Recently in a discussion with some people who were using my devotional guides, I found that they were struggling with the questions and this resulted in their sessions being too time consuming and that has kept them from using the guides regularly.
In answering their concerns I found myself emphasising the following:
- The quiet time is a “time alone with God” and not primarily a bible study. I envisage the time to be a) sharing with God your concerns; b) listening to God’s concerns (the bible passage); and c) responding to God in prayer.
- The questions are there to help as you meditate on the text. If they do not help, you should set them aside.
- You should take advantage of the fact that essentially you have 2 days to spend on one Bible passage. You can also take 1 or 2 questions to mull over the two days. This may allow you to spend less time actually in front of your computer screen.
As a result of the feedback, I have revised the layout of the guide into 3 two-day blocks around the 3 Bible passages with the questions separated into a MAIN block which is essentially the a, b and c that I shared above in point 1, and a FURTHER THOUGHTS block which consists of the questions that I wrote to help you think through the text.
I hope that this new layout will be helpful, especially to new users who might be intimidated or put off by the old layout. I hope those who have been using the guides will not be distracted by these changes.
Please let me know in the comments below what you think and if they are helpful or if I should revert back to the old format.
Thanks.