A Quite Time, Or The Secret Place Of Communion With God In Prayer:  It is a period of time set aside for the purpose of having an uninterrupted contact between you and God using the Bible as your guide through meditation and prayer.

George Mueller’s view: “I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man man be nourished…. Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing to give myself to prayer after having dressed myself in the mourning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to prayer, to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed, and that thus, by means of the Word of God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord. I began therefore to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to mediate on the Word of God, searching as it were into every verse to get blessing of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for obtaining food for my soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably is this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for a while making confession or intercession or supplication, or have given thanks, I go to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, not prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it, but still continuing keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of my mediation. The result of this is that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost always invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened, and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart.” (Spiritual Secrets of George Mueller, by Roger Steer, 1985, pp. 60 – 61).

The time you spend in prayer and meditation is not a time simply for your sake (John 4: 23). It is basically and essentially a time of worshipping the Triune God; you are coming before God to worship Him. It is a time to get to know God and not just about Him, but know Him in experiential communion (John 15: 4). It must be a daily discipline in your life (Joshua 1: 8 – 9; Psalm 1: 2; 63: 6; 88: 1 – 2; 119: 97 – 99). It is perhaps the most difficult discipline to maintain in the Christian life, but the most necessary for Christian growth and obedience (John 15: 2, 5; Hebrews 6: 1; I Peter 2: 1 – 3; II Peter 3: 17 – 18). Even our Lord saw the need to maintain the discipline of prayer and communion with His Father (Mark 1: 35; 6: 46; Luke 5: 15 – 16; 6: 12). If our Lord saw the need, then we, who are sinners at best without His grace and guidance, must see the need of a discipline time of communion with Him.

What Are The Goals Of Our Time Of Communion With God?

1. Worship: “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34: 8a).
2. Change: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12: 2).

How Do You Have Communion With God?

1. Meet with God in His Word in some uninterrupted place and time. Before you take your Bible and begin to read, ask God to open your eyes so that you may behold wonderful things from His Word (Psalm 119: 18). Limit your reading for your quiet time to no more than one chapter. At other times (perhaps with your family) you are encouraged to read from other portions of Scripture where you can maintain the discipline of reading through the Bible in one year.
2. Listen to God from His Word. Look for the following as you read and meditate upon the Scriptures:

• An attribute or characteristic of God provoking you to respond in giving Him praise and adoration
• Something from what you are meditating upon from God’s Word that reminds you to give Him thanks.
• The confession of personal sin or the sins of others as the Scripture speaks to you, which leads you to intercession.
• A command to obey.
• A promise to claim.
• An example to follow.
• An error to avoid.
• A new thought illuminated to you about God or about His work through Christ or through the Holy Spirit revealed from the Scripture you are prayerfully and meditatively reading.

3. Talk To God.

• As the result of reading and prayerfully meditating upon the Scriptures, bring before God’s throne your petitions, prayers, and intercessions, with thanksgiving from what you have received from Him as the Word unfolds God’s will to you in your daily commitment to his Word.

For the sake of your soul and the glory of your Triune God, if you are not daily in secret communion with God, it’s time to get started. Discipline yourself unto godliness. Find a place and time to meet with God. There is no greater or profitable time than time spent in communion with God.