Freedon From Quiet Time Guilt

[Esther W.]

I don't know if anyone here has read this before-but I found it to be so encouraging. Freedom truly is freeing!

Freedom from Quiet Time Guilt
gregscouch.homestead.com
I recently watched as a congregation I love was spiritually raped. A Christian ministry came into the church for a three-day program whose purpose was to encourage believers to pray more. During one of the breakout sessions, a man expressed his frustration with unanswered prayer. He had faithfully prayed with and for his daughter for years, and still she was not walking with God. He was broken, depressed, perhaps more than a little ashamed. How does God in his grace speak to this man? A bruised reed was crying out for help.
“You need to try harder. You need to pray more.” That was the message he was given. I was enraged. Having known this church for many years, I was horrified. What I was hearing was what one seminary professor calls sola bootstrapa. Self-reliance We pull ourselves up by our own spiritual bootstraps. The teachers who said such things surely meant well. The problem was not a lack of sincerity on their part. The diagnosis is far more severe. The problem was heresy. Any heresy wounds the soul.






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[Jack K]

Quiet time guilt is indeed a dangerous and pervasive scourge, even though "quiet time" itself is often a superb discipline when the guilt can be avoided.

 

[au5t1n]

I have a question. I think we can agree that prayerlessness is also a pervasive scourge in the church. Practically, how do we exhort American Christians (including ourselves) to repent of being negligent in prayer without creating the wrong kind of "quiet time guilt"?

 

[Dearly Bought]

There are two charges of legalism which this article addresses. I believe that only one is helpful and accurate. As pertains to "the quiet time" as a means of earning favor with God, it is certainly a great blessing for the Christian to realize that our sin-stained attempts at piety are merely the grateful responses of a saved sinner rather than the means of ingratiating ourselves to God. It is always worthwhile to warn against the dangers of the self-righteousness that so easily creeps into our lives.

However, it is the second charge of legalism that concerns me, namely that of the addition to God's Law. I fear that this article may be injurious to a Christian's piety by neglecting the teaching of Scripture regarding private worship. The Westminster Standards give us good guidance on this subject,

God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and truth; as in private families daily, and in secret each one by himself, so more solemnly in the public assemblies, which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected or forsaken, when God, by his Word or providence, calleth thereunto.
(WCF XXI.vi)

And first, for secret worship, it is most necessary, that every one apart, and by themselves, be given to prayer and meditation, the unspeakable benefit whereof is best known to them who are most exercised therein; this being the mean whereby, in a special way, communion with God is entertained, and right preparation for all other duties obtained: and therefore it becometh not only pastors, within their several charges, to press persons of all sorts to perform this duty morning and evening, and at other occasions; but also it is incumbent to the head of every family to have a care, that both themselves, and all within their charge, be daily diligent herein.
(Directory for Family Worship, section I)

"Quiet time" as works-righteousness is surely sinful and to be condemned. However, do the Scriptures not teach that each man is to set aside time specifically every day to privately worship our God?

 

[lynnie]

I agree with the ideals this author presents, but do you get there without the quiet time? I don't know anybody with that kind of close walk with God who doesn't do the routine quiet time.

It reminds me of the tithing debates, and how in the New Covenant God wants it all, book of Acts sharing everything, abundant giving, and "tithing is legalism" arguement. It sounds real idealistic but I never met anybody who made it to 15% or 20% or more who didn't start with the 10%.

The real problem is the karma type mentality he describes, where we do something to get something from God, to obligate God, to merit something. I would say he needs to attack that mentality, which he does well, but at the same time encourage us to draw near to God in quiet times.

 

[Scott1]

People have struggled with these concepts for a long time.

One application is the idea that we are saved by faith alone, which is true.

Another is that we are saved by a faith that is not alone, which also is true.

Part of the answer in the particular case of the post is that we must trust God, somehow, ask Him for grace to rest in His Providence based on our faith in His promises to us (which are good).

So, the answer is in one sense, yes pray more.... but worry, feel guilty less about the result and learn to be grateful in all things.

 

[JennyG]

I went to the whole article (which is quite long and dense) but before I'd read very far I'm afraid I found myself thinking "Oh no! I'm doing it wrong!"
I do pray and read the Bible every day, though not always in the same slot.
But I suppose you could say I was getting "freedom-from-quiet-time-guilt guilt"?

 

[reaganmarsh]

I'm curious here, how many of you find that your weekly sermon/lesson preparation is something of a "quiet time" unto itself? (Not, of course, substituting study for prayer).

 

[au5t1n]

 

[Bradwardine]

There is often a very thin line between affirming things a christian should do : read Scripture, meditate, pray, give, serve etc and the 'legalism' which produces the 'more' sermon - eg read Scripture more, meditate more, pray more, give more, serve more ..

The more sermon destroys Christians. It's ill-defined. We could all do more . So everyone ends up feeling guilty - vows to try harder- fails and becomes discouraged. The preacher who preaches 'these 'challenging' sermons produces ultimately a dispirited congregation.

I often wonder what the preacher who, for example, uses the illustration of Luther praying 3 + hours a day seeks to achieve. Making everyone feel guilty? setting a target that no-one, himself included, is likely to achieve? Making people feel that 3 hours is a lot more spiritual than 1/2 hour? As Christ himself stated, it is pagans who babble on. this is no offence to Martin Luther ! but rather the way such an example is used)

 

[au5t1n]

It's not so much that I disagree that it can be legalism, but what do you do when a lot of church members don't feel any particular need to pray or read their Bibles, except on special occasions? What do you do when a lot of members of the congregation become complacent and numb to spiritual duties and end up lying around watching a lot of TV and never really get around to prayer or Bible study? We've all been guilty of it, but that doesn't justify our tendency to apathy.

There is a place for quiet time guilt, when we become apathetic and slothful and don't mind spiritual things. I'm guessing the wrong kind of quiet time guilt is the kind that robs the joy out of quiet time when a person IS striving to be diligent. Thoughts?

 

[Pilgrim]

Good thoughts, Josh.

While we want to avoid legalism, as a general principle I've found that there is much truth in the adage "A Dusty Bible Leads to a Dirty Life." It may not always be a "dirty life" by the world's standards. But for me, neglect of time in the Word and in the prayer closet invariably leads to substituting worldly pursuits (often some form of unprofitable entertainment) at the expense of personal holiness and consciously living to the glory of God and living in light of eternity. We can even be engaged in some profitable and helpful activity, but at that time it may be at the expense of doing something that should be a higher priority. An example would be posting something that people find helpful on the PB or elsewhere while neglecting family and private devotions.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.

 

[LeeJUk]

I think that we do need to continue to promote and encourage having quiet times and I do think they are vital to the spiritual life for obvious reasons and scriptural examples, I also think that sometimes a little guilt or remorse can be good not in the sense of feeling like your justified by works or need to earn something, but in the sense that you are aware that you could be closer to God who loves you and yet your not taking that offer of fellowship with him. That can be a good motivator to developing your relationship with God.

However where the problem becomes is where you start thinking God loves you less, or that you can manipulate God or others through prayer without reference to God's sovereignty or timing and the idea that your time spent with God somehow puts you on a higher rank to other Christians. To think your position with God and relationship with God is dependant on quiet time is sinful, but to think that it's sanctifying and glorifying activity that you should do more of isn't necessarily sinful.

The solution I think is to be aware that there are seasons in the Christian's life where you need like Luther to spend hours tarrying in prayer because there is so much things out of control and there is great spiritual work to be done in a season e.g. a time of fruitful mission work, God's spirit moving in reviving grace, trials in your family/church. However there are other times where things a little quiet and you feel like after 10-20min of reading and praying that you've met with God, you've been fed by the Word and that it's fine for today to be shorter.

When my ministry work was most active a few months ago I was spending much time in prayer, now that things have relaxed and my schedule is practically empty, my quiet time is a bit less in time, I didn't do this consciously but it just sort of happened and I feel fine about it and still benefit from the quiet times. (This will soon change though, I'm leaving for short-term mission trip to Africa on Thursday Morn.).

 

[Scott1]

One way to understand this is that "ordinary means of grace" include the reading, hearing and meditating on the Word. The Lord's Day is set aside to prioritize that.

That pattern, the priority of Lord's Day worship, will do a lot to anchor this ordinary part of the Christian life, "quiet time," and ought resolve most guilt along with it.

Guilt, in and of itself, is not of much worth unless it leads to change. Once one tries that by God's grace, guilt (which can be self centered), tends to go away.