I get a lot of messages from people who are having troubles following through with a daily Bible reading habit. And I get it, I\u2019ve been there. I think one problem is that you don\u2019t desire God enough. There are so many other things that you want to do. Everything else seems to give you more instant gratification than putting in the discipline of spending time with God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re just starting out, you may not really know what to do in your quiet time. Or you may be a few years on the road with God but find it hard to connect with him daily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I want to give you 10 practical steps that can help you fight distractions to spend more time with God:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Pray for a longing to spend time with God.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n God will happily answer that prayer, trust me. Years ago, when I started building a daily habit of quiet time with God, I prayed this every day. Remember, I had no desire for reading the Bible and praying. But after I prayed this for a few weeks, my desire for God\u2019s presence thrived. Today, I\u2019d like to spend time with God 24\/7. That\u2019s how much he heard and answered my prayer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Pray for a focused mind.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, God can help you with that. Ask God to quiet the noise in your head and to help you focus on him and his Word alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Write everything down that comes to mind.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes when we\u2019re praying and reading the Bible, other things come to mind like \u201cOh, I need to do laundry.\u201d Or \u201cI need to buy some apples, call this person, write that email\u2026\u201d or whatever. Instead of rushing through your Bible study to do some errands, write your to-dos down. Everything that comes to mind, that you need to do, write them on this piece of paper. That way it\u2019s out of your head and you won\u2019t forget to do it later. This is also a good chance to pray over your to-do\u2019s and ask God what you should first and what you can leave out today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Put all electronic devices down.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is huge. Put your computer on standby, turn the TV off and put your tablet and phone into flight mode. How could you hear God\u2019s whisper when there are so many other voices speaking? <\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Get your priorities straight.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What if you don\u2019t have time to spend with God? Life can be hectic; work, study, kids and a full to-do list. Yes, I know how it is. That\u2019s why you need to ask yourself: What\u2019s the most important thing in your life? Because we always make time for what truly matters to us. See this as an opportunity to ask God about your priorities. Where do you need to make adjustments? What responsibilities are you carrying that God never told you to pick up? Give your schedule to God and ask him what changes you need to make. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. If you\u2019re too tired to spend time with God, do it anyway.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When you had a rough day or a sleepless night, you need God the most! If you\u2019re too tired to read your Bible and pray, just tell God how you feel. Ask him for strength and comfort. Sometimes I sleep very few hours at night (I have a baby and a lot of other things going on). But God knows how to refresh me after every sleepless night. I don\u2019t know how I would get by being tired WITHOUT spending time with God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. Work on being more disciplined. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I hear people say things like \u201cI\u2019m just not the disciplined kind of person.\u201d You know what? I wasn\u2019t either. But I trained myself to do the things that needed to be done, no matter if it felt good or not. Just start spending time with God today. And do it again tomorrow. And stick to it. You\u2019ll see – over time you\u2019ll develop a taste for it. The more you spend time with him, the more you long for his presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8. Try to do your quiet time at the same place and time each day.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The best way to build a habit is to make it as simple as possible for you. If you develop a routine of spending time with God every day after waking up, you train yourself to stick to it. If you\u2019re working shifts, just find something that works for you and helps you to seek God daily. Another good idea is to dedicate a place for your quiet time. This could be a specific corner of your house, a special chair or whatever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9. Stop running to other things for satisfaction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When we don\u2019t feel good, we\u2019re quick to watch TV or do some other activities that give us instant gratification. But these things won\u2019t fulfill us in the long run. It\u2019s like taking a drug; the issues of the heart will return when the numbness vanishes. When you spend time with God instead, he can truly heal your heart that you need nothing else anymore but him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 10. Get the right attitude about spending time with God.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You may have some wrong perceptions about how quiet time looks like. Maybe you\u2019re picturing yourself sitting in a dark room with a candle, being silent\u2026and bored. While this idea might be intriguing to others, it may not seem appealing to you. This is totally fine. Maybe your quiet time looks different. Try taking a walk outside: Half of the time you listen to an audio Bible and the other half you pray. Or you do your quiet time on your balcony and write all your thoughts and prayers down. In the end it\u2019s important that you spend time in the Bible and in prayer daily. Find whatever works for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow these things and I\u2019m convinced the distractions that have been screaming for your attention get quiet. The only sound you\u2019ll hear is God\u2019s whisper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Read more related blog posts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n My 5 favorite Bible study resources<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n How to get your priorities straight<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Seek the Lord first<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n How I’ve learned to hear God’s voice<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2b50\ufe0f Follow me on Instagram<\/a> for daily encouragement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2b50\ufe0f Do you need more trust in God? Get my 30-day devotional about trusting God and letting go<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2b50\ufe0f You want some fresh input for your Bible study? Get my eguide with my best tips on spending time with God by subscribing to my newsletter \ud83d\udc47\ud83c\udffb<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\nShare This:<\/strong> Why do we feel the urge to grab our phones or watch some TV instead of the important task in front of us? To analyze the root of the problem, we need to look inward – into our hearts and minds. Why can\u2019t we just sit down and spend time with God? Why can\u2019t we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.0","language":"de","enabled_languages":["en","es","de"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"de":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/DSC_0004-1.jpeg",1213,961,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/DSC_0004-1-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/DSC_0004-1-300x238.jpeg",300,238,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/DSC_0004-1-768x608.jpeg",580,459,true],"large":["https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/DSC_0004-1-1024x811.jpeg",580,459,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/DSC_0004-1.jpeg",1213,961,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/DSC_0004-1.jpeg",1213,961,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/DSC_0004-1-100x79.jpeg",100,79,true],"twentytwenty-fullscreen":["https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/DSC_0004-1.jpeg",1213,961,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":" Why do we feel the urge to grab our phones or watch some TV instead of the important task in front of us? To analyze the root of the problem, we need to look inward – into our hearts and minds. Why can\u2019t we just sit down and spend time with God? Why can\u2019t we just do the things for college we are assigned to? Why can\u2019t we just do the chores we know we have to do? Because we want to do something more interesting. Something more fulfilling that stimulates our senses more than the dull disciplines of daily…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"Uncategorized<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"Madeleine","url":"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/de\/author\/mylampbloggmail-com\/"},"comments_num_v2":"1 comment","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":766,"href":"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions\/766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"twitter\"](\"https:\/\/mylampblog.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/addons\/extra-icons\/image\/social\/clearslate\/64x64\/twitter.png\" "\\"Follow")
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