked you to, to be successful in your walk with him. And let me tell you being successful in your walk with him, what that really means is just obeying him. Obedience is the goal. That is what success looks like in the kingdom of God is being obedient to him. And so today, I want to share with you a few things that I have found helpful when it over the years, when it comes to spending time with the Lord, and please keep in mind that your time with the Lord will change throughout the years, and that's okay.

Audrey McCracken:

This is not a sprint, this is a marathon. You know, this isn't a project. Spending time with the Lord isn't something that you just commit to doing for a few months. It should be a part of your life, something that is bedrock in your life. That this is what I do through all seasons. Now I will tell you that it changes during the seasons. When I was a young mom, that looked a lot different than it does now. Before I had children, my quiet times looked a lot different than they do now, and I'm sure five, six years from now it's going to look different. Every season is different, but the important thing is to make that time with him a priority, and so I want to encourage you this week.

Audrey McCracken:

I want to give you a few ideas of things that you can do if you have not established quiet times. If that's not something that you do, I want to encourage you to do so and give you some tips on how to do that If you do have quiet times and I hope that I'm preaching to the choir, I hope every one of you that's listening that this is something that you do. But if you do, I want to encourage you to keep it up. There are seasons when I'm dry and I come to the Lord and my quiet times are not flowing. And I come to the Lord and my quiet times are not flowing, and you know I don't have any great thing that happens or any feeling or anything like that that happens during my quiet times. But I know he's there and I'm not doing it for a feeling, right, I'm doing it because I want to get to know him, and so quiet times are one of those things that we do by faith.

Audrey McCracken:

And there's fruit, but it's not always immediately evident. You're like that tree planted by the streams of water, and so when you have quiet times, it's like you're drawing on those streams of water. You know you're planted, you're not going anywhere and you're trusting that he's speaking to me, he's feeding me, he's teaching me the way. The first thing that I encourage you to do is to set aside a time and a place and say this is when I'm going to spend time with the Lord, and this is where I'm going to spend time with the Lord. Spend time with the Lord, and this is where I'm going to spend time with the Lord. A wise person told me years ago If you make an appointment with God, he will meet you there. Think about that. If you make an appointment with God, he will show up Because you've made him a priority, and so when you say I'm going to meet God here, he will be there.

Audrey McCracken:

And I have found that throughout the years, the mornings seem to be the best time for me, but that may not be the same for you. So my quiet times, I like to start them in the morning, and I have a chair. There's a chair in my bedroom, by a window, where I have my quiet times and I'm I know I'm going to meet the Lord here. This is where I'm going to pray, this is where I'm going to have, this is where I'm going to read the Bible, and so set a place and set a time during the day that this is when and where I meet the Lord. Number two is be prepared and have a plan. Okay, if you don't have a plan in mind, if you just sit down in the chair and you don't really know what you're going to do and you haven't gathered your things and you haven't thought about what I need, about what I need, then you're not going to get very far and you'll spend half the time trying to figure out what you're going to do. And so for me, it is helpful to have my things beside me, which would be my Bible, a devotional book, my journal, maybe a list of things I want to pray for, my prayer list. I have those things right by my chair. I'm actually sitting in this chair right now as I talk to you. You know, right by my chair, stacks of books, things that I like to use during my devotional time. I almost have like a little nest here, but I have a plan.

Audrey McCracken:

Now, how does my devotional usually work? Please understand, I'm not telling you these things so you can say, well, I'm gonna do it just like her. I'm just telling you it's good to think about these things because it makes them happen. When you think about where and when and how I'm going to do this, it increases the odds of it happening, and so my little routine for quiet time and this changes up. This is not written in stone anywhere, but what has helped me is to start off with a good devotional. That was advice someone gave me years ago and I have found it to be good and true in my life, that if I can start off with a good devotional that sets the tone life, that if I can start off with a good devotional that sets the tone and then I move on to my Bible.

Audrey McCracken:

I have different ways of reading through the Bible or reading the Bible. I go from a devotional to actually reading the word, reading the Bible, and then I pray. Then, either at the end of all that or in between all that, I journal as I'm sitting and I'm thinking and I'm praying and I'm reading the Word. A lot of times there'll be things I want to remember later, and so I have my pen, my paper close by and I'll jot those things down. Sometimes it's just the things that I need to do. See, nothing in the world can make you think of all the things that you need to do that you haven't done, like sitting down and trying to spend time with the Lord. Everything in the world comes at your mind oh, I didn't do this, I didn't make that phone call, I didn't, I didn't pick this up, no-transcript with them, and I won't forget them. You know it's kind of like, okay, I've written it down, now I won't forget it. I times and that is very therapeutic for me, that's very healing for me when I can get my thoughts on paper and I can write down anything that I feel like the Lord is impressed on my heart, and so that's kinda how I do my quiet time.

Audrey McCracken:

I start with the devotional, I go to the Bible, I go to prayer and then a journal, either at the end or all through that process. Now, throughout the Bible, I go to prayer and then I journal, either at the end or all through that process. Now, throughout the years I have used all different kinds of devotionals. I have some that I love so much that I just keep circling back through them and I'm going to put together, I'm going to compile a list of my favorites and I'm going to put that a link to that list in the show notes of this episode so that you can see the ones that I've used over the years and the ones that I would recommend and there are a lot out there that are just as good as the ones I'm going to recommend, but these are the ones that that I know are good because I've used them and, like I said, they're it's just to get me started, just a short devotional to get my mind set on the things of the Lord.

Audrey McCracken:

As far as the Bible reading, oh wow, there's so many different ways to read the Bible. Sometimes I'll do a topic study where I have one topic like let's say that my topic is peace, that I'm really wanting to read scriptures on peace. Well, I'll just search the Bible and read, read scriptures about peace. If sometimes I will read a particular chapter, I'll say okay, this I think it was last summer I read through the gospels and that was helpful because each day when I sat down, I had a plan. I wasn't just, you know, hoping that the Bible fell open at a good spot and because that's that feels like to me, that's that's hard for me. I do better when I when I sit down, knowing that I have a certain place to go.

Audrey McCracken:

Right now I am doing a read through the Bible plan and it's supposed to be read through the Bible in a year. It's going to take me a lot longer. It's probably to take me a lot longer. It's probably going to take me closer to two years. But does it really matter? You know, does it really matter. And so right now I'm reading through the Bible with my little plan and, and that's been helpful.

Audrey McCracken:

And I deviate from that. Guys, none of this is written in stone, you know, it's whatever the Lord speaks to you, it's however you learn. Aren't you glad that we don't all have to be the same, that we don't all have to do it the same, you know, I just I love that freedom that we have in Christ to be ourselves and to know that he talks to us all in different ways, and that's okay, but that's. Number two is just having is being prepared and having a plan. Number three is limit the distractions.

Audrey McCracken:

Now, this is a big one for me. I am easily distracted. Ask anybody who knows me. I'm easily distracted, and so I have to get rid of anything that is going to sabotage my time at the Lord. My cell phone is a big one. I want it near me in case, you know, like right now I have a son in Florida. You know if he's texting or calling, I want to be able to see that. But just having that phone there distracts me. If it dings, if it rings, you know, if anything, then it just it completely derails my time with the Lord. Now I know people that that's not a problem. They can play worship music on their phone and have their devotion time and that's great. But I'm not one of those. I have to put the phone away. You know I have to shut the door. Sometimes I'll have to tell my kids I'm having devotion time. You know I'm having quiet time. Don't come in here, knock on the door unless it's an emergency. And so I try my best to limit distractions.

Audrey McCracken:

I will tell you a funny story. This week I was taking my son, david, who's been sick. I was taking him back and forth to the doctor and we were talking about you know, I still encourage my sons to have quiet times, to have times where they read and pray. And we were talking about that and he said something. And he said Mama, you remember when we were little and we were homeschooling and you would tell us to go to our room and have, you know, 20, 30 minute quiet times. And I used to do that our room and have, you know, 20, 30-minute quiet times. And I used to do that. I'd tell them, you know, go to your room. I'd set a timer, I'd get them a snack. I'd say go to your room, you know we're going to have a 30-minute quiet time. You've got to read. You can, you know, read whatever you want, but you've got to go to your own room and be quiet. He said, mama, we never did that. He said you would, you know, go in your room, but we would play and you know, we would go back and forth to each other's rooms and we would talk, and, and he said we never sat and read.

Audrey McCracken:

And I said, honey, quiet time wasn't about you. Yes, I was trying to help you establish routines and learn how to sit and be still for a while, but it was really so Mama could have a few minutes of quiet herself. I said so, don't worry, I knew things were going on. I just was trying to have, you know, a 20-minute time for myself in the middle of the afternoon so that I could be nice for the rest of the day. And so, you know, I just thought that was cute. He thought they thought they were getting away with something, and I'm like, honey, it was. It was all about me having quiet time, not you. But you know those distractions, you know, and I know this is not for everybody. Okay, you know, when you have toddlers, that's all that is is a distraction. I mean, this is almost.

Audrey McCracken:

You know, there were times when it just felt impossible for me to have devotions, but I was still committed to it and at that time things looked a whole lot different than they do now. You know I would, and I have a devotional guide to that. I will once again, I'll share that in the notes. I have a link to a devotional guide that I put together to help people who want to have a quiet time but struggle with establishing one, and I'll put a link to that devotional guide in the show notes. But in that devotional guide what made me think of it was I have what I call fill in the pockets with Jesus and there were.

Audrey McCracken:

There was just no time when my boys were all under three years old and there was no time for me to have what I wanted to have as far as like a sit down devotional time. I sat down time, I got one asleep, I had another one up and, and this went on from, you know, six, five, six o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock at night, and I remember thinking I mean I'm never going to be able to have a devotional again, I'm never going to be able to sit down and actually pray again. And the Lord helped me to see that there were little pockets in the day, that they weren't enough. They weren't enough to sit down and have a devotional, but when you put them all together they made up a substantial amount of time. And so what I would do is I would take that time to read a scripture. You know, I would get the app on my phone, a scripture a day. And if it was just five minutes or while they were playing, you know, while they were playing at the park or in the backyard, and I would sit and watch them, I would pull up my scripture and I would meditate on that scripture. And then, you know, there were times like when I had to run to the grocery store and I would pray during that time.

Audrey McCracken:

The shower was another place where I would pray. In the shower and, guys, it never felt like enough. But there's a, there's a principle, it's actually a scripture. It says if we draw near to God, he will draw near to us. And so I saw it as Lord, I'm drawing near to you. You know it's not. It's kind of like the widow's mite. Right, I know it's not enough, I know you deserve so much more, but this is what I have and I give it to you. And that's how I saw it.

Audrey McCracken:

I was filling the little pockets I had during the day with the Lord. My husband one time asked me Audrey, why do you spend so long in the shower? And I said, honey, that's the only place that I can be by myself, it's the only place that I don't have somebody pulling on me. And I didn't realize I was doing it, but my thought about it. I thought, yeah, I do take long showers. It's because that was my prayer place, that's where I could be alone with the Lord, if it was just for 15 minutes. And so you know, if this doesn't apply to you, if you're in a season that this just seems impossible, just ask the Lord to show you how to connect with him in an untraditional way.

Audrey McCracken:

And, like I said, when my boys got older, when they were seven, eight, I tried to have quiet times during the day where I would put them in their room with a snack and say, okay, this is your quiet time, but it was really my quiet time and I would get so frustrated some days. Some days it just didn't matter how, didn't matter how I put, it didn't matter what kind of snack days, it just didn't matter how, didn't matter how I put, it didn't matter what kind of snack I gave them, doesn't matter what kind of time limit I gave them. You know they just would not stay in their rooms and that's okay. You know, you get through. You get through and then you look back and you think, god, you were with me the whole time. You know, even when I felt like I'm just doing such a bad job at this devotional thing, even when I felt like I'm just doing such a bad job at this devotional thing, he sees your heart and it matters. It matters that you're straining towards him, because he gives grace when he sees that we're trying.

Audrey McCracken:

And the fourth thing I want to say about devotionals is ask the Holy Spirit to help you. Devotionals is ask the Holy Spirit to help you. When Jesus was getting ready to go back to heaven, when he was getting ready to leave, and he knew his time was coming, was coming, where he would be crucified, he drew his disciples to him at the last supper, at the Passover meal, and it talks about this in John 14 through 18. He drew his disciples close to him and he started telling them I'm going to send the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, he is going to teach you all things. He is going to be your helper, he is your advocate and he will teach you all things. Be your helper, he is your advocate and he will teach you all things. And he will remind you of the things that I have said to you. And we need the Holy Spirit and we can ask him when you go and you sit down to have your quiet time.

Audrey McCracken:

You know, maybe the Bible is very intimidating to you, maybe you're not sure how to pray. You know, even the disciples said Lord, teach us how to pray. But sit down and say Holy Spirit, here I am. Jesus said you're here to guide me into all truth. Show me what you want to say to me today. And I believe he answers that prayer. He'll open up the scriptures to us. He will help us to understand them. He will remind us of the things in God's word that we've stored up in our hearts when we need them. That he will help us pray. He'll show us how to pray. He will help us. Pray, he will help us.

Audrey McCracken:

And I think that that we're really missing out when we don't ask the Holy Spirit to do the very thing that Jesus sent him here on Earth to do, and that is to help us and to comfort us and to lead us and guide us into all truth. So when you sit down to pray, to have time with the Lord, ask the Holy Spirit to help you. And number five is don't be discouraged. I do not hear from the Lord every time I sit down and have a devotional. I do not feel something every time I sit down to have a devotional with the Lord, and if we're looking for a feeling, we might miss what God wants to say. If we're looking for a feeling, we might miss what God wants to say. Now, I love it when I feel Him near. Don't get me wrong. I'm not against it. It's just I've learned that I can't always go by my feelings, either good or bad.

Audrey McCracken:

This past Sunday, my husband shared something in church and I'd never seen it put that way, but it was really helpful. He was talking about emotions and feelings and how, how we are to deal with them, and he was saying think of them as like children, and you know when you're going on a road trip with children, you can't stuff them in the trunk. You know, maybe they're screaming, maybe they're loud, maybe they're driving you up the wall, but you can't throw them in the trunk, no matter how much you may want to. It's not a good idea, it's not going to end well, it's not right. But at the same time, you can't put them in the driver's seat. That's not a good idea either. We need to listen to our emotions, we need to respect them and deal with them honestly, but we can't let them drive us and we can't let them run our lives and we can't stuff them. And I just thought that was the best illustration. And that's how that applies to so many areas, and it applies to devotions and quiet times too.

Audrey McCracken:

Just because you don't hear something or feel something every time you sit down to talk to the Lord doesn't mean that it's not doing something. It's bringing nourishment to your soul. It's bringing life to your spirit. I do it by faith, by faith that I am feeding myself with the word. I'm renewing my mind with the word, and it makes a difference because I'm faithful in it. And it makes a difference because I'm faithful in it. And so don't get discouraged. If things don't go the way you think they're supposed to go, and if you don't have these wonderful experiences every time you sit down with your Bible and you sit down to pray, don't get discouraged, keep going.

Audrey McCracken:

Like I said before, this is not a sprint, it's a marathon, it's a way of life. You're establishing something for a lifetime, not for days or weeks or months, but for years. And it makes a difference because it's like you're planted. You're that tree in Psalm 1 that is planted by the streams of water. You're not moving because things seem dry right now. You're that tree in Psalm 1 that is planted by the streams of water. You're not moving because things seem dry right now. You know that, even though the riverbed may look dry, that underneath there is streams that you can't see and maybe you don't feel them.

Audrey McCracken:

But you're in the right place and God is bringing you the grace you need, right where you are. And as you keep going to him, as you draw near to him, he will draw near to you and you grow and you see where God's been faithful. And there are times when you sit down, there have been times when I've thought Lord, I need to hear from you today. I am struggling in this or I'm battling this and I need wisdom here. And he'd bring the wisdom and it was just. It's refreshing and it's wonderful. But just because it's not always like that doesn't mean that it's not important. So I encourage you, don't get discouraged, keep praying, keep praying. And I can't encourage you enough to start having quiet times, to continue having quiet times if you already are, to take that time and set it apart and say this is my time with the Lord and I'm growing in him and I'm getting to know him and he is a priority in my life. And at the same time, don't beat yourself up if it doesn't happen every day or you just can't seem to make it happen every day. Do what you can. Do what you can. You know it may seem small. This may seem small, and maybe it seems insignificant, but it's very powerful.

Audrey McCracken:

As I said before, I'm going to put some links in the show notes. I'll put a link to my devotional guide. It's called Draw Near to here and I will put that in the show notes. I'll also put a link to my favorite devotionals and I hope they're a blessing to you. I hope you'll check them out and see if they're a blessing to you. Some of them. One of them is the first devotional that I ever used.

Audrey McCracken:

When I became a Christian. Somebody told me to go to the bookstore Back then we bought books at a bookstore and someone told me to go to a Christian bookstore and get a devotional and to start my quiet times with that each day. And I did. And that same book you can buy today on Amazon, and there's nothing magical about the book. It's just a blessing to me because it reminds me of how faithful God has been through the years. And there's some new ones and some old ones, but they're all. I've read them all, and so I'll put a link to those in the show notes.

Audrey McCracken:

And don't forget to send me your questions. If you have any questions you want me to address on the question and answer episode, then I'll do that. And before you go, I'd like to say a prayer over you, father. I thank you for these ladies and I believe that their desire is to know and love you and to serve you, and I pray that you would draw them to you by your Holy Spirit to pray and spend time with you every day. I pray, lord, god, that their devotions would be sweet. And, lord, that you would speak to them. And, lord, god, that you would give them the confidence that you're answering their prayers, that you hear their prayers and that you care about them, and that the things that burden them, the things that concern them, or those things concern you too, because you care, and we thank you for it. Father, we thank you for your faithfulness and we ask you, lord, to teach us faithfulness In Jesus' name, amen.