How to Plan a Four-Hour Personal, Spiritual Retreat

In my last post, I described the benefits of carving out 3-4 hours for spending time with the Lord and caring for your soul. You might feel apprehensive as you consider such a “long time” alone. You might think, “I have trouble staying awake for my 20 minute quiet time each morning.” I want to help with that concern by providing a sample schedule and some practical advice. But first, I need to describe the various elements you should consider including in your plan.

Elements of a Personal Retreat

Worship in Song – Jonathan Edwards used to ride his horse the woods surrounding his town, dismount, and walk through the woods singing out to God. Maybe you will sit in your closet or your car or walk around a greenway. And perhaps you’ll use your phone to play some praise music (so it isn’t just you trying to carry a tune). I encourage you to use Together for the Gospel’s live albums for this purpose.

Bible Reading – If you are going to fellowship with the Lord, you need to hear from his Word. Maybe you should pick one epistle to read through like Titus or Colossians. After all, the New Testament letters were meant to be read in one sitting.

Meditation – Take a smaller section of Scripture and spending time thinking about its meaning and then making an application to your life. You might pick a verse that relates to a current need in your life, or you might pick a theme from your Bible reading.

   

Praying – Not only do we need to hear from God, but we also need to speak to him.  It is natural for a child to talk to his loving father. Maybe you get distracted while you pray. Consider praying through a Psalm. For example, read one verse of Psalm 23 and pray what comes to mind. When you run out of things to pray, move to the next verse. You might also consider walking while you pray.

Devotional reading – Pick a good Christian book and try to get a good start on it during this time. You might not be able to finish the whole thing, but you can get a running start that will help you finish it out later.

Journaling – Journaling is helpful because it aids the process of thinking, evaluating, and remembering.  What sort of things should you journal about?

• A list of things you thank God for.
• Evaluating your life in light of what you read in your Bible. List how you are doing and what you need to work on improving.
• Write out a prayer
• Write as you meditate on a verse (kind of like your own commentary and application).

As you can see, journaling brings together the other elements I’ve already mentioned.

Sample Schedule

Below is a sample schedule that reflects 4 hours. However, you could adjust it down to 2-3 hours if needed. The point of a schedule is to help you avoid wasting time (wondering what to do next). However, don’t feel like you have to stick to your plan blindly. If you find your time of prayer or reading is having a powerful effect on your soul, then keep at it. If you find you are growing weary, then move to the next thing.

:15       Worshiping the Lord in song (perhaps while playing an instrument or listening to music)

:30       Bible reading

:30       Praying the Bible, perhaps while walking.

:30       Journaling

:30       Devotional reading (an edifying Christian book you’ve wanted to read)

:20       Praying the Bible, perhaps while walking.

:30       Meditation on Scripture

:15       Journaling

:20       Praying the Bible, perhaps while walking.

:20       Worshiping the Lord in song (as above) and/or devotional reading (as above)

(This is taken from Dr. Don Whitney’s syllabus for Spiritual Disciplines in the Minister’s Life, Winter 2020).

Practical Advice

On mistake people often make, according to Dr. Whitney, is that they remain in one position (seated) for too long. Too much consecutive time in the chair can have a dulling effect. So, get up and walk while you meditate or pray. Stand to sing. Kneel to pray.  

A second piece of advice, put a retreat on the calendar. It’s like anything else in life – if you don’t schedule and plan for it, it will probably not happen (despite your best intentions). I am not sure if the Corona Virus has given you more discretionary time or not. If it has, now is a great time to do a personal retreat. Maybe you are just as busy as ever. Either way, get it on the calendar.

One more piece of advice. If you are married with young kids, plan to give your spouse time for this too. Maybe one Saturday morning you watch the kids, and a couple of weeks later, he or she watches them. It will take coordination, but it is worth it.

If you want to learn more about this topic, read chapter ten on silence and solitude in Don Whitney’s book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. 

Spend Extended Time Alone with God – The Value of "Short" Personal Retreat

Have you ever considered spending several hours alone for fellowship with the Lord and to grow spiritually? That might sound daunting to you. We live in a culture in which 10 seconds of silence is unnerving. Three or four hours of silence and solitude, away from other people, might sound wearying. I can assure you, however, that it does not have to be.

About six or so years ago, I began trying to have a pastoral retreat. This consisted of going out of town for about 2 or 3 days to spend time in the Word, prayer, listening to sermons, and working on long-range planning. I used some of the time to evaluate how I was doing in my vocations (as Christian, husband, father, pastor, friend). I read a good Christian book. I sang songs of praise to God. I always found clarity about what matters most as I fellowshipped with the Lord in prolonged solitude. I also found it spiritually refreshing.

Fast forward to this past December. I was taking a class with Dr. Don Whitney on the spiritual disciplines in the minister’s life, and one of the assignments opened up a new way to benefit more regularly in this area. This assignment called for me to spend four consecutive hours of silence and solitude (voluntarily withdrawing to privacy for spiritual purposes). To my surprise, I found even just four hours to be greatly refreshing to my soul and helpful to my walk with the Lord.

The new thing I learned was that one does not have to spend 2-3 days to gain this benefit (though that isn’t bad either, and I still recommend it). More specifically, I realized that this could be a more regular practice in my life and a gift I could give to my wife.  We couldn’t carve out two days very often, but we could do a few hours once a month.

Now, all this might seem like too much for you. You have work, the lawn, and kids to care for. It might be hard to make this a priority. It is true that we might not have this privilege in each season of life (like when you have a newborn). However, let me encourage you to try it (maybe once a year at first or once a quarter). We make time for what we most value and prioritize. So, make this a priority if at all possible.

The other reason you might be apprehensive about trying it is that you are afraid it will be boring. The thought of sitting for 3 hours with your Bible sounds wearying, and you don’t know what to do with 3-4 hours of solitude. So, what I want to do is give you some practical advice and a sample schedule.

Tune in to the next post for that.

Read a Book That Feeds Your Soul

Shifting schedules and routines are the norm these days. You may or may not have extra time (maybe you are not having to commute and gained an extra 40 minutes in your day). If you do have a bit of extra downtime, there are a few ways you can turn those extra minutes into a gain for your soul (instead of spending more time scrolling through news feeds). Over the next few posts, I’ll suggest a few ideas about how to do that.

Today, I want to encourage you to use some of that extra time to read a good book that feeds the soul.  Maybe you set aside 20 minutes in the evening to devote to reading. If that doesn’t work, start with 5 minutes of reading before bed. That doesn’t sound like much, but if you read 5 minutes each day that would be … let me calculate … 35 minutes a week … and over 30 hours in a year.

Below are some suggested books to consider.

• Trusting God by Jerry Bridges
• The Holiness of God by RC Sproul
• Knowing God by JI Packer
• Holiness by JC Ryle
• Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God's Will by Kevin DeYoung
• Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus by Mark Dever
• Desiring God by John Piper (should be available free at desiringgod.org)
• When People are Big and God is Small by Ed Welch
• Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Don Whitney
• A Little Book on the Christian Life by John Calvin
• A Good Christian Biography (Check out biographies by authors such as John Piper [Swans are not silent series] or Michael Haykin, Elisabeth Elliott, Iain Murray)

Fiction that feeds the soul

• The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
• The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis (yes I am aware the last book has a big problem).
• Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss

Don’t let this replace your Bible reading, but don’t be lazy either. One thing I remember from my internship days is that Rod always said, “Leaders are readers.” I think that should apply to all of us, even if it doesn’t rhyme as nicely.