Dan Has a "Quiet Time"

1 Timothy 6

As Christians, we each must find our own fitting routine for Bible reading and prayer. Sometimes, seeing someone else's system can help refine and re-energize our own. So, in this episode Dan walks us through how he does his morning devotional time using the example passage of 1 Timothy 6. Open up your Bible and follow along with us! 

Additional Resources

• MacArthur Study Bible
• ESV Study Bible
• Bible Reading Plans

• Automated Transcription

• Dan Jarms 0:00
  Today on faith matters, we're going to talk about how to have a quiet time.
  
  Dan Jarms 0:10
  I'm Dan Jarms.
  
  Seth Weber 0:11
  And I'm Seth Weber.
  
  Dan Jarms 0:12
  And you're listening to faith matters a podcast to help update you on matters of faith Bible Church, as well as equip you in matters of the Christian faith.
  
  Dan Jarms 0:29
  Well, I'm back in the studio with Seth, today. Hey, Seth,
  
  Seth Weber 0:32
  hello there.
  
  Dan Jarms 0:33
  And we are following up from the doctrines of Scripture. So Ian and I did a four part series on the doctrines of Scripture. And what we wanted to do today was to put some of it into practice. And it thought it might be helpful for us to walk through how I approach what is commonly called a daily quiet time, and interaction or time with the Lord. What we call a quiet time, is really very similar to what I think about what a married couple does to keep connected every day. So if we were to approach Bible reading and prayer, as spiritual disciplines, and they are like, There's a wonderful book on the spiritual disciplines by Don Whitney, and he talks about the importance of Bible reading and prayer. But if we only regard them as spiritual disciplines, it's sort of like working out. Working out, it's good for you. Some people enjoy it, but some people enjoy working out people are a little crazy. Yeah. And then when you're really tired, you don't feel like it. Well, that's kind of one thing, super discipline people work out. Yeah, like, they're good at life. They work out. They're CEOs of companies, they're, you know, they're, they're those people. They're not me. Yeah. Anyway, the, the, if you think of them as spiritual disciplines, it's good they are. But that also leaves you with this idea that they're kind of for the super spiritual people, you're dragged into this guilt, for not doing that. And and the way the Bible speaks about our relationship with God is that it should be much more interactive with with a person. So the article that I just wrote this week just had to do with cultivating a relationship with a God of the universe as a relationship. So I like to think now of the quiet time being more like the ketchup time that I have with my wife, and I catch up with my wife every day. So we we talk about the important matters of life. And when the kids are in a home out we are the kids are doing. And so I talked to her. And she talked to me, I listened, she listened. We had a relationship. Yeah. That's how we want to be with the Lord every day. Yeah, we want to we want to hear from him. That's his word. And we want to talk to him. So that's the aim of cultivating this relationship with God. And you know, and I know that if there's somebody close in your life, and you want to stay close in your life, you got to communicate. Yeah, sure. And marriages are was not doing well, if there's no communication. And so your relationship with the Lord won't do well, if there's no communication. So that's, that's the heartbeat behind this is cultivating that. So Seth, and I had the idea that we would, we would walk through how I do a quiet time. Yep,
  
  Seth Weber 3:30
  Dan's just going to do a live quiet time on the air. So here we go. 20 minutes of Dan being quiet.
  
  Dan Jarms 3:38
  It's also a good time for your nap. Anyway, we're going to do, how I would go through my quiet time to be as genuine as I can. And you can certainly do your quiet time differently than I'm doing it. But I want to just walk through how I do it. And hopefully, as Seth and I interact, we can talk about it. So let's let's dive into my just general approach, and then I'll do it. In an ideal morning, I pray when I open up my Bible, it's almost something like literally, let's be honest, what do you do first? Uh, first thing I do is brew the coffee guy Exactly. Got to get the coffee, brew the coffee. And then while the coffee is going, there's this kind of quiet pleading, Lord, please help me understand what I'm gonna read. But honestly, this morning, I woke up, I made the coffee, I sat down with a coffee, I started reading and I was like a couple chapters in, I should pray to help. So I mean, it's not. This is all gonna sound really good on paper, but I'm gonna try to be really real with you about it. So what I try to do every day is is pray, read, meditate, like think about something out of what I read, and then commit to some kind of later thinking and action and talk about it with my wife. So that's what we try to do. Pray read now. meditate, pray out of what I've read. Sure is that that's the kind of part of the meditation prompt, that's part of the meditation, see if there's anything I need to act on. Because a lot of times there's like there's there's things that there's no commands for sure there's stories that are being told, and then just commit to sharing some of that with my wife. Okay, so let's dive in, I guess. So I'm doing the McShane reading plan this year. And it's a little ambitious for me, it means I'm not reading a lot of other things, but I'm enjoying reading my Bible. But today's reading, I'm just gonna do one of the chapters. First Timothy, chapter six, I have not read it yet today. So you're gonna get what I get. And I recognize when you're reading that, when you're listening to this, you're saying, Well, Dan, you're a pastor, you've been a believer for over 30 years, you know, a lot more about the Bible than I do. That is partly
  
  Seth Weber 5:49
  why I'm here. I'm gonna ask the questions I like, but I don't know what this means. Yeah,
  
  Dan Jarms 5:54
  so we're gonna, we're gonna go through it together, and then think about how I would approach something when I read it too. And God, I wonder what that means. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to read it first Timothy six. Father, thank You for the word that you've given us. And even as I do this and being recorded, what we want you to do is use your word in our hearts. So give us insight and understanding to it. Help us apply it to our hearts and lives, to our families and our loved ones. Christ's name, Amen. Amen. All right, first Timothy, chapter six, verse one, Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters is worthy of all honor, so that the name of the Lord name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground, that they are brothers. Rather, they must serve all the better, since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved, teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with his own words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and bribed with the truth. Imagining that godliness is a means of gain, but godliness with contentment is great gain, For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these things, we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation into a snare into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving, that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many paintings. But as for you, oh man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness, fight the good fight of the faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen, or can see To Him be honor and eternal dominion, in men. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich and good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future. So that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Oh, Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge for by professing it some of swerved from the faith, Grace be with you. Right, that took three minutes, four minutes. So one chapter, three or four minutes. This one, this particular chapter has all kinds of things. So if I'm reading a chapter out of a narrative, there may be only one central or two central main ideas. The first thing I always look for is what's the say directly about God Himself? And then is there anything that God is saying to us that he directly wants to respond to? So in that way, First Timothy, chapter six, is like, oh, I want to read that again. For sake of time, I won't read it again. But this is the kind of one there are because there are so many things about God and what he's commanding us to do that you want to you want to pause, and I'm reading three other chapters. So when when I do a machine reading plan, or I do a one year Bible reading plan And I'm not trying to go in depth. I'm not trying to have a 20 minute quiet time out of one chapter. I'm reading one chapter in five minutes with some thoughts that would come out. And so, pray, we read, now we meditate. And in this case, I like to highlight some key verses about God in his work. The one that I would underline is these, the set of statements about the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ. I would highlight that doxology verse 15, He who is blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality who dwells in unapproachable light. Like I always, I always tend to underline or want to think about what God is showing about himself, since this is my communication with him, my communion with Him. So these are some of the things who he is, and I would, I would write those down. And these are powerful, like, I want to think about that. What is what is the sovereign the King of kings, the Lord of lords? The fact that he's immortal, what is unapproachable? Light? Yeah, and when when that that'd be a question. So then I started asking questions where these things mean, what's unapproachable light. And, in my mind, I'm immediately thinking of the fact that no eye has seen the Lord like no one can see him and live. So it's talking about his his unapproachable holiness. There that's off the top of my head. Make sense? Yeah. Now, we'll find out if when I preach this, that'll be a different story. But when I'm just reading, that I'm thinking about who God is, he's the sovereign. That means he is overall in control of all King of kings, Lord of lords, like there are three titles for the kingship of God, the absolute ruler over all things, who lives forever? And dwells in unapproachable light or holiness? No, in Riyadh, no, I, no one has ever seen or can see. So there's something about goddess spirit. That is, he is glorious. But he can't also be seen, like, what he does can be seen as glory can be seen, but he himself is, is spirit. I might ask a question. Is that now? Or will we be able to see God in eternity? Anyway, there's, I'm just meditating. Right? So now I'm just thinking about it. That process of meditating is asking questions and wondering what they mean, asking the Lord, what does it mean?
  
  Seth Weber 12:33
  So Dan, with some of those questions, you're asking, what are some of the ways you might find answers to those questions? I mean, obviously, might not we'll find all the answers in one quiet time. But what are some practical tips you have for like finding the answers? And knowing that you're actually understanding it correctly?
  
  Dan Jarms 12:49
  Well, the first thing I might do, then this might sound like a cop out, the first thing I might do is just ask the question. Hmm, I wonder what that means. And, and I just write it down. And I don't do anything. Sure. Like, I just think about it. And when I asked the Lord that question, what does this mean? And I just started thinking about it and ruminating on it. And other scriptures will come to mind later in the day, I'll have a conversation with somebody in the church. And something related comes up and I like, how often in the week, I didn't go do anything else. And yet the topic came up like it's,
  
  Seth Weber 13:26
  it's like that not rushing to the answer, but letting God bring it to you.
  
  Dan Jarms 13:30
  Yeah, yeah. I mean, let me see, it seems to be super mystical. Sure. If I'm gonna have a quiet time now, I don't have kids at home. So I'm an empty nester. And I can have an hour quiet time, and nobody's getting up interrupting me. Like, it's glorious. You know, when you were when the kids were little, I was good to have a 30 minute quiet time. But if I'm gonna get this thing done in 30 minutes, if I start going getting books, then I will never get out of the chapter. Yeah. So I, so I'm reading on a one year I'm reading, almost like I'm getting my vitamins. Like, I'm not getting in depth. But I'm getting acquainted with all the whole picture of the Bible I'm getting, I'm seeing things that I would not normally see if I was just doing it super in depth. And so I'll just ask a question, and I'll go away. And I'll even ask my wife about it. I'll talk to somebody about it. I'll talk to one of my co workers about it. And and maybe an answer will come up. That's
  
  Seth Weber 14:27
  really good. Because then also you're not just like, oh, I had a question. I found an answer. And now I can don't have to talk to anyone about it. Like I like that. It kind of prompts you to talk to people about it. And you get to, you know, the Bible is a community book. We're supposed to be living in community. Yeah. Discussing the wildlife. That's really, you
  
  Dan Jarms 14:44
  know, a really great companion is is a study Bible. So you're reading something and you want to know what is that that's strange. What was going on? So I always recommend to study Bibles that are really good, The MacArthur Study Bible. I've had one of those for many yours and they're very helpful. And it's over when he skips the hard passages come well, they have skipped the hard passages. Sometimes if you're gonna be honest, sometimes this stuff that's really hard, they have enough room for room to go through all the debates, but there are definitely helpful sections. Yep. And then the ESV Study Bible is also really good. So there's and and so if I'm wondering about that, I might, I might find a quick answer in those too. And of course, you can use other study tools, you can use online tools. Again, though, you're having 30 minutes, what you're really trying to do is talk to the Lord, and you're gonna want to hear from the Lord and talk to the Lord, the moment you go start pulling out all those other tools, you've decided, well, we're going to just do one paragraph, and then that's fine. And you've made it a little more academic than relational. Not necessarily, you know, it's just, it's just, it's just gonna take a lot longer. What what are your goals? You know, it was a goal to really get in depth. So some people have their quiet time. And they say, I'm going to spend the next six months in Second Peter. Fantastic. They're reading it paragraph by paragraph over and over, they're asking questions, they're going to commentaries, and they're getting an in depth feel great. You're hearing from God, you're using it as a prompt to pray. And you're following it up. So that you can still do that both both approaches. When I get done with machine, I'll probably do something different. Sure. And it probably go a little slower. Next year, I'll go through things slower, probably. So read meditate. In this case, I'm going to ask are there any direct commands, so it's full of commands. So First Timothy six, one is got to command Let all who are under the yoke of his bondservants regard their own masters worthy of all honor, okay? We don't live in a slavery culture right now. But I might work for somebody. So as I work for them, as a believer, I want to work for them. And if they're a believer, I want to work for them all the more which I happen to work for the church. They're all believers. So I want to do my work faithfully. So here's, here's those of you who have believing masters are people that you serve and work for. So I want to do it all the better to benefit the believers. So there's, there's a motive I you know, what I want to I want to be faithful as a pastor, because I want to serve God's people really well. So there was something What can I do to be faithful in my work today, and whatever it is, there is then a section about false doctrines, people that teach false doctrine and how to either avoid those, or correct those. So watching on my personal doctrine is going to be a call for me. The the part in verse six, or verse five, imagining that godliness is a means of gain, I might face a temptation with that. So I read that and think I think I could face a temptation with that, because people give to the Lord. And that's part of how I have a salary and pay my bills. So I, I don't want to be godly just for the fact that I get a paycheck. Right? So there's a little bit of a conviction there, I want to do it because I really love the Lord and want to please the Lord.
  
  Seth Weber 18:17
  And even for anyone who doesn't work for the church, I feel like there's just a temptation in general to try to look good. Right? And that you kind of gained status in the church community by looking really good.
  
  Dan Jarms 18:29
  Yeah. And there's, there's a host of peculiar temptations that I would have that another person would have. But there's also a temptation that other people I'd have that I don't have. Sure. So we all are going to look at this. I really do like this, For we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. It keeps it keeps my love of things here at a minimal and there's a big topic for the rest of the chapter. So if you're to say what is chapter six about mostly, mostly, it's about our interaction with earthly resources.
  
  Seth Weber 18:59
  So how do you get to that, like, for those of us who haven't studied this chapter before? How do you get from reading it to getting to the point where you're saying, I kind of understand the overall picture?
  
  Dan Jarms 19:10
  Well, that's just because what's repeated? Okay, so I'm just looking for repetition. I'm looking for repetition. I'm looking for things about God, I'm looking for repetition. So the idea about godliness with contentment shows up in verse six. It goes all the way through verse 10. There is something to flee related to those temptations there. And then it picks back up. That picks up back up in verse 17. The answer to those temptations of money is is given in this fight of faith. And then the foundation or the armor and the sword to pick up is your theology. So this this whole idea that I just underlined about the one who was blessed only Sovereign King of Kings and Lord of lords, who alone has and mortality, like this is what can make me fight against the temptation to accumulate earthly wealth for selfish reasons and self glory. Because he's the one that's glorious. He's the one that's got immortality, he's the one that I'm gonna go to. So there's, there's an answer to that. And then verse 17, picks up as for the rich and present age charts and not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches. So that was all in the same chapter together. So I might walk away with a meditation about pursuing the Lord, to please the Lord, and to be a benefit to others, as opposed to pursuing the Lord for selfish gain, or self self importance. The person who wants to argue over doctrine, because it's part of their identity, like being the person that knows, because that's how this chapter ends. There's just a whole bunch of problems with instead of the person who knows God, intimately. They are they're a person who can show themselves better than others, refute others. And you can see what it produces envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, like those are all the fruit of that. But I get away, if I were to walk away from a takeaway from chapter six, I would see some really great pictures of the glory of Christ and of the Godhead, I would also see that he's the one I serve and work for, and he's the one who dwells in in mortality. That's where I'm going. So it just changes the way I hold on to things. So I'm not going to put my hope in, in the market. And by the way, should I check the stock market? Because I gotta, I gotta retirement. Right? I mean, is that what happens?
  
  Seth Weber 21:49
  Well, you're while you're doing your quiet time again.
  
  Dan Jarms 21:53
  My market fits to be honest about, let's be honest, about a quiet time. Sometimes I had to read that twice, because I was distracted about something. Yeah. Sometimes I've reread a chapter. And, you know, I'm in that three or four chapter a day, sometimes five chapter a day routine. And I'm I looked at a whole chapter like, I don't know what any of that said. So I do a couple other things. In order to keep that up. I, I have an audio Bible. So sometimes I'll read Listen, sometimes I get behind. Like on Sunday, I didn't do any Bible reading. Yeah. Because I did other Bible reading, I could do my Bible reading in the morning. And I went to church, and I prayed through all of that. That was fantastic. But then I didn't come back and have my fourth chapter. So today, I'm like trying to get up eight, how do I catch up with eight chapters, because I'm supposed to read four to keep up with today. And I'm far behind. So I listened to so I'll use my my audio Bible. And, and that's easy, because I can just I didn't hear any of that, because I was upset with a driver next to me, let's restart. I'm just trying to be real, like this is your human and you're trying to trying to connect with something. So one thing I'll deal with, if I'm reading three, or four or five chapters, I'll just stop with my journal. And I'll write down the chapter title and write down one thing out of each chapter. Here's one thing I noticed about each chapter. And I usually want to know something about God, something about the that he's asking me to respond to this. Now after that, so we've started the meditation process, which could go on later in the day, I can pick that up with a conversation, I want to communicate about it with my wife. Somewhere during the day, she's going to communicate what she's reading and thinking about, I'm going to communicate what I'm doing. And that meditation process can go on, I'll commit if there's something that I've to act on. But I'll also at this point, launch into my prayer time, too. So I typically read first, I'll pray and ask for elimination prayer for elimination, then I'll read and then I will pray. And I just take whatever's prompted out of the reading, and pray for the people who are close to me in my life. So I like to keep prayer lists, but I don't always use them. So I have a prayer app with rotating prayer lists, and I'll use that I'll use that frequently, but not daily. And then when I'm just thinking of other people, for instance, I'm going through a chapter like this, I'll just pray for anybody that I'm going to interact with that day, that that somehow God they would see God this way. They would respond to this. I often pray for my kids related to what I just read. Now what that does is it keeps me from just the same old things you know, Don Whitney's praying the Bible. He says we tend to pray the same old things about the same old things. Sure. And and that what we wonder why we don't have a vibrant prayer life long as it's boring. You know, it's I pray the same things. This makes me pray something different every day. And and then it ends up being a four form of meditation, because I'm thinking about how that might impact them. So it's
  
  Seth Weber 25:04
  more like a real conversation to you're responding to what you've heard. It's not just like, say, your wife says something different to you, and you just say the same thing over and over again.
  
  Dan Jarms 25:13
  Yeah. And so I mean, think about this, wouldn't you want your children to see God as the only sovereign the King of kings and Lord of lords? Yeah, wouldn't that he's the only one who dwells in a mortality? What do I want my children to have? And what do I want to have a focus on a bunch of earthly stuff that we can't take home, or a focus on the eternal God who is the sovereign creator and Lord of heaven and earth above all, presidents, rulers, kings that have ever lived or ever will live? Man, I want to have him I want them to have him. So I will pray that the God would in the same I pray though, hold on. I can't pray for every member of the church every morning. Right. So I might pray that as a blanket prayer for faith Bible Church. Yeah. And it specifically is when I come into staff meeting this morning, I'm thinking about every one of you and I'm praying on you know, something about that, as I'm about to have a meeting with you guys tomorrow. It'll be different. As I go into the elders meeting, I will pray whatever's out of my Bible reading for all of the elders. And I'll think of them personally. And pray for them as that might go. And then some kind of commitment to act on that. So now we're talking about money and generosity. I'll probably have to give something away.
  
  Seth Weber 26:31
  All right, Dan, give me your Give me your best stickers somebody gave me. Oh, yeah, yeah. After the sermon. Yeah. About stickers. Yeah. Your sticker sermon.
  
  Dan Jarms 26:38
  Yeah, my stickers can be my favorite stickers.
  
  Seth Weber 26:42
  So let me ask you one more question. Before we wrap it up. How do you make sure you're not taking things out of context? Like, how do we want to read to make sure that things are? They're all flowing together in a way that makes sense?
  
  Dan Jarms 26:55
  Yeah. I always think in terms of the context that's been ingrained in me, the first rule of Bible interpretation is context, context, context. So I am in Leviticus, for my old testament, and read Leviticus, Psalms. And Ecclesiastes is the McShane plan. So those three, I'm looking at what I just read yesterday, what have I got here? What is this thing that I'm thinking about related to how it fits in that section? And that's been a habit that's so ingrained, I don't like to just take bible texts out of context. Yeah.
  
  Seth Weber 27:37
  So isn't the rule, correct me if I'm wrong, but the rule is sort of like, if you have a question, your look immediately kind of around that to find the answer. If that doesn't answer, then you look at the whole book. Yeah. And if that doesn't answer, then you would look at the rest of the Bible to sort of help answer it.
  
  Dan Jarms 27:51
  Yeah. Right. That's, that's how language works. So I, we could use the word let's, let's pick one confession. Jesus, before his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession. Well, what's confession? What's it what's making a good confession? You'll find out in the context, there's maybe it's used a couple other times a confession of faith. He's not talking about confessing sin. So that's, that's like, Okay, well, what is a good confession? You end up finding first in that section, there is a, a declaration of elite of allegiance. That's what this confession is a declaration of Allegiance. I agree. I send something forward. And I know that off the top of my head, because this is a weird comment, what is a good confession? So I've looked at it before. I've looked at that one before. And and that's what will happen to you too. When you read, like, you'll, you'll go like, what is that? And then you go study it? And you remember, and the next time you read it, you're like, I remember that. Weird. It's really, it's really works, you know? And then if you if, if you don't, if you don't know, so the immediate context really helps. So then what I underline a verse, I do want to be careful not to just rip a verse out of context. We were studying in our staff meeting about the passage I'm going to preach this week. And it's tempting to pull one verse out as a promise verse. And so somebody was asking a question, you know, this could give people a lot of hope. And it was about how you have everything in God, that could give the people a lot of hope. And then that person riffed on all kinds of people who need hope. And then I said, so that's really good, how people need hope, haven't gotten all things, but the context is that we wouldn't boast in man, and we were just talking about this other thing. How does that all work together? Like that's just kind of how I'm conditioned. But if you do that, with your Bible reading, you'll get plenty out of it. Because in that context of, Oh, I've essential read a familiar verse. And you'll say, I've kind of just been taking that out of context. And I realized what that means in that And it's usually richer and better and more poignant than you. You thought. So yeah, that's that's definitely what I do. One of the really simple rules I picked up from a Calvary Chapel guy. And Calvary Chapel guys, although they're charismatic and nominally Arminian different than us in both those areas. They they love to expository Bibles, they just teach through Bible passages. And I remember Ken Ortiz, I was listening to him on there at Hopkins, he says, you know, just use the 2020 rule. What does it say? 20 verses ahead, what does it say? 20 verses behind, try to get in that context. Like that's doable. I don't need to know what the whole book is about in order to say, Oh, well, it can't mean x because it's in this like, here's what happens after here's what happens before it can mean that. So it's just a simple rule that I use for getting something in its context. Cool. Yeah.
  
  Seth Weber 30:52
  Anything else you'd want to add? Before we wrap up?
  
  Dan Jarms 30:54
  Yeah, I just just keep at it, I would say this, it's more important that you read and pray, read, meditate and pray for 10 minutes than it is you try to get through the Bible in a year. So pray, read, meditate, pray again, you know, do that thoughtfully, for 10 minutes. And try to do that consistently. Before you try to set out on a really big goal. The second thing to say is, be realistic about what you can get out of 20 3040 5060 minutes. You don't have to do that you're not writing a sermon, you're, you're interacting, and stick with it over time. Over time, you will accumulate more and more and more personally, writing something down helps me a lot. If I write one thing down, I tend to remember a lot more. So I still use a pen. And when when I die, and my kids look at my journals, they will not be impressed. Because they're very short, you know, little entries that were more about, you know, a burst of prayer, or trying to remember a passage than they were, you know, a diary. Yeah, that's what I did today. Like, nobody's gonna sell my journals for anything and write a book about me. Because it's not that great. It's a tool. It's a tool for me to process that relationship with God and keep relating to God. That's good.
  
  Seth Weber 32:31
  All right, well, thanks for walking us through a quiet time Nanda. Thanks helpful.
  
  Dan Jarms 32:51
  So thanks for joining us today, as we think through how to have a quiet time if you have questions about about quiet times or about your relationship with the Lord like that how to have a daily relationship with the Lord what prayer looks like. So on, please feel free to email us and suggest further topics. As resources. There's a variety of resources, reading plans, study tools that we can link in the notes, and those can help you if you want to maybe go another step further in your quiet time and your relationship with the Lord.
  
  Seth Weber 33:24
  Alright, sounds good. Thanks, Dan. Thanks.

Dan Jarms

Dr. Dan Jarms is teaching pastor and team leader at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at TMS Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, gardening, brick oven cooking.

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Seth Weber

Seth is the Communications Director at Faith Bible Church and loves anything to do with design, video, audio and tech. He and his wife Kaitlyn have three children.

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