If your quiet time with Jesus has started to feel a little stale, you are not alone. Today I want to walk you through four simple ways to refresh your quiet time with Jesus so that it feels new again, because I have been right where you are.
Bringing Excitement Back Into Your Time with Jesus
I have spent my whole life with Jesus. I was saved as a little girl, learned about him in children’s church, really started studying the Bible as a teenager in youth group, and I continue to read the Bible in my adult years.
That is over three decades of opening the same book, and here is the beautiful thing about it: God’s word is alive. You can read the exact same verse at two completely different seasons of your life and walk away with two completely different things, because it moves with you and speaks into whatever you are walking through.
But even something alive can start to feel routine when you do it the same way, day after day. That is exactly where I found myself recently, and it is what pushed me to put together this list.
In this post, I am sharing four things you can do to shake off that stale feeling and bring the excitement back into your quiet time. By the time you finish reading, you will have real, doable ideas you can try this week, not just another reminder that you “should” be reading your Bible more.
This post is all about how to refresh your quiet time with Jesus.
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My Own Journey Back to a Fresh Quiet Time
Lately, I have been reading a chapter a day through the New Testament, and while that rhythm has served me well, I started to feel that familiar itch to switch things up again. I do not think that itch is a bad thing. I think it is actually a good sign that we want more, not less, of our time with him.
So instead of ignoring it or feeling guilty about it, I decided to lean into it, and that is what led me to the four ideas below.
1. Pick a New Spot for Your Quiet Time
The first thing you can do, and it costs nothing at all, is simply change your location. We all have our spot, the place we go to open our Bible and pray. Mine is my desk (because with an eighteen month old in the house, it is the one place I can leave my supplies out without them ending up scattered across the floor).
But your spot does not have to stay the same forever. If you always sit at your desk, try the couch instead. If you always sit inside, move to the kitchen table, or step out onto a covered patio. Something as small as a new location can bring a surprising amount of newness to your time with Jesus, simply because your surroundings are not on autopilot.
2. Buy a New Bible in a Different Translation
This one is a favorite of mine. I grew up reading the NIV, the New International Version, and that is the translation I memorized my verses in as a kid. In my early twenties, I switched to the ESV, the English Standard Version, and stayed there for years until that Bible was falling apart at the spine.
One day it hit me that I needed a blank slate. My old Bible was full of years of highlights, notes, and underlines, which meant every time I opened it, I was reading my old thoughts instead of finding new revelation.
So I bought a brand new Bible in a translation I had never read cover to cover, and it changed everything. Right now I am reading the NLT, the New Living Translation, and those three translations, the NIV, ESV, and NLT, are the ones I cycle through.
Bibles used to run anywhere from fifty to a hundred dollars, and while some still do, there are far more affordable options now. The NLT I am currently using cost around twenty dollars, so do not let cost be the thing that stops you from trying a new translation.
A quick word of caution: I love reading paraphrase translations like The Message, but I would not use either as your main study Bible. To me, they are paraphrased enough that I do not want to build my foundation of faith on them alone. Instead, I treat them the way I would treat a commentary or footnote, something I read alongside my main Bible to get another angle on a verse, not in place of it.
3. Get New Supplies for Your Bible Study
This one sounds small, but do not underestimate it. If you highlight as you read, grab a fresh pack of highlighters. If you like to underline and take notes in the margins, treat yourself to some new pens. If journaling is part of your routine, pick up a brand new journaling Bible or journaling supplies. If devotions are your thing, start a new devotion book.
None of these feel like a big deal on their own, but a small, tangible change like this can be exactly what puts the excitement back into opening your Bible each morning.
4. Try a New Way to Study the Bible
The last idea, and maybe the most impactful, is to find a new method for studying scripture. For a while now I have kept things simple: one chapter a day through the New Testament, then one verse to sit with and meditate on throughout the day. That simplicity served a purpose for a season, but there are so many other methods worth trying when you are ready for a change.
One popular option is the SOAP method, sometimes called SOAK. It is an acronym: Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer (or Knee, if you are using the SOAK version). You read a chapter, notice which verse stands out to you, and write it out under Scripture. Under Observation, you look at the context: who wrote it, who they were writing to, what was happening at the time. Under Application, you ask what this verse means for your life right now, which is often where I sense the Holy Spirit speaking most clearly. Finally, under Prayer, you write out a prayer built directly from what you just learned.
Download my FREE SOAP printable here.
Beyond SOAP, there are other approaches worth exploring:
Verse Mapping
Verse mapping uses a key to help you mark and study your Bible more visually
Topical Studies
Topical studies are where you gather every verse on a single theme, such as anxiety, fear, or finding joy in the journey. If you are struggling with a specific emotion, you can simply search “Bible verses about” that emotion and work through what you find, journaling and meditating on each one. That is a powerful way to replace the lies we tell ourselves with God’s actual truth, and his truth is what sets us free.
If you want to keep experimenting beyond these four, consider:
- Listening to worship music before you open your Bible to shift your heart first
- Praying scripture back to God instead of only reading it silently
- Reading a passage in a second language if you speak one
- Setting a specific, protected time of day instead of “whenever you get to it”
- Inviting a friend to do the same reading plan so you can talk about it together
More Ideas for Refreshing Your Quiet Time with Jesus
Conclusion
A stale quiet time does not mean something is wrong with your faith. It usually just means it is time for a small change. Whether you pick a new spot, try a new translation, grab a few new supplies, or dive into a new study method like SOAP, my hope is that one of these ideas brings the excitement back into your time with Jesus this week. His word never runs out of something new to say to you. Sometimes we just need a fresh way to sit down and listen.
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