Hi there! My name is Gabby and I’m a 20-year-old university student who’s lived in Melbourne for most of her life. I met Caitlin at university and I was so honoured when she asked me to share about my quiet time with God on this blog! The time that we spend communing with God is so special. In my own walk with Him, I’ve found that our quiet time together is what keeps me going.

My version of quiet time with God varies. At the moment, on days when I have to wake up early and hop on the train to uni, quiet time consists of a bible reading, a few worship songs and some time spent praying to God – all of which happen on a densely populated train carriage (not ideal, but you gotta do what you gotta do). I’m someone who really thrives with structured bible studies, so I’m currently working through one of those ‘Finish the Bible in a Year’ reading plans.

However, at the heart of all those reading plans and worship playlists lies the actual purpose behind my quiet time – and that is to cultivate my personal relationship with God and to know Him (and ultimately love Him) for myself. The main reason that I study the bible is because I want to know as much as possible about the God that I serve.

In terms of how I frame my quiet time, I’ve come to realise that prayer is crucial. I find my bible study so much more productive when I pray for God to give me understanding and wisdom as I read His Word, so I try to make sure that prayer both begins and ends my bible-reading. I think it’s truly beautiful to be able to read the bible and then spend some time talking to God about the things that you’ve discovered about Him, based on whatever passage you’ve read.

Commentaries tends to be fairly common when it comes to quiet time with God. One of my biggest issues when it comes to bible-reading is that I tend to use commentaries as a crutch of sorts; it’s so much easier to let theologians do the thinking for me. Prayer encourages me to try and understand the bible for myself, first and foremost. That being said, whenever I’m struggling with filling in historical or contextual gaps, I turn to William MacDonald’s commentary ‘Believer’s Bible Commentary’ (because context matters!).

My quiet time with God usually happens during the morning, but sometimes it’ll spill over into the night. Spending time with God in the morning reaffirms my direction for that particular day, while night-time gives me more time to do in-depth studies of certain parts of the Bible. For example, I’m currently doing a study on the book of Leviticus and trust me, studying Leviticus on the train at peak-hour is a lot more difficult than it is in the peace and quiet of my bedroom at night!

To be totally honest, sometimes I’m definitely not ‘feeling’ my quiet time with God. Sometimes I’ll get preoccupied with ticking another bible passage off of the reading plan, without really processing what I’ve read and other times, I’ll just get it over and done with as quickly as I can, because I don’t feel like I have enough energy to engage with it thoughtfully.

But my mood has never been (and will never be) the basis upon which I ground my relationship with God. The realities of His Word remain true, regardless of my emotions at a given point in time. And for that reason, even when I’m not totally ‘feelin’ it’, I do my best to spend time with God in the morning. Because He is totally, undoubtedly worth everything that we can possibly give Him.

I’d love to challenge you to weave more and more prayer into your quiet time with God, if you’re not already doing so! It’s so easy to forget to pray before and after we read the bible, but prayer draws us closer to God and allows us to be transformed by what we study. This week, try to pray before you read the Word and afterwards as well – spend some time thanking God for all that you've learnt about Him.

xo Gabby