HOW IS MY QUIET TIME WITH GOD?
(Message delivered by Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo at the SGBF, Calvary Pandan BPC, Nov 12, 06)
Text: Psalm 5
“Ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray?”
Quiet Time
A Quiet Time (QT) is a time of personal communion with God when a believer (1) reads and meditates upon the Holy Scriptures, (2) praises God for who and what He is, and (3) prays to Him for grace and strength to live a godly life in this sinful world.
The QT should not be a chore but a desire. We should not do it because we “have to” but because we “want to.” Just like we long for the friendship of people whom we love, so must we long for the fellowship of God who has loved us and saved us. Just like the body craves for food when it is hungry, so must our spirit yearn for the milk and meat of God’s Word so that we might be filled with His thoughts and wisdom.
Such were the sentiments of David, the sweet psalmist, who wrote, “Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up” (Ps 5:1-3).
Quality Time
How have our QT been? QT should also be Quality Time. It should be a blessed time of communing and fellowship with God when we read His Word and seek Him in prayer. Such close communion and conversation with God can only be had if we are His children, having a personal relationship with Him. In verse 1, David cries out to the LORD. Observe that the word “LORD” is in capital letters, meaning it is the Hebrew YHWH, God’s covenant name known only to God’s covenant nation, namely, the nation of Israel. David had a covenant relationship with God.
Do you have a covenant relationship with God? If you do not have a covenant relationship with God, you are outside His kingdom and His family. In fact, you are under God’s wrath and judgement. If you want God to give ear to your words, then you must first make peace with Him. Confess your sins, repent of your ways, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for you on the cross, was buried, and then rose from the dead according to the Scriptures (1 Cor 15:1-4). There is no other way to peace with God. Jesus is the only way. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Paul says, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31). Only when we believe and trust in Christ and Him alone for our salvation will we have peace with God. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1).
Is Jesus your personal Lord and Saviour? Is He truly your God and your King? Consider how David addresses the Lord in verse 2: he calls the Lord, “my King, and my God.” You cannot pray to God like David if you do not know Him personally and intimately, if you are still a child of the devil and an enemy of God. It is only when God is your King and your God, and Christ is your Lord and your Saviour can you pray like David, and have such Quality Time with God!
If you know God personally and truly, you will not only have Quality Time with Him, you will also have Quality Thoughts. Look at verse 3, “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” David’s first thoughts in the morning were thoughts of His Lord and His God. David did not fail to call upon God in the morning, and pray to Him because he knew he could not live and could do nothing without the Lord’s grace and mercies. David had such Quality Thoughts in his QT because his thoughts were vertical and not horizontal; he looked up to God, and not to people or at circumstances. David spent Quality Time with God because he knew His God very well. He is the thrice holy God who abhors wickedness and evil, “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee” (v4). He is the holy God who destroys wicked and evil men, who steal, who kill, who speak lies, “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man” (vv5-6). Our QT with God can never be peaceful if our hands are dirty and bloody. Have we sinned against God and our fellow men? Have we committed the sins of theft and murder, and then cover them up with lies?
Quake Time
Our QT is also Quake Time. We tremble at the terror of the Lord. We are not perfect or sinless we know. We must always enter into God’s presence with fear and trembling, pleading for His mercy. If we have sinned against the Lord, we need to confess our sins and repent of our deeds or else He will not hear our prayers. The psalmist says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Ps 66:18).
Our QT is a time for us to search our heart. Our Quality Time with God requires us to lead a Quality Life of holiness by doing His will and obeying His words. David desires very much to walk in the straight and righteous ways of the Lord (vv7-8). We need to pray like David, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps 139:23-24).
In this world filled with sin and wickedness, those who desire to glorify God will face opposition and persecution. For instance, there are enemies who want nothing better than to silence or destroy those who believe and defend the Biblical doctrine of the Verbal and Plenary Preservation (VPP) of the Holy Scriptures. True Life BPC and FEBC seek to glorify God by insisting that the Bible we have in our hands today is 100% perfect without any mistake. The True Life Session and FEBC Board and Faculty take the Dean Burgon Oath without reservations, believing in the 100% inspiration and 100% preservation of the Holy Scriptures to the jot and tittle (Matt 5:18). By the logic of faith, we identify the divinely inspired and perfectly preserved words to be precisely the infallible and inerrant words of the Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Greek Textus Receptus on which the Authorised King James Bible—the Reformation Bible—is based.
What shall we do when we are faced with enemies from within and without who spare no effort to see us destroyed and the truth silenced? The Rev Dr Timothy Tow, in his Meditations from Psalms, commented on verses 9-10, “As David is surrounded by enemies of all kinds, from the treacherous to the flattering (Prov. 29:5), he prays for their destruction inasmuch as these who lay wait for him are rebels against the Lord. So David prays for God’s leading him in a straight path lest he be sidetracked into their net. He encourages all who trust the Lord like him to rejoice in God their Defender. The God who hates iniquity will conversely bless the upright in heart. He will surround them with His favour and shield them from all harm.”
Quest Time
Our enemies are not physical but spiritual, namely, Satan and his demons. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Thus, our QT should also be a Quest Time—a time when we earnestly seek for God’s help to deliver us from wicked men and evil forces. Will God grant us our requests? Make no mistake about it, God will hear and answer our prayers. He promises to protect and preserve the righteous who trust Him and love His name (vv11-12). As long as we are on the Lord’s side, and the Lord is on our side, we have nothing to fear.
How can we tell whether we are on the Lord’s side or not? Know His mind, know His heart. Be like David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14). The righteous man is the one who always praises the Lord and promotes His Word. What God says, he says, what God thinks, he thinks, what God desires, he desires. The righteous man is not a man-pleaser; he is a man of faith who seeks only to please God by faith (Heb 11:6). David was such a faithful and righteous man, and he wrote this faithful and righteous psalm for our meditation and edification.
Are you such a man like David? If you do not do your QT, it is one sure sign of backsliding. Do not backslide. The Lord is coming back soon. Let us keep our QT with Him every day. He may come back today. Are we ready? Use the RPG. Use the Daily Remembrancer. They are helpful aids and guides, full of instruction and devotion. God bless!
