Quite Time I

Author of Approaching God, Steve Brown: What I extracted on the essence of a quiet time.

A quiet time is just an established time to go to the Father, spending time with Him. It doesn't matter what you've done, or who you are, or how you've failed, but you have a Father who likes to spend time with you. Go before God, to know what I've done and thought and to expect that He's going to hug me.

I'm not trying to pretend to be spiritual; the thing that made today bearable was the time I spent with Him this morning. It was my soft place, it was the place where I can say whatever I want to say and I don't have to hide or pretend.

I don't have to wear a mask with Him. Even with my beloved wife, I've got to be careful and be sensitive to her. I don't have to be with God, because He knows me. It's a wonderful thing to be totally loved, so that you can say anything. In that totally unconditional atmosphere, I don't have to protect myself. I can pray with the psalmist, 'search me oh God', and whatever He reveals is okay.

God has called me to tell people that if they go to Him, he won't be angry. Annie Dillard said that the liturgy of the high church is the way that people have learned to talk to God without being blasted to pieces.

He's not safe. I don't like some of the stuff He said in scriptures. He's broken me in places, and so in that sense He's not safe, He's God. When I bring my agenda to Him and He has another agenda, mine doesn't count; that's why you don't bargain with Him. But He's still your Father, who loves you unconditionally, and that's the soft place.

I hold those two things together. There's the recognition that He's not safe, that He's holy and righteous; that His agenda is there. And there's the joyous understanding that it is okay, even if I pray the wrong prayer, that He still loves me.

On cosmic claustrophobia, that God is holy, righteous, and awesome and it produces the fear that we will be justly consumed. But the message of the gospel is that God's justice has been satisfied by the sacrifice of Christ. It is the realization that because of the imputed righteousness of Christ, His goodness credited to our account, we can come boldly before the Throne with the knowledge that we will be welcomed and accepted.

There's a story about a little boy whose father was a Roman officer in the army. The Romans were going off to war and the father reached down to hug his son goodbye, but his son shrunk back because of all of the armor, plumes and weaponry. Then the father took his helmet off and the boy recognized him, so he reached out to be held.

I think that's another way we are with God. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways: He's holy, He's righteous, but He is our Father. I'm constantly in remembrance that He's holy. In Hebrews, when it says we can come boldly before the Throne, it's only because of the blood of Christ. If I went before God in the way I'm talking about without being covered and without the imputation of Christ's righteousness, I couldn't do it.

The Scripture teaches that we call God 'Abba,' translated as 'daddy'. God is a Father who really likes to spend time with His children. God loves you and let it go to your head. He really does love you.'"