John N. N. Ng'ang'a

Daily Meditations on Spiritual Disciplines

Prayer and the reading of God’s Word is something we should do throughout the day. But the truth is as we do this, we run into distractions, interruptions, and other important “things” that we must respond to and give our undivided attention to.
That is why every serious Christian also needs to draw aside for regular times of uninterrupted prayer and scriptural meditation. This is what we popularly call a quiet-time. It is a specific time we set aside, in a specific place, where a person leaves all else to engage with God.

Thus, a quiet-time involves a period of concentrated, uninterrupted fellowship with God. The spiritual discipline of having a daily quiet-time is designed to give a person undivided time with the Lord to talk to Him and to listen to Him.[1]
Since the goal of quiet time is to hear from God, I recommend you look for a guide that will help you go through the Bible from cover to cover but in small enough portions to fit your bill. Some are able to go through the whole Bible in one year, others in three years, yet others in seven years. I do not think there is a prize for how quickly you cover the whole Bible as long as you finally do so. Our daily lives are so different that there is no reason to insist that all Christians do it the same way.

But why is reading a chapter per day not as good as following a well-prepared guide? Because chapters were not part of the original Bible books and hence some messages go across chapters and so when you do a chapter, you might miss the critical part of the message. A well-prepared guide ensures units are across chapters if necessary to allow for complete messages in each days reading.
However, in addition to using these guides, one may take verses to memorise and meditate on throughout the day, and that is where this book comes in.
It gives you a Bible verse and two-minute comment to help you meditate for the rest of the day. It therefore should be used in addition to, but not as the only way to learn God’s Word.
I have only picked a few spiritual disciplines that I believe every Christian needs to take seriously if he is to grow in the Lord and be fruitful.

The first few meditations deal with what it means for a Christian to be fruitful. We then meditate on the Ten Commandments which I believe any fruitful Christian will fulfil since they are not ten suggestions, but commandments. The letters to the seven churches of the book of Revelation then show us how God assesses who is fruitful and who is not. A few of the meditations are aimed at my pet subject of leadership, encouraging all of to use our influence for extended God’s kingdom purposes. We then finish with a general look at spiritual disciplines but with particular emphasis on repentance.
It is hoped that any young believer will be helped to see the importance of going beyond just getting born again and move on to spiritual maturity. For the seasoned in faith, the meditations should cause you to be grateful as you are reminded of critical success factors of our faith.

May the Lord use this book to encourage meditations as required by the Scriptures, and move the readers of this book to desire serious study of the Bible from cover to cover, aware that no commentary should every be treated as infallible.