UPDATE (22 April 2024)
I just discovered that the downloads page has been stuck at the second week of January. The issue has been resolved (cache needed clearing). Please reach out to me if you face any issue by just commenting on any page as I moderate all comments. So sorry about the trouble.
UPDATE (11 January 2024)
If you have been using my guides regularly you might have noticed that the past month or so I have been unusually missing my deadlines. The first, and most major one, was Week 48, which I basically missed and made up the following week. That was when I was working flat out to meet a major deadline while also having to meet 2 other deadlines. Although I survived that period, unfortunately it seemed that my body had its defences weakened and I fell ill. And then I fell ill again, after I had recovered. And now, for the third time, I am recovering, this time from an episode of a chronic ailment that I have lived with for decades. I confess that I have not had a decent quiet time for myself although I have continued to write these guides both for the site and for my church.
On the other hand, these guides that I am writing continue to excite me as the Lord opened up insights into his word, and I am thankful for that. I am also thankful that I am going through this at a time when I can afford to, with all my deadlines behind me. The freedom to do just nothing but rest is something that I have thanked the Lord for on numerous occasions. If you happen to read this, do say a prayer for me that my body will strengthen again. I constantly tell the Lord that I long to live in the peace and joy of his Shalom so that I can serve him well and glorify him. Amen.
UPDATE (13 December 2022)
If I were to choose a word to represent how I view my experience of Time Alone With God in 2022, I would say “interesting”. It has not been easy and more often than not I find myself scrambling to meet my own deadline of posting a new devotion by the Monday of each week. And, to be very honest, I think very few people use the devotions that I have been writing—probably less than five—and the question why I continue is very difficult to answer. But I have been using them for my own devotions and I have benefitted much: the discipline to record things that occupy my mind and heart provided the context for God’s word to often speak very directly to my own thoughts and this in turn often helps me to view the message of the text in fresh and new light; the discipline of writing the questions as well as the reflection at the end of every devotion has helped me not only in terms of seeing the text more clearly, but often in giving me clarity in terms of the overall scheme of God’s will and ways as I understand them; and all this has helped deepen and widen my own discipleship in terms of my personal walk as well as my ministry and my involvement in church. So I will continue to do this for another year. Perhaps some people may benefit from the effort I put in—at least I’m sure I will.
12 November 2022
In recent conversation with someone I began to realise that while Quiet Time is a Christian activity that has been encouraged for decades, Christians usually view it as either a short bible study session or an opportunity to consider some thoughts about God or the Christian life, and prayer. In that conversation I began to formulate my view of what the Quiet Time is about and I would like to share it.
http://timealonewithgod.org/the-quiet-time/
UPDATE (20 May 2022)
I have made changes to the layout which hopefully will make the guides more “devotional” than “bible study” in nature. The contents remain unchanged. Please read my explanation here: New Format.
UPDATE (14 December 2021)
I am thankful to the Lord for being with me as I write these devotion guides. Many times perspectives I have not seen before but now broadens and deepens my view of the text came to me rather unexpectedly. Many times the thoughts I was thinking through intersected with my interactions with people in my life that particular week and I was able to share with them my thoughts or the text that I have been focusing on.
I have been using the guides for myself and even though I wrote the questions and I have already spent a fair bit of time on the text, each week has been interesting encounters with the text and with God.
I have also been using the guides as a basis for discussions with some younger Christians whom I have been interacting with and have found the guides useful as a basis for discussing the many concerns of Christians. Basically my modus operandi is to suggest that we use the devotional guides weekly and once a week we will discuss the previous week’s devotions via a zoom session. Sometimes we run through the questions and share our answers and sometimes an issue is raised arising from the devotion and we were able to explore further.
I have found these sessions richly edifying. I think this can be a useful “follow-up” material/format as it helps to lay a foundation of spending time weekly with the Word and at the same time the material, being basically a means to interact with the Word of God, will help build up a Christian’s fundamentals.
When I first started, my commitment was to write a year’s worth of material. This I have accomplished by the grace of God. I have decided to write another year’s worth of material for this website and I hope by God’s grace they will be a blessing to your own time alone with God in 2022.
If you have been blessed, do share with me as it will be a real encouragement to me. Just write a comment anywhere and the website will bring it to my attention. Let me know too how you are using the guide. As I’ve said somewhere, don’t be fixated on the weeks—if you’re new, feel free to start with 2021 Week 1 or any week where the text catches your attention—as far as I remember, I don’t make any reference to the calendar and I don’t think the calendar had influenced my choice of text.
If you have not been keeping up because sometimes you want to spend more time on a particular passage, That’s perfectly fine. Or sometimes circumstances catch up on you and you missed some days. They are unimportant issues.
The most important thing is progress in your own fellowship with God and in your walk with him.
May the Lord bless you.
UPDATE (27 September 2021)
I have added links to open the passage on biblegateway.com. Just place your cursor in the linked text (which is underlined and blue in color) and when the link appears, click on it and the text for the day will appear as a new tab on your browser. To just use the keyboard, press alt-enter, or option-enter if you are on a Mac. And for those who, like me, try not to use the mouse when the fingers are already on the keyboard, ctrl-tab brings you to the next tab on the right while ctrl-shift-tab brings you to the previous tab on the left.
Hope you have been blessed using these guides.
INTRODUCTION
I have the privilege of writing a series of daily devotional materials that church members can use, with each week’s meditations focusing on the text or topic of the following Sunday’s sermon. The format I adopted is one with alternating days of text and reflection: one day will have questions on the set text and the next will be a time of reflection. The questions are simple and focused and I formatted the series in Word so people can type in their responses and keep the files for reference.
I think this simple format can be especially useful for those who need materials that they can easily use and benefit from. I personally think that a vibrant and ongoing relationship with the Lord is vital to a Christian’s life and a regular time alone with God will be a valuable part of that relationship.
So arising from my experience, I have committed to writing a year’s worth of guides (separate from what I am doing for the church) that can be used by anyone for their own time alone with God.
Thus this website.
If you know of someone who can benefit from these resources, please share the site with them. Have a look the rest of the site as I have added articles and reflections that I believe are helpful. And do drop a comment as feedback or encouragement (for some reason I can’t enable comments here so please go to any article or reflection or devotion to comment).
Thanks.
david tan.