Absolutely crucial to the life of a Christian is the daily quiet time. However, among Christians, it is rare indeed these days to find a Christian who consistently meets with the Lord each day. Even among pastors and those who preach and lead spiritually, it is becoming increasingly rare. Unbelievably, some even claim that there is no Biblical basis for a quiet time. Of course, this is ridiculous.

The Bible is filled with commands and examples of daily devotion with God. Beginning right back in Eden, we have the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. His words, “Adam, where are you?” suggests that God met with the humans daily. There was an appointment to be kept, and when Adam and his wife hid, it caused God to call for them. Not because He didn’t know where they were, but to drive home to Adam the separation that sin had brought.

In the patriarchs, we have a clear picture of men who met God daily. There can hardly be any doubt about Abraham’s prayer life, when we see the boldness and familiarity with which he addresses God in Genesis 18. We read of Isaac in Genesis 24:63: “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening.”

We hardly need to use our imagination to picture the daily, pure devotion of Joseph. As we move into the time of the law, we see God instituting all kinds of daily washings, rituals and reminders to make sure Israel would fellowship with God continually, and certainly daily. As they enter the land, God tells Joshua the secret of success:

This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Joshua 1:8

And how could we fail to speak about the clear, daily devotion of David – whose heart panted for God like a deer pants for water, who desired one thing – to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. David, who more than likely wrote Psalm 119, with its talk of loving God’s Word in the morning, at night, with continual devotion.

And what about the shining testimony of Daniel? Daniel 6:10 tells us: “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.”

As we enter the New Testament, we find Simeon, who is described as devout. Just a few verses later we find Anna the prophetess, serving the Lord with fasting and prayers night and day.

Above all, we have the example of Jesus. In Mark 1:35 we read: “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” Luke 5:16 reports, “And He withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.”

It was Jesus frequent and clear devotional life that caused His disciples to want the same thing for themselves: “And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). If our Lord Jesus clearly met with His Father daily, it amazes me to hear Christians and even pastors talking or acting like this is not a necessity.

However, all of us would confess to some dryness at some point when it comes to this aspect of our quiet time. We know we ought to have it, but all too often it lacks the joy and pleasure that draws us to many other things. We often speak about the fact that we do not have time to have a daily quiet time, yet there are many other things in our days that we arrange so as to have the time to do them.

When something is a necessity like eating or cleaning, we make the time. When something is a leisure activity like entertainment, a fun sport or hobby, we make the time. Well, spending time with God is both a necessity, and a pleasure. We really ought to make as much time as we need to spend with God each day. As one man put it – you ought to have enough time with God so that you don’t have to worry about time.

I believe the real issue here is the fact that we don’t view our time with God as something we look forward to. We know we ought to, and that makes us feel all the more guilty, but it just too often seems like a drudgery. So I’d like to share with you the better part of a little booklet of advice on quiet time by George Mueller.

George Mueller was a great man of God, used mightily in the 19th century to pastor a church and care for orphans. He is remembered for his incredible faith because he never asked a single person for donations, yet God supplied him with over 7.5 million dollars (about 150 million in today’s value).

Mueller started over 117 schools, cared for over 10,000 orphans, and from the age of 70 to 87, travelled to 42 countries, preaching on average of once a day, and addressing some 3 million people. He offered much of the secret of his vitality, strength and faith in a booklet called Soul Nourishment.

In this precious document, he simply and practically unfolds how he would have his quiet time. While his process is not a formula, the heart of what Mueller teaches really ought to be the heart of our devotional lives as well. Most of what he says is self-explanatory, but as we read it, I may make some comments here and there. Let’s then hear from George Mueller. He wrote:

“It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost, for more than fourteen years. The point is this: saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished.

For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.

Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as a habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed myself in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experiential communion with the Lord.

I began therefore to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon his precious Word, was, to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching as it were into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.

The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer.

When thus I have been for a while making confession or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it, but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation.

The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and then my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened, and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart.

Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, either very soon after or at a later time, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

The difference, then, between my former practice and my present one is this: Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the Word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for a revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer.

But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour, on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc., and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in this way.

For my heart, first being nourished by the truth, being brought into experiential fellowship with God, I then speak to my Father and to my Friend, (vile though I am, and unworthy of it), about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word. It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this point. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter.

And yet, now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is, to obtain food for his inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as everyone must allow.

Now, what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.

When we pray, we speak to God. Now, prayer, in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner, requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season, therefore, when this exercise of the soul can be most effectually performed is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us.

We may therefore profitably meditate, with God’s blessing, though we are ever so weak spiritually; nay, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man.

Thus there is far less to be feared from wandering of mind than if we give ourselves to prayer without having had time previously for meditation. I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow believers to ponder this matter.

By the blessing of God, I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials, in various ways, than I had ever had before; and after having now above fourteen years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it.”

Now let’s interrupt George Mueller and make a few comments before we continue. Probably all of us can identify with what he is saying. All of us have tried to pray and have experienced our minds wandering, desperately trying to get them back onto God. Mueller faces facts – apart from the Word of God, our prayer soften lack substance, direction or purpose.

Mueller recommends first preparing to read the Word, and then meditating on it. Meditating – not skimming the surface, but in his words: “searching as it were into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.” Pastors and teachers ought not to have a quiet time to find more sermons, but to meet with God and be instructed.

Please note the humble, honest heart of George Mueller. He admitted that he needed to be nourished spiritually. He confessed that his heart was cold in the morning. He needed God’s Word to warm him up. And that‘s what he went looking for. He was unashamed to say that his first duty and business was to get his soul happy in the Lord.

If that was our approach to our quiet times, how different it might be. Please also notice that his prayer was not a ritualistic, liturgical thing he did out of duty. His testimony is that as he would meditate, it would produce in him confession, thanksgiving, praise and supplication. He did not have to force his heart to follow some pattern. Instead, prayer was the natural communion of the heart as he meditated upon and studied Scripture.

There is much wisdom in Mueller’s words. Instead of wasting our time with prayer where our minds are wondering, we ought to come straight to the table of God, ask God to feed us, and begin meditating as we read. Our meditation will turn to prayer, and our prayers will return us to the Word. Is this not the kind of communion and fellowship that our quiet times are supposed to have? Mueller finishes with this:

“In addition to this, I generally read, after family prayer, larger portions of the Word of God, when I still pursue my practice of reading regularly onward in the Holy Scriptures, sometimes in the New Testament, and sometimes in the Old, and for more than twenty-six years I have proved the blessedness of it. I take, also, either then or at other parts of the day, time more especially for prayer. How different, when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one.”

Those words, written over 100 years ago, bear the testimony of a man who not only did much for God, but made much of God. He enjoyed God. He loved God. He treasured God. His words carry the authority of a life blessed by the presence of God, and the weight of a life that impacted thousands of others. Let’s sum up George Mueller’s recommendations:

• The priority of the quiet time is get your soul into a state of satisfaction in God. As far as Mueller is concerned, until this happens, our soul has not been nourished. The goal is to not merely read, or pray, or keep that appointment, but to enjoy God. Without this love for God, Mueller rightly points out that all the things you may do for the rest of your day may be done in the wrong spirit. This delight in God is what will enable you to do what you must do. Indeed, this is Biblical. Nehemiah 8:10 tells us “the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
• The quiet time should begin with meditating on the Word. After asking God to illuminate your eyes and understanding, Mueller recommends that we begin meditating on the Word. By meditating, he means a search into each verse, wringing it dry, so to speak, for its meaning, promise, blessing, command and reward. A good way to meditate is to say the verse out loud, and then emphasise a different word in the verse. That way we focus on why God used those particular words, and it so often drives home the meaning. Another helpful thing to do is to write the verse out. Then begin to write out the thoughts that come to your mind as you think about it. We tend to be lazy readers, which explains why we get so little out of our quiet time. It’s because we aren’t really mediating. Writing often forces the cogs and gears of our minds to begin turning and really processing the words.
• Mueller then says that as we prayerfully meditate, the meaning causes us to commune with God. Instead of trying to talk from an empty heart, we are now speaking to God about the things He has spoke to us about. Where we see we need to change, we confess, repent and ask for grace. Where he comforts us, to rejoice, praise and thank Him. Where He warns or commands us, we submit and surrender and consecrate ourselves. We personally commune with God.
• Mueller also suggests consecutive, regular reading through the Scriptures. You might only meditate on one verse in your quiet time, and that’s fine, so long as you truly commune with God. However, to know the whole counsel of God, it is best to be reading right through the Bible. It’s also good to have other times of prayer, where one can present the needs of others, and intercede for others.

We need Christians who are being daily nourished by God. We need to pass up on knick-knack devotions, where we read for 1 minute, and pray for 30 seconds. Although I am a fast eater, I have never nourished my body by eating in 1 minute 30 seconds. Physical eating that nourishes you takes chewing and swallowing, it takes time.

Likewise, truly meeting with God and enjoying Him takes time to chew and swallow His Word, with His help. I pray this practical advice from a great man of God – George Mueller – may help you and I to have a time of daily nourishment with God.