How to Create a Quiet Time with God Plan That Actually Works for You

Having a plan for your quiet time with God makes all the difference when it comes to growing closer to God.

Creating a quiet time plan that works for you is possible. First, you need to take a hard and honest look at your spiritual growth with an assessment. To look at what is going well, what isn’t going well, and why. This allows you to look at the obstacles that you uncovered when you were thinking through why things weren’t working. 

Create a plan for your top obstacles by identifying them and thinking through what you can do to overcome them in advance so that you’re not spinning your wheels and wasting time when you want to be spending time with God. You’re not putting out those fires anymore. 

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Today you’re going to take all that work that you’ve done and put it into an actual plan for your daily time with God. It’s time to get really practical. The first thing that you’re going to do is think through the basics of your quiet time.

Ask yourself where you want to have your quiet time. You want to get rid of decision fatigue whenever possible. Think through the where and the when. So that you aren’t spending so much energy and time that you could be spending with God trying to figure that out. 

Where are you going to do your quiet time? Now, I encourage you to have a plan A and a plan B because maybe your time doesn’t work. I love being outside, but it doesn’t always work for me. Sometimes it’s too hot or rainy or whatever. So I have a plan B. 

Where are you going to do your quiet time? It’s important to have one spot that you can go to most of the time. It’s going to help with muscle memory. If you’re always in the same place, it’s going to cue your brain and your body to get in that frame of mind. When you’re in this chair, at this table, or in this spot, you are getting ready to spend time with God. 

It’s also a cue to the people in your home and around you that they should give you some space because you’re going to spend time with God. Then you want to think about when, or what time, you’re going to do your quiet time. Also, how long is it going to be? 

Think about at what point in your day can you carve off time to be with God. I want to encourage you to find 15 minutes during your day that you can spend with God. Start there. You will be amazed at how impactful 15 minutes can be to your relationship with God and your faith. 

Building a habit of 15 minutes is amazing. And if think you can’t find 15 minutes, cool, find five. Five minutes a day is better than no minutes. You could even find three different times a day when you have five minutes and piece them together. 

Just decide when are you going to do it and how long is it going to be. Are you going to have yours in the morning while your kids are eating breakfast, afternoon, or evening? What time works best for you? Remember when you’re picking your time to think through any obstacles. 

For example, if you have a nursing baby who’s up 5,000 times a night, maybe first thing in the morning isn’t the best choice for quiet time right now.  Keep those things in mind. Once you have where, when, and how long, now I want you to start thinking through what are you going to do during your time with God.

If you are brand new to having consistent time with God and you’re working on the basics of this habit, I’m going to strongly encourage you to focus on two things: time in scripture and prayer. Those two things are foundational to anything else that you want to do. 

I think that these are the things that you’ve got to be consistent with if you want to go closer to God. The bible is where God reveals himself to you and prayer is how you communicate with him and also how he communicates with you.

If you’re pretty good with your bible and prayer time and you want to add something else, knock yourself out. You don’t want to have to think about that when you’re sitting in your place at your appointed hour. The final thing that I want you to think through is what kind of tools or supplies are you going to need. 

You’re going to need your bible of course. Do you need pens? Do you need markers? Do you need tissue because you get emotional like me? Do you need a basket to put everything in? Do you want a journal? Is there a special kind of bible that you want? 

Think through anything and everything that you might need or want to have during your time with God and get that all together in one place. You want it to be as simple as picking up your basket, sitting in your spot, and getting started.

If you can keep your basket or supplies in the location where you’re going to have your time, even better. Remember, you’re trying to eliminate decisions and choices. To get rid of every obstacle to you getting to be with God every single day. 

Once you’ve thought through that, it’s time to write down an actual plan or routine. This is just an outline that’s going to give you specifics for what you want to do each day. An example for 15 minutes would be to open in prayer. 

Take one minute to give a short prayer and invite God to be with you. To help you to stay focused. Then spend a couple of minutes in your bible. Maybe take five minutes to read through a short passage. It doesn’t have to be a lot. Remember, I am the gal who took nine months to get through Psalm 23.

Read some passages of scripture for a few minutes, and then take some time to write down questions that you might have, any observations that come to mind, or just anything that jumps out as you are reading. 

If you were confused about something, write that down. If you learned something about God, write that down. If you feel like there was a promise there or a directive, write that down too. Optional things would be reviewing the scripture you’re trying to memorize. Then wrap up by spending a couple more minutes with God in prayer. 

Once you have your plan finished, stick with it for a couple of weeks. Take it and try it out for two weeks or three weeks to make sure that it’s a good fit. Sometimes you quit too soon thinking something doesn’t work when it may have just needed more time.

You can tweak as you go but don’t make too many changes all at once. Stick with it for as long as you can, and if it doesn’t work, it will become obvious that it’s not working. Then all you need to do is go back and think through any obstacles and come up with a plan. 

Other Helpful Resources:

• 7 Quiet Time Strategies 
• 4 Benefits to Fasting During Hard Times
• How to Be Still and Listen For God’s Voice

Follow these steps to create a plan for your quiet time with God.