Beyond Quiet Time

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Are you a trifler? 

That’s not a word you hear very often.  

To trifle means to talk or act frivolously. If you’re a trifler, you are not taking things seriously; you are not pursuing them with purpose. 

John Wesley warned his itinerant preachers against being triflers in religion: 

“Fix some part of every day for private exercises…Whether you like it or no, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way: else you will be a trifler all your days” (Quoted in Steve Harper, Devotional Life, p. 11). 

Wesley was calling on them to take personal responsibility for their spiritual growth. They would grow by daily reading the Bible and praying regularly. 

Do you do that? 

Steve Harper explains that Wesley practiced what he preached. He looked for ways to express his spiritual life throughout the day. Whether he was traveling, or working, or with family, he was intent on devoting his life to Christ. He did not try to have a devotional time, so much as a devotional life. Hence, Harper distinguishes between having a “quiet time” and living a “devotional life”: 

 “While it is certainly appropriate to have a quiet time with God at the beginning and end of the day, we must not see that time as equal to the devotional life or separate from the rest of our day” (Devotional Life, p. 18). 

The Apostle Paul said, “For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus,” (Phil 2:21). He expected believers to seek Christ first. That seeking did not only happen for a few minutes in the morning, and then another few minutes in the evening. You are to put the things of Christ first, all the time, every day, in every way. 

If that’s not true of you, are you just trifling?

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Shawn Lazar

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Shawn Lazar is the Editor of Grace in Focus magazine and Director of Publications for Grace Evangelical Society. He and his wife Abby have three feral children. He also works as the associate pastor at Gateway United Baptist Church in Denton, TX, leading the contemporary service (www.faithfellowshipdenton.org). He has written two books: Beyond Doubt: How to Be Sure of Your Salvation and Chosen to Serve: Why Divine Election Is to Service, Not to Eternal Life.

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