Podcast Summary: Renewing Your Mind – Created for Private Worship

Date: December 10, 2025
Guest Teacher: Rev. Jason Helopoulos
Host: Nathan W. Bingham
Podcast: Ligonier Ministries – Renewing Your Mind

Episode Overview

This episode delves into the biblical foundation, enduring value, and practical approach to private or secret worship—often referred to as "quiet times" or daily devotions. Rev. Jason Helopoulos encourages believers to embrace regular, intentional times alone with God, emphasizing that this is not a modern innovation but deeply rooted in both Old and New Testament Scriptures. The episode discusses the "why" and "how" of cultivating private worship and highlights its essential role in spiritual transformation and joy.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Biblical Expectation and Tradition of Private Worship

(01:49 – 05:26)

• Private worship is not optional for Christians; it’s an expected practice.

• Biblical examples:

  • Joshua: Commanded to "meditate upon the law day and night" (Joshua 1).
  • Daniel: Willingly risked persecution to keep his times of prayer (cf. Daniel).
  • Psalms: Frequent calls to meditate on God “in the watches of the night.”
  • Jesus: Even the eternal Son sought solitary moments for prayer:
    • "Wrap your mind around that. Here is the eternal begotten Son of God... And Jesus found it necessary in his humanity to go out before everyone else was up early in the morning, to spend time with his Father." — Helopoulos (04:11)

• Quote:

  • "It's not if you pray. There's an expectation... He says when you pray, go into your closet and shut the door." — Helopoulos referencing Jesus (00:01, 05:50)

2. The Heart of Private Worship: Being with God

(05:40 – 08:17, 22:21 – 23:36)

• True worship is dwelling with God; the great longing of the believer is nearness to the Lord.
• Robert Murray McCheyne quote:
  • "A believer longs after God...to feel his love, to feel nearer to him in secret... There is greater rest and solace to be found in the presence of God for one hour than in an eternity in the presence of man." — (06:46)
• Private worship is described as “just wanting to be with my God.”
• It isn’t just a checklist, but “our great heart’s desire. And where it’s not, then we pray and ask for his help and enliven that within me.” (22:21)

3. Purpose and Benefits of Private Worship

(07:53 – 10:27)

• We become more like Christ through intimate time with Him.
  • "We want to become more like the one we love and so we want to spend time with Him." (07:59)
• The Christian begins to “resemble” Christ, not physically, but spiritually and emotionally, just as long-married couples begin to resemble one another (08:18).
• Spiritual growth is gradual:
  • "Rome wasn't built in a day. The Christian life isn't built in a day." (09:13)
• God works in unseen ways even when immediate progress or answers seem lacking.

4. Practical Approach: How to Spend Time with God Daily

(11:13 – 13:06, 13:10 – 14:46)

• Word:

  • Have a plan for reading Scripture—yearly Bible plans, studying a particular book with a commentary, or using a study Bible.
  • Key: Feed your soul daily, just as an oak sapling needs constant nourishment.

• Prayer:

  • “In prayer, just bowing before the Lord. We're making our requests known, we're giving Him adoration, we're giving Him thanksgiving. We're just spending time with Him." (13:10)
  • Cites a Malawian proverb: When someone neglects private prayer, “the grass grows on your path.” (14:13)

• Key warning:

  • Don’t become “so busy about kingdom stuff that we're not busy with our King.” (14:46)
  • Illustration from Mary and Martha: “Mary's chosen the better portion, because she's seeking the Lord.” (15:18)

5. Practical Tools for Prayer

(15:32 – 17:29)

• If you struggle to pray:

  • Start by praying the Lord’s Prayer.

  • Ask older Christians to teach you by their example.

  • Pray Scripture, e.g., Psalms, by changing pronouns to personalize.

  • “You could just turn around the pronouns so that it's you speaking and those things begin to inform your mind, and you'll find that they begin to come across your lips." (17:02)

6. Persevering Through Spiritual Dryness

(17:29 – 20:00)

• When feeling “dry” or “lukewarm,” don’t give in to neglect. Keep the habit. Be honest with God about dryness:
  • "Not as if He doesn't know, but you cry out to Him, ‘Lord, would you help me?... May I experience, not just know it, but can I experience it? Would you reveal yourself to me in that way?’" (18:12)
• Meditate deeply: Memorize, meditate, and then imitate Scripture (18:35).
  • “You memorize the Word so that it’s so in your mind that then you can just turn it over and turn it over... like a diamond with all of these different facets.” (19:07)

7. Meditation Example – Colossians 1

(20:00 – 21:55)

• Helopoulos models meditation on Colossians 1, considering the greatness of Christ as Creator.
  • "If all things were created by him, then that means that he is uncreated...That means that he's forever existed. He's eternal. He has no beginning, which means he has no end." (20:28 – 20:44)
  • "How great must he be that everything is aimed at his glory?" (21:49)

8. The Threefold Structure of Worship

(23:36 – 24:15)

• Corporate worship, family worship, and private worship are compared to a “three-legged stool.”
  • “You can survive for a while without one of them, but it’s wobbly. But when all three are firmly rooted... it informs a life of worship and they inform one another.” (23:51)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the expectation of private worship:

  • “It's not if you pray. There's an expectation... He says when you pray, go into your closet and shut the door.” (00:01, 05:50)

• On spiritual longing:

  • “I just want to dwell with my God. And so there is a draw and there is a pull to getting away in secret worship with Him.” (07:07)

• On resemblance through intimacy:

  • "The Christian as he or she spends time with his or her Lord, there's just a resemblance that begins to happen... we've just been dwelling with Him." (08:52)

• On gradual growth:

  • “Rome wasn’t built in a day. The Christian life isn’t built in a day.” (09:13)

• On the busyness trap:

  • “We can be so busy about kingdom stuff that we’re not busy with our King.” (14:46)

• On Scripture as love letters:

  • “These are love letters to you... It is his grace and his kindness shown to you. And then he says, draw near to me in prayer and just speak to me.” (23:13)

Important Timestamps

• 00:01 – The biblical expectation of prayer
• 01:49 – Introduction to private/secret worship
• 04:11 – Jesus’ example of solitude in prayer
• 06:46 – McCheyne’s quote on longing for God
• 08:18 – Analogy of resemblance in long marriages
• 13:06 – Practical recommendations for time in the Word
• 14:13 – East African proverb: "the grass grows on your path"
• 14:46 – The busyness trap: “busy about kingdom stuff”
• 17:02 – How to pray using Scripture
• 18:35 – Memorize, meditate, imitate
• 20:28 – Meditating on Christ’s preexistence and glory (Colossians 1)
• 23:13 – The Bible as a collection of love letters to believers
• 23:51 – Worship as a three-legged stool

Conclusion

Rev. Jason Helopoulos paints a rich, pastoral picture of private worship as an essential outflow of love for God, anchored deeply in Scripture and Christian tradition. Both practical and devotional, his encouragement is to pursue regular, intentional time alone with the Lord—rooted in the Word and prayer—so that believers might grow into ever greater conformity with Christ. Private worship, he insists, should never be mere duty, but the believer’s great heart-cry and delight.

If you find one “leg” of worship weak or missing, this episode urges you: strengthen it, and let all of your life be lifted to God’s glory.