Do you ever get bored with your quiet times?
I hate to admit this- but I do. Sometimes if I do the same thing over and over each day in my quiet time, I get bored with it and its harder to motivate myself to do it at all.
Consistency in meeting with God each day is very important. But why do we think we have to meet the same way every day?
For the first two years of dating, my boyfriend and I would have weekly Chick-fil-A dates. I loved these dates because it gave us a chance to talk for long periods of time. But after a while, I found that I wasn’t particularly looking forward to these dates. I still would be excited to see him… but I wasn’t excited for what we would be doing. We needed variety!
I think the same is true with my relationship with God. If ever I feel like I don’t want to read my Bible, instead of giving into that feeling and just not opening it- I should change up what I’m doing!
So I brainstormed different ways I could change up my quiet times if needed. I thought I’d share that list with you!
Here are 7 different ways you can structure your quiet times.
One for each day of the week :)
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1. Use a Bible Reading Plan
This is what I started off the year doing. My Bible is cool in that it has a “read your Bible in a year” plan at the back of it. The plan isn’t structured like most I’ve seen before. Instead of reading three chapters a day in order of the Bible, I would read one chapter in the Old Testament and one in the New and my goal is to slowly read through the Bible and finish it in two years.
I like that format because it itself provides variety in what I’m reading.
You can google Bible reading plans and find a bunch online. Or you could use a plan in your Bible like I do. :) (I use the CSB She Reads Truth Bible if you’re curious.)
I also have the Daily Grace Co Amen study that I like to refer to from time to time. I recommend this to you if you’d like to have an overview of the Bible and see how it fits together as one story… but in a shorter time period. This study is five weeks long which might be more doable to commit to than a year.
2. Study a Particular Book of the Bible in Depth
This could be a good “break” from a year-long plan.
Pick a book from the Bible and read it slowly, perhaps one chapter a day or even five verses a day. Highlight keywords/themes. Look up the history behind the book and its author.
Typically what I do when I want to study a book of the Bible in-depth is to look and see if The Daily Grace Co has a study available on that book. I absolutely LOVE The Daily Grace Co and their studies really help me learn so much about God.
Two of their book studies I have done in the past are their Nehemiah study and 1 Peter study. Both are five weeks long and each week contains five days of readings, a devotional to go with the reading, and questions for reflection. Then they have a day of reflecting on the week and a day where you memorize a verse from the week’s reading.
I particularly like how the Nehemiah study has a chart comparing the book of Nehemiah to Jesus & His life! I love seeing how the Old Testament points towards Jesus! It’s so cool!
Sometimes I also like to spend my quiet time in the book of Psalms. Reading through the Psalms teaches me so much about worship and prayer and I love that book so much :)
3. Do a Topical Study
Most Bibles nowadays have a concordance in the back that references verses on different topics. So another way you could add variety to your quiet times is to have a topical study.
Pick a word and then look it up in your Bible’s concordance. Or google “Verses about love” or whatever you want the topic to be.
Lately, whenever I feel like changing up my quiet time and doing a topical study, I’ll spend a few days in my It is Well study on the topic of anxiety.
4. Have a Memory Verse Day
Have you ever added an element of verse memory to your quiet times?
Memorizing Scripture is important because it enables us to meditate on the verse and think about its meaning for a longer period of time. Plus, once it’s memorized it is yours to recall whenever you need it! You might not have a Bible on hand when you’re bored and stuck in traffic, but you can quote verses to yourself!
I have an entire blog post dedicated to ways to make memorizing verses fun, so I’m not going to get into that again here. But I did want to talk about a few other tips for Bible memory.
Use something to keep up with your verses.
This could be done by writing your verses on notecards and keeping them in a notecard case. You could use a cute memory verse notebook. Or you could keep up with them by writing them down on a note on your phone.
Use an app.
There are so many memory verse apps out there that you can use! Yesterday my boyfriend introduced me to the app “Verses” and I really like it! It’s a $4.99 yearly subscription, but it has so many cool features to help me memorize verses that I think it’s worth it!
5. Spend a Day in Prayer
I’m sure you already pray during your quiet times and throughout your day. But what if you spent your entire quiet time in prayer one day?
Sometimes I like to spend time writing down a prayer in a journal. Other times I pull out my interactive prayer journal and pray through it.
Occasionally I also like to read a chapter of Ferverent and then pray after that.
6. Write Out Scripture in a Journal
I remember hearing a sermon a year ago in which the pastor was saying that it can be a good practice to write out scripture passages in a journal. The act of copying the Word of God and writing the verses down by hand allows you to focus on the text in a way that just reading it doesn’t allow.
Recently, I discovered journible on Amazon and bought the John Journible. It is a journal that has spaces for every single verse in the book of John. Sometimes I like to change up my quiet time and just copy the words of John in this journible. Sometimes I just add this practice to whatever I’m already doing in my quiet time.
I’ve found that writing down Scripture passages really does help me focus on the words.
Also, you don’t have to use a journible to do this- you can do it in a normal notebook :)
7. Reflect on Your Sermon
Confession- I haven’t done this since middle school. But at the time I found it quite beneficial.
What I would do is either on Sunday afternoon or during Monday, I would look back over my sermon notes and look up all the passages mentioned and reread them. This allowed the message to really sink in and allowed me to remember it better.
Writing down sermon notes is a great practice. It helps you pay attention and helps you remember what is said.
But do you ever go back and read your past sermon notes?
Perhaps this is something else you can do to change up your quiet times. Grab your sermon notes, look up the Scripture passages, and reflect on Sunday’s message.
Alright, so those are my top ideas on how to add variety to your quiet times.
I’m totally curious- Do you do the same thing every day? Or are you like me where you need variety? Let me know in a comment!
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