Register once, for every course
Your progress is saved in this browser as you study, and kept with the seminary under your student code, so you can continue on any device. Keep the code private, like a password. Email is optional. Add one so we can return your student code, send reminders, and deliver a certificate. You can enroll and keep studying without it. What we keep.
The Certificate track answers the multiple choice. The Associate adds the fill-in-the-blank questions; M.Div. and Th.M. add those and the short-answer questions. 90% of each part is required to pass.
Introduction: Time Together
Every relationship lives on time spent together. We saw in the last unit that the heart of the Christian life is to walk with God; but no one walks with a friend he never meets. The daily quiet time — what older believers called personal devotion — is simply a set time each day to meet with God in His Word and in prayer. It is the daily appointment out of which the whole walk grows. In this unit we will not yet go deep into prayer or the Word — those have units of their own — but we will learn to build the daily habit that holds them together.
I. A Set Time and a Quiet Place
Those who walked closely with God gave Him a regular, unhurried time. Of the Lord Jesus we read, "Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed" (Mark 1:35, NKJV). David said, "My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up" (Psalm 5:3, NKJV). Daniel "knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God" (Daniel 6:10, NKJV). The lesson is not a rule about which hour we must keep; it is that we set apart a regular time, and find a quiet place where we can meet God without distraction. For most people the beginning of the day is best, before the noise of the world crowds Him out.
II. Time in the Word
In our devotion we open the Bible. "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2, NKJV). One of the surest ways to grow, as we will see again later in this course, is the steady reading of God's Word. But remember the first unit: we read it not merely to know it, but to be changed by it. So read a portion slowly, and meditate on it — the blessed man's "delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:2, NKJV). As you read, ask two simple questions: What does this show me about God? and What must I do?
III. Time in Prayer
Having heard from God in His Word, we speak to Him in prayer. The units that follow will teach us much more about how to pray; here it is enough to say that in our daily devotion we bring our whole day to God — our thanks, our needs, our confession, the people on our hearts — and we do it daily, not only in a crisis. The Word and prayer together are the two halves of one conversation: God speaks to us, and we speak to Him.
IV. Keeping a Record: The Prayer Journal
One simple help has blessed many believers: the prayer journal. Dr. Ted Rogers, who teaches a course on prayer at our church, asks his students to make daily notations in a prayer journal — writing down how their time with God is changing them, what they are asking of Him, and how He answers. He keeps one himself and reads from it alongside his students. A journal does three things: it lets us look back and see God's faithfulness over time, it keeps us honest, and it turns vague, drifting prayer into purposeful prayer. You need only a notebook and a few honest lines a day.
V. Learning to Listen: Being Still
Devotion is not only talking; it is also listening. "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10, NKJV). We are, it seems, often afraid of silence. We feel that if no words are being spoken, nothing is happening. But we do not need to become anxious in the quiet; we may simply accept that God Himself might, at that very moment, be speaking to us. So in your quiet hour, do not fill every minute with words. Lay down your busyness, be still before Him, and listen. The God who speaks in His Word also meets the heart that waits quietly before Him.
Conclusion
The daily quiet time is the appointment that keeps the whole Christian life alive — the Word, prayer, journaling, and stillness, gathered into one unhurried meeting with God each day. If you miss a day, do not despair as though all were lost; you have only missed a meal — come back to the table. Give God the first and best part of your day, and you will find, week by week, that your walk with Him grows deeper and surer.
Unit 3 Final Exam
Certificate track: the 20 multiple-choice questions. Associate: multiple choice and the 10 fill-in-the-blank questions. M.Div. and Th.M.: multiple choice, fill-ins and the 10 short-answer questions. 90% of each part is required to pass. If you do not pass, the exam waits a short time before you can try again.
Multiple Choice — 20 Questions
Short Answer — 10 Questions
M.Div. and Th.M.: all five assigned readings are part of the course. Their separate exam is required after activation; see its page for the current rule. Honors remains optional and does not replace the exam.
Open Course Readings →