The Power of Habit and Your Quiet Time

Following up on yesterday's post from the book The Power of Habit, what if we applied it to one of the areas Christ-followers seemed to get the most frustrated with- a daily time with God.  Some call it a quiet time, others call it devotions.  Doesn't matter.  I've met many Christ-followers- and I've experienced myself- the challenge of trying to spend daily time with God.  Using the habit loop, here's what this might look like:

• Cue- in order to set a routine, you need a cue.  For me, my cue is my alarm.  Because I'm able to read Scripture while on an elliptical machine, my alarm also doubles as my work-out cue.  Seriously, if I miss my workout, I am much more likely to miss time in the Word.  Your cue could be your alarm, but it could be your first cup of coffee, your first five minutes at work, or the last thing you do before going to bed.
• Routine- in today's age, there's no shortage of resources available to help you with your routine.  For those with a smartphone or tablet, there's Youversion loaded with Bible translations, all kinds of devotionals, and other resources.  Our church puts together a daily devotional we give out each week.  And of course, there's your local bookstore, Amazon, or CBD with tons of choices as well.  We ought not to have any excuses with the routine.
• Reward- perhaps the most difficult aspect when it comes to the quiet time.  We're tempted to be overly spiritual and say the time with our Savior is reward enough, but if that were true, few of us would have this struggle!  So, setting a reward is important.  At first, I think the reward needs to be tangible.  I'll have my first cup of coffee after my quiet time.  I'll read the paper or check Facebook after my quiet time.  I'll go to bed after my quiet time.  You get the idea.  I think the more developed the habit becomes, the more you are able to replace these temporal rewards with more eternal ones such as answered prayers, times when God met you, times when your time in the word gave you what needed to face something during your day.  When the eternal rewards start to become important, the habit of a quiet time sticks.       

And if you're interested in what Don Miller had to say about the book, you can find it here.