UP

Written by James Nightingale

One of the biggest things that I have learnt this year, other than the term ‘It’s coming Rome’, is that you need to understand the WHY behind what you are doing before you can actually do it. This might seem obvious, especially considering we know why our relationship with God is important, but I have re-learnt a lot about spiritual disciplines this year. I hope my little story might help you to re-discover the importance of spending time with God. So here we go!

I have always been a Christian, but Uni is where my faith really became alive. I found a church where I belonged, a small group in the Christian union that made me feel at home, and Christian friends that I had never had a school. I got baptised, started leading small groups, and really got stuck into church. I had never really read my bible on a daily basis until I went up for prayer ministry one day in November 2019. That is where Peter Wright asked me a simple question ‘Do you eat breakfast’… to which I thought ‘ummmm yuh who doesn’t’, but instead replied with a simple ‘yes’. Then he said ‘Well, if you don’t read your bible before you have breakfast, then you can’t have it. No bible, no breakfast’. I have read my bible every single day since! (This is largely because food is a big motivator for me! I suggest you find your equivalent motivator!)

Anyway, this started my ‘quiet time’ journey, and it really grounded my faith. It wasn’t till 2021 in lockdown where I took another step when I read ‘The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry’.

This book was incredible, and really opened my eyes to WHY quiet times are so important. We live in a society that constantly craves our attention, and what’s worse is we love it! Netflix, amazon prime, social media are all so readily available and easy that they distract us from a God focused life. These things are not bad in themselves, however if they become our priority, that’s when there’s a problem.

The WHY that I discovered, which seems so simple, is that Jesus himself did all these practices. Silence and Solitude, Sabbath, Simplicity and Slowing. We often just listen to what Jesus spoke about (which is good) rather than look at the way he behaved and acted. Even the son of God needed a lie in every now and then. One of the biggest things I learnt is that Jesus never sacrificed time with God to be busy doing other things.

That is why when I had 2 stressful interviews in back-to-back days this year, I spent an hour in the morning reading the bible and praying, and then another 30 mins in the afternoon going for a prayer walk. Rather than allowing stress to take me away from spending time with God I had to revolt against my habits and force myself to sit still and spend more time with God in a time of need, rather than less. This helped so much, and I did get the job for the second interview!

I hope my story may motivate you to re-look at your ‘quiet time’/bible reading/UP habits.

Do you long to spend time with your father that loves you more than anything?