The Need for Silence
Growing up, I was accustomed to being quiet. My natural disposition is to just sit still, be alone, and think about whatever comes to mind. I know, how riveting. But silence more or less has always been a friend of mine. Yet the older I became, the less true this grew to be for me.
I joined band in school and hopped onto social media and suddenly every moment of the day was filled with either music running through my head (which isn’t as fun as it seems), or a quick return to the news feed. At no point was there a moment in my day where I could simply be still and allow God to speak to me because I had filled nearly every second of the day with something or someone else. This didn’t trigger any alarms to me because this was the status quo. The culture around me had always said that it’s good to stay busy, so I must’ve been doing well! But in the midst of all the busyness of life, I had lost who I was and who God had made me to be. The voice of God in my life had been reduced down to Sunday mornings and when I could occasionally read my Bible, but His presence had all but left every other moment of my life (or so I had thought). Little did I know that it’s in the moments of solitude, undistracted by the world around you, where you can truly begin to hear God speak to you. In the silence is where God reveals to you not what you want, but what you so desperately need to hear from Him.
My prayer for you as you’re reading these words is that you would begin to see the value and necessity for repeated times of silence with God. Whether this comes easy for you because you’re an INTJ or it feels like nails running down a chalkboard because you’re about as extroverted as they come, God has a seat waiting for you because it’s in the intimate spaces with God that you’ll truly start to become alive to who you are and who God truly is.
THE AMERICAN DREAM
Little boys and little girls all across America grow up striving for pretty much the same dream. To have a nice car, a nice house, a handsome husband or pretty wife, kids, and a leisurely retirement filled with endless hobbies you couldn’t tend to while you were young. Is there anything wrong with this dream? No. This is the means by which we try to find true happiness and fulfillment in the best way that we can in the time we live in. The one thing I hardly hear echoed along with this dream is what it takes to get there.
I was able to witness this in my own family. I would see my Dad work 50+ hours a week so that we could have all the life that he longed to provide for us. Work days filled with staying late, even to the point where dinner would be cold by the time he walked through the doors. If your family was anything like mine, I bet you may have some of these same memories. This isn’t to say that I didn’t love my father or appreciate what he did for me, it's merely acknowledging the reality of what life was for a portion of my childhood.
The restless kind of culture we live in today is more or less generally accepted because it’s become ingrained into the very fiber of who we are as Americans. But what if this was never the kind of work God had in mind when he called us to cultivate and rule over the earth back in Genesis 2? Could it be that the incessant pull to constant busyness also be the very same reason we rarely hear the voice of God in our day to day lives? How could we expect to hear from God if we never create the kind of environment for Him to speak to us? We have a God who longs to speak with us, all we need to do is simply be still.
THE VOICE OF GOD
The relationship you have with God is directly related to the time you spend with Him. Living in a time where it seems as though everyone and everything is pulling for your attention doesn’t make trying to make space and time for God any easier, but the need for God never ceases.
The words spoken over us have the power to lift up our souls, or bring demise and break us down. The words spoken to you from your parents telling you that they love you unconditionally could’ve been the remedy you needed when you had a bad day and just needed to know someone loved you no matter what you did. Or the reality for some of you may be that the words you would most often hear from your parents were words that made you doubt who God made you to be, made you believe you were less than, or caused you to think that you were incapable of being loved for who you were. Words truly do have the power of life and death.
With the busyness of life that most of us face, we’ve left ourselves to hear the voice of social media, whatever news outlet we follow, and the voice of whatever the culture is the loudest. There’s a constant voice swarming around us telling us a version of what is meant to be “the good life.” The culture tells us to believe that truth is based on feelings, love is agreeing with whatever your friend or loved one says or believes, or that the highest form of loving yourself comes by doing whatever feels best.
But why wouldn’t we believe the voices of the culture? If the loudest voices in our daily life aren’t coming from God, what hope do we have to live a life that’s devoted to Him and His kingdom? We all desperately need for God to be the prevailing voice in our life, but in order for that to happen we must create a lifestyle that’s open to the voice of God being a part of our daily habits/rituals.
That could range from intentionally setting a time in the morning away from technology, or other people in your life, where your sole purpose and goal is to simply relax into the goodness of God. A time where you have the space to allow the voice of God to speak to you through prayer and begin to see where His Spirit leads you to grow. This isn’t easy, nor is it a one-time event that will cure all of your hurts or answer all of your questions, but a lifetime spent sitting in the presence of God will have an eternal impact on not just you, but the part of the kingdom that God has entrusted to you.
PRAYER
God, please be near. Would you remind me that when my heart starts to falter and forget who you are, that you are good and better than anything the world could ever give to me? God, would you remind me that this world is under your reign and rule, and that while my service is a good and right thing, you are the one in control of it all? I so desperately want to feel needed, yet at the same time know how incapable I am of even controlling what happens in my own life. So God I ask one thing and one thing only, would you be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Moses and the other Fathers and Mothers of the faith who were able to witness what it's like for your presence and your voice to truly make a difference in this world? May your voice continue to be the loudest even in the darkest of days. It is by the power of your Holy Spirit that I pray, amen.