How to Start A Daily Quiet Time with Jesus Calling

For years, my quiet time went like this: I would wake up intending to read my Bible, pour a cup of coffee, sit down in my recliner by the living room window, and then spend twenty minutes trying to decide where to start. Genesis felt too long. Psalms felt too familiar. I would flip to a New Testament letter, read a few verses, and close the book feeling like I had done the assignment without actually meeting with the Lord. If that sounds familiar, hear me: the problem was never my desire. It was that I had no structure. I am a retired church office administrator, and I spent decades keeping other people's schedules in order. It took me far too long to realize my own soul needed a schedule too. When I finally started using Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, the structure showed up, and my quiet time went from a chore I kept failing to the part of my day I look forward to most.

This guide is for the person who wants a daily quiet time, has tried to start one more times than they can count, and needs a simple, honest path forward. I have led a Tuesday morning women's Bible study at my church in Conway, Arkansas for about twelve years, and I have watched the same struggle play out in a dozen different women. We all think the problem is discipline. Usually it is not. It is that nobody ever showed us a workable pattern. So here is the pattern I use, step by step, with the devotional that finally made it stick.

Step 1: Pick a Time and Put It in Writing

The single biggest mistake I see women make is waiting for a free moment. There is no free moment. I read at 6 AM, before the phone starts buzzing and before the day has a chance to fill up. Glenn knows not to plan anything before my coffee is gone, and that little boundary has protected my quiet time for years. You do not have to be a morning person. The right time is the time you can actually keep, whether that is 5:30 AM, noon on your lunch break, or right before bed. What matters is that you decide on the time and write it down. I am not a naturally disciplined person. If I were, I would not need a book to help me pray. That is exactly why this works.

Write it in your planner, put a recurring alarm on your phone, or stick a note on the bathroom mirror. I tell the women in my Tuesday morning study group to treat it like any other appointment. You would not skip a doctor's appointment just because you felt tired. Your quiet time deserves the same respect. The first week, you will probably forget. That is normal. The alarm is not there to make you feel guilty. It is there to remind you that you made a promise to yourself.

One more thing about timing: give yourself grace in the first month. If you miss a day, do not try to read two days' worth the next morning. Just read the day's page, thank the Lord for a new morning, and move on. Guilt is the number one quiet time killer. It convinces you that because you missed Tuesday, you may as well give up. That is a lie, and I say that as plainly as I know how.

Step 2: Choose a Spot and Make It Yours

Your spot does not need to be pretty. It needs to be consistent. Mine is a recliner by the living room window, with a small table beside it that holds my Bible, my journal, a pen, and a cup of coffee. That is it. No candles, no special blanket, no Pinterest setup. The consistency matters more than the aesthetics, because after a few weeks your brain starts to associate that chair with meeting with the Lord. You sit down, and something in you settles.

If your house is chaotic in the morning, pick a spot away from the noise. A corner of the bedroom, a kitchen table after breakfast, even a parked car for the few minutes before you walk into work. I had a friend who did her quiet time in the minivan in the school pickup line. It was not ideal. It was faithful. The Lord met her in the minivan just as surely as He meets me in my recliner. The spot matters far less than the showing up.

Gather everything you need before you sit down. There is nothing that derails a quiet time faster than realizing your reading glasses are in the bedroom and your highlighter is in the kitchen. Keep your Bible, your devotional, your journal, and a pen in one place. When you sit down, everything you need is already within arm's reach.

Step 3: Start Small, With Just One Page

Here is where Jesus Calling changed everything for me. You do not need to read a whole chapter of Scripture to have a meaningful quiet time. The devotional is laid out as a page for each day of the year, and each page includes a short reading plus Scripture references to look up. When I started, I told myself I only had to do three things: read the day's page, look up one of the Scripture references, and write one sentence in my journal. That was it. The whole thing takes ten minutes.

The writing in Jesus Calling is unusual, and I want to be honest about it so it does not catch you off guard. Sarah Young wrote the book from the perspective of Jesus speaking in the first person, as in 'I am with you and I am on your side.' She explains in the introduction that she wrote down what she believed the Lord was impressing on her heart during her own quiet times, and she has always been careful to say the book is not Scripture. Some people love this style. A few people find it uncomfortable at first. If you are in the second group, read the page, then spend your few minutes reading the Scripture reference it points to. The Bible is the authority. The devotional is just a friend helping you sit still long enough to hear from the Lord.

The beauty of the one page format is that it removes every excuse. You cannot say you are too tired. You cannot say you do not have enough time. One page is one page. Some mornings I read the page and then spend twenty minutes in the Gospel of John. Other mornings, the page is all I have, and I ask the Lord to make it enough. He always has. The page is a door, not a ceiling.

Step 4: Add a Journal, Even If You Only Write One Sentence

I have kept a journal for most of my adult life, but I want to be careful here: journaling does not have to be elaborate to count. For the first few months of my quiet time, my entire journal entry was the date and one sentence about what I wanted to carry with me through the day. Some days it was a verse. Some days it was a worry I wanted to hand over to the Lord. Some days it was simply 'I showed up.' That last one counts more than you think.

Writing does two things. First, it keeps you from drifting. When you know you are going to write one sentence at the end, you read differently. You read looking for something worth carrying. Second, it gives you a record. I have journals going back years, and when I flip through them I can trace the Lord's faithfulness through seasons that felt confusing while I was living through them.

If you do not know what to write, start with one of these three prompts: What did this page show me about God? What did it show me about myself? What is one thing I want to do differently today? Any of the three will get you started. And if you miss a day of journaling, do not backfill it. Just start fresh tomorrow. The journal is a tool for meeting with the Lord, not a record you owe anyone.

Step 5: Keep Going Past the First Month

The first month is the honeymoon. The second month is where quiet times go to die. The novelty has worn off, life has gotten busy again, and the enemy of your soul would love nothing more than for you to decide that this whole thing was just a phase. Here is what I have learned after years of leading women's Bible study: the people who make it past the second month are the ones who lower the bar, not raise it.

Lowering the bar looks like this. On a good morning, you read the page, look up the Scripture, journal a few sentences, and pray. On a hard morning, you read the page while you drink your coffee and call that a win. Both mornings count. The goal is not a perfect quiet time. The goal is a steady one. The Lord is not grading you on depth. He is delighted when you simply show up.

One practical thing that helped me: I keep Jesus Calling on the arm of my recliner all year long, not in a bookshelf. When the book is already in your spot, the decision to have a quiet time is made before you sit down. You do not have to go find the book and talk yourself into it. It is just there, waiting. That small thing has carried me through more tired mornings than I can count. I have missed plenty of mornings over the years. The ones that hurt are never the missed mornings. They are the ones where I let one missed morning become a missed week.

What Else Helps

A few things beyond the book itself have made my quiet time steadier. First, a simple reading plan for the Bible, even if it is just reading a chapter of Proverbs on the day of the month. Second, a short list of people to pray for. I keep mine on a notecard in my Bible, and I add names as the Lord brings people to mind. Third, accountability. Tell one friend you are starting a daily quiet time and ask her to ask you about it in two weeks. The women in my Tuesday morning study group do this with each other, and it makes a real difference. None of these are requirements. They are helps. Start with the book and the five steps, and add what the Lord shows you that you need. And above all, remember that quiet time is a gift, not a debt. You are not earning God's attention. You are making room to receive what He has already given.

The goal is not a perfect quiet time. The goal is a steady one. The Lord is not grading you on depth. He is delighted when you simply show up.