The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him. Habakkuk 2:20
You know my story about eating a candybar and drinking a pop in the Meijer parkinglot? It wasn't only about having a treat to myself, it was also about having a few minutes to myself.... Sometimes you just need a slice of silence. There’s something necessary about quiet.
Think about all the noise that is around you whether you want it or not. All day long you experience noise: commuting noise, human noise, media noise, advertising noise, disaster noise, advice noise, shopping noise—so much clatter that it even forces the noise level to rise in order to hear or be heard.
An essential ingredient of connecting with God and growing spiritually is pursuing quiet. It’s that simple…and in a world inherently noisy, it’s that complex too. The good thing is that to accomplish quiet, all we have to do is...be quiet. Consciously choose no noise. Clear out the noise of worry. Turn off the clamor of consumption. Silence the noise of procrastination. Quiet your life in small ways. Doable. Practical. Attainable. Even undersized times of quiet will add up and bring big rewards.
What happens when we’re quiet? We are more apt to hear the voice of God, for God often speaks through silence. Maybe in a time of silence, a name comes to mind, and we know we need to go to that person and reconcile a hurt. Or perhaps in the quiet, a specific situation—one that requires confession—suggests itself. When there is silence, we may even hear the voice of God saying, “I love you” through His creation.
God is not distant. He wants to connect with you. You just need to find quiet in order to hear Him in the whispers of life. Don’t go on to another task. Just turn off the noise and consciously be quiet. Deliberately focus your thoughts away from the distractions of the day and move them toward God--he'll be there to meet you.
No comments:
Post a Comment