“In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”  Isaiah 30:15b 

Have you ever just sat silent and still for a little while, with quietness wrapped around you like a comforting favorite blanket? If you have, you know the stillness can become a moment that invokes an atmosphere of peace.

How did that happen? Well, the world slowed down because you slowed down. Calm had a chance to breathe.

When I sit still and silent, I close my eyes and breathe deeply this gift of serenity, for just a little while.

Sometimes we all need a little time to truly catch our breath …

Just for a little while, we need quiet, peaceful moments to hear ourselves think the deep thoughts—thoughts that compete for our attention but stay hidden in the shadows, because they have been crowded out by our busyness.

But for a little while savor your deep thoughts and listen to what your heart wants you to hear.

You know the thoughts I’m talking about. Maybe a prayer for someone. Maybe an idea, a dream, a hope you have felt stirring. Maybe letting go of piled-up stress that needs to be exhaled and released. Maybe acknowledging God’s nearness and drawing close to him.

Don’t pick that phone up again. The call can wait. This is a moment for stillness. The innermost part of your heart is trying to tell you something. You need this. From time to time, we all need this. 

We need to give ourselves permission to savor quiet, restful moments.

They will refresh you. They will remind you who you are. You will have a new outlook on life and all that is going on around you.

All you have to do is be still … for a little while.

By Kathy Cheek
Used by Permission

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When Silence is More Than Being Quiet

Quiet Time with God

Am I Quiet?

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So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
John 11:3-4

When Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that their brother and Jesus’ friend was gravely ill and requested that He come, Jesus delayed going. The family went through the entire funeral process and by the time Jesus got there Lazarus had been dead four days.

Mary, knowing the healing power of the Master said, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” That would be correct. If He had come and healed Lazarus, they would have learned nothing new about Jesus, but by waiting four days, it allowed Him to show even more power. His delay and silence was not rejection. Rather it was an opportunity to know more of himself than they had ever known.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, already wrapped in grave clothing, it was quite a spectacular event, far greater than healing a live person.

Have you ever been frustrated when you didn’t hear from God? Perhaps it is because He wants to teach you a new revelation about himself. Whenever silence comes, continue doing the last thing God told you while you watch and wait for a fresh encounter with Him.

When you don’t hear from God, you can respond in one or two ways. You can become discouraged or you can patiently wait while God gives you a deeper knowledge of himself. The response you choose will determine your relationship with God.

Some responses are good enough to wait for. Never consider the silence of God to be the rejection by God. He knows the perfect timing for the maximum effect.

Perhaps you are not ready for His next step. Maybe He is waiting for you to elevate your prayer level or to deepen your knowledge of scripture. But when you are ready, He can use you in a mighty way.

Jesus was four days late to the grave of His friend Lazarus, but He was right on time.

by John Grant
used by permission
John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney

FURTHER READING

• Prayer is Talking to God
• Practicing the Presence of God
• Hearing God’s Voice

The post When God is Silent appeared first on Thoughts About God.

Be Still, My Daughter
Sit still, my daughter.
Ruth 3:18 NKJV

My personal paraphrase of Ruth 3:18 is precious to me. God spoke to me and said,

“Sit still, My daughter, the apple of My eye, waiting as long as it takes, until you learn (know, perceive, understand, discern, and distinguish as truth) how the matter, thing, question, or cause will turn out, because surely the Man Christ Jesus, your Kinsman-Redeemer, will not by any means be idle, or silent, or have any peace until He finishes His purposes, working until the job is done, in His eternal now.”

Why is being still such an un-American activity?

Ten years ago, our daughter Elizabeth was asking the same question. Read her story about learning to be still.

Come with me to a beautiful Saturday morning in October. It’s the third weekend of the month, and I am at a retreat center in the north Georgia mountains with twenty students to learn about student leadership. The weather is crisp, the sky is pure blue, and the sun is beaming. The day before I had spotted two swings overlooking a lake with the mountains in full fall colors as the backdrop. My soul and spirit, hungry for time alone with God, knew there was the perfect place for time with him. The announcement was made, “Go outside and spend 45 minutes alone with God.” As the assignment was being given, I got into my racer’s blocks waiting for the start gun. Why? Because I had to be the first one to the swing by the lake so I could have a meaningful time with God, of course. As the group split, I overheard several girls say, “Hey, let’s go to the lake where the swings are.” Immediate sirens went off and a red flag raised… they can’t go to the swing… that’s where I’m supposed to be! All of a sudden, the mission was clear: get to the swings first! The closer I came to the lake, the more focused I became. My pace was intense, my joy fleeting, and winning was all that was important.

As I approached the lake, I was almost in a full gallop. The swing was on the opposite side of the lake from me. The girls made a foolish error by going to the left. Ha ha! So I quickly dashed off to the right to make it around the lake first. If we only had a instant replay, you would see me as I ran around the lake. I rushed right past a small white chapel. I flew past a wooden cross on the shore. I jumped onto the swing feeling good about my victory, but too wound up from the competition to be still and know that He is God.

As I sat there trying to catch my breath, it hit me.

“This is what your life is like. You’re wrapped up in getting things accomplished, even good things, and you’re relying on your flesh and power most of the time for insignificant victories, all the while missing what’s important.”

Then I looked back around the lake and saw that in trying to be in control, I had missed things God had wanted me to stop and see along the way… the white chapel (faith), the cross (everlasting hope), and the gift of still time with the Savior sitting on a swing (love). It didn’t take a seminary degree to catch God’s reference. The words of 1 Corinthians 13 came ringing at me, “But the greatest of these is faith, hope, and love.”

John Piper says that as he approaches the Word of God, he prays for the gift of reading slowly, to truly hear God in His Word. That is my own desire, but I would take it a step further and pray that God would give me the gift to live life slowly. I want to hear God not just in sections of my day marked “Time alone with God,” but when He decides to speak in unexpected times and unique ways, I want my soul and spirit not to be racing around the lake but instead be in a place of continual stillness on the swing, so that I might drink deeply of what He has prepared to show me.

It sounds pretty on paper. And it is the longing of my spirit, and yet it is a daily, more like hourly, battle to embrace quiet. Since my theology lesson on the swing that day, I have been experimenting with stillness, solitude, and silence. I am realizing how addicted I am to activity and noise. I understand why David had to command his soul to be still and know that He is God. Being quiet is difficult, and almost impossible for some of you. But I have discovered that my soul and spirit have been starving for stillness for a long time. And now that I have given my soul a taste of stillness again, it will not be satisfied unless it is a regular part of my day. Will you take 15 minutes to just sit and be quiet? (Driving a car with your cell phone turned off doesn’t count.) I mean so quiet and still that you can hear the clock tick. And just sit, look, listen, and remember what it’s like to be still.

Will you take the challenge to “Be still and know that I am God?”

Will you take some time to sit and quiet your soul before the Lord? Ask God how He wants to meet you in His presence. Meditate on these “be still” verses.

Be still and see the salvation of the Lord.
Exodus 14:13-14

Be still by the side of the Lord.
Exodus 33:21

Be still so you won’t miss the great things God is doing.
1 Samuel 12:16, Job 37:14

Stand still and see the deliverance of the Lord.
2 Chronicles 20:17

Be still. It’s the antidote to fretting.
Psalm 37:7

Be still and know He is God.
Psalm 46:10

Be still before the Lord.
Zechariah 2:13a

Let Jesus rebuke your storms, “Peace, be still.”
Mark 4:39

by Sylvia Gunter
used by permission

FURTHER READING

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Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is considered prudent.   Proverbs 17:28

As child I heard this proverb in the statement:

“It is better to be silent and be thought a fool, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

Our words reveal much about our thoughts, feelings and ultimately our character.

Thoughts by Mike Woodard
used by permission

FURTHER READING

• Stop Talking! 
• Prayer Before You Speak
• The Words of Our Mouth
• Heavenly Wisdom

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 … abide in me…This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, (John 15:4)

“I spent all this money on a mission trip and now you tell me to just ‘be’ with the people. No sharing of the Gospel, no handing out Bibles, no giving my testimony“?

Such were the questions – some spoken, some uttered only in the frustrated minds – of a group of young adults who traveled halfway around the world to participate in a church-sponsored mission trip. How could one’s mere presence fulfill the goal of Christ’s commission to bring the good news of salvation to all who would hear?

While we are too frequently less than faithful in giving words to our faith, it is also true that we who live in the Western world easily slip into the trap of placing more value on our words than on our actions, or even on our ‘mere presence’.

Could this be why we also shy away from wordlessly sitting in the presence of God, listening for whatever whispered words he might choose to utter in solitude and silence? The worlds around us place high value on production, success, activity, and their accompanying sounds. If we are not attentive, how quickly we can be ensnared by that same value system.

During the closing days of the mission trip described above, the participants who had traveled so far to speak the Gospel were amazed to hear the comments of people who had been observing them: “We watched to see how you reacted when the power went off or the well went dry. We saw you praying as you stood under a tree. We felt your hugs. We want to know the God who made you this way.”

Jesus, it sounds so simple to just ‘abide‘, to just rest in you, to block out the noise of the world and the clutter of my mind, but I confess that I often choose activity over solitude, sound over silence because in activity and sound there is some sense of my effort and worth. Help me be more aware of when you want my presence to be your instrument of grace in a dying world.

by Marilyn Ehle
used by permission

FURTHER READING

• Silence is Golden by Karen Huffaker
• Waiting on God
• Love in Action – by Phil Ware
• It’s in the Response – Devotional by Alec Niemi

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