I suck at quiet time. Here's what I did for drastic improvement.

You can't be a good church leader unless you spend time reading your Bible and praying every day. Right?

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One bad Christian

I've always felt guilty about the fact that I don't maintain a consistent quiet time. I've never been good at it. And not for a lack of trying. I've purchased expensive study Bibles, devotional guides, how to books. I've tried going 'wide' by reading as much Scripture as I could in a sitting. And I've tried going 'deep' by reading just a verse or two and trying to understand as much as I could.

The result is always the same. I sit down with the best intentions. Then before I know it, my eyes are scanning the words and my mind is somewhere far away. It's frustrating. Really frustrating. I've always felt broken because of it. 

Not so bad after all

Recently, I was sitting in a counseling session, and my counselor asked me about my personal spiritual life. I told her how I feel blocked from personal spiritual growth in my quiet time. She sat and listened patiently, then mentioned something encouraging. She told me that I'm not a bad Christian for not having a consistent devotional time. 

She then admitted that her and her husband had no regular devotional time together, and hadn't for decades. She went on to describe some creative ideas for spiritual growth that she had heard and experienced. Then she asked me this probing question: Tim, how do you connect with God. I was speechless. I had no real answer. 

She smiled, and recommended that I get a book called What's Your God Language? and take the spiritual personality tests inside to help me understand a bit more about how I tick. The result has been great. On the tests, I scored highly for a personality trait called intellectual. It just means that I connect with God through measurable facts. The best place for me to learn and grow spiritually is in an academic setting. That was so helpful for me. Now I have a great direction to point my personal quiet times. 

If you're like me, and you feel like a bad Christian on account of your quiet time. Don't. Learning more about God is, in many ways, also about learning more about yourself. You may simply be trying to speak the wrong language with God. If you're having a tough time connecting, it may be time to have a look at your spiritual personality, and evaluate what kind of methods will truly work for you. 

So here's my question to you: How do you connect with God?