All right , friends . Today's topic is why Christians struggle with silence and solitude .
Speaker 3Because they know you .
Speaker 1I give no unrest , do I ? It's something that when we look back , I think in church history , at least in the writings of men of old , it was something that was emphasized . It was almost kind of a given you wait on God . It was almost kind of a given you wait on God . I mean , you look at the journals of some of the greats and they were filled with indicators that they sat with the Lord , they waited on the Lord . And it's difficult , I mean , I'm guilty . I have a hard time sitting in solitude . I've had to discipline myself to be consistent in prayer . I have accountability . I have a brother and I . We text each other prayer hands every day after we've spent time in solitude and in prayer , because there's just something about FOMO , right , the fear of missing out . That's why I love reading on planes , fomo .
Speaker 4I've never heard that Fear of missing out . No , I fell , as I've missed out all these years .
Speaker 1They haven't told me Fear of missing out . It's something that we , as believers , must get back to , I think , to have walks with God that bear that depth and that richness .
Speaker 4Silence is golden . So we're talking about something that's totally unnatural for human beings , because you put any human being into solitary confinement , often they go insane .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 4Because they so need fellowship . We've got fellowship with God . We're talking about silence and how important it
is . It's something we should appreciate , and I didn't really appreciate the fact that I can actually have silence until I met a lady many years ago . She was an elderly lady . She was standing on a sidewalk and a guy started his motorbike and it wasn't a Japanese motorbike , it was American , which means it was very , very loud . It burst her eardrum and she spent the rest of her life with screaming in her ear .
Speaker 124 hours a day .
Speaker 4Every time I met her , she just said it's still there , it's still there . It's driving me crazy . So we shouldn't be afraid of silence , but be thankful that we can have silence . Just get someone to be with the Lord . When we talk about waiting on God , what do you get from waiting on God ? Easy ?
Speaker 1Well , I think your strength gets renewed , like the word talks about .
Speaker 4The wings as eagles .
Speaker 1Yeah , you get revived , you get perspective , you get healing . Like Oscar was talking about confronting those things that you just don't want to confront , to let the Spirit convict you and put His finger on things in your heart and in your mind .
Speaker 4We talk about God speaking to us through His Word , but do you hear the voice of God when you're waiting on Him ? Is there a time when you hear God speaking to you ? I don't mean audibly , but just about things in your life .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean , I think , conviction through the Spirit , you know not , yeah , like you're saying , not in an audible way or in a way where it's like revelation , but yeah , just , I think the Lord does it through natural means , as we're seeking him , as he brings things back to mind and heart and gives us , you know , thoughts and ideas that relate to our lives . Silence is nothing else but waiting for God's Word and coming from God's Word with a blessing . Wow , yeah , sitting and waiting . You know I love the incorporating of Scripture in prayer . In our times of Salted Oscar , that's a big part of a lot of worship traditions , where scripture is incorporated into worship .
Speaker 4It's done every day by millions through the Lord's Prayer .
Speaker 1Yeah that's true .
Speaker 3Right , Oscar . Yeah , that actually brings it back to the question that you asked earlier , which is practical steps . What do we do ?
Speaker 3And I think it's important to recognize there's a difference . Right now , one of the most downloaded apps of 2022 , I think was the mindfulness
app , which is more Eastern view of silence and solitude . So there's definitely a desire , a secular desire , out there . Nowadays , if you buy an Apple watch , it's got like a breathing mindfulness app built into it , so everybody's looking for this . So then it begs the question what does silence and solitude in a worshipful way ? How does that sound different than just mindfulness ? The practice of mindfulness that's more rooted in Eastern traditions .
Speaker 3Right , and I think we've talked about this too which is to empty your mind , is mindfulness , but silence and solitude before the Lord . There's a next step to that . It's not about being alone , it's about being with God . You empty your mind from all of the external distractions phones , internal distractions , the thoughts that are in your own mind and then you fill it up with the thoughts of God . And one of the practical ways we can do that is , just before entering into that silence and solitude , either spending time in God's word or spending time praying through God's word , praying through the Psalms , praying through anywhere in the New and the Old Testament . To turn God's words into your prayer words is a great way to prepare yourself to sit in the presence of the Almighty
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Speaker 2Opening . You know , if somebody says I don't know what to pray , pray in the Word of God . I mean almost any text you come across you can pray in . You come across something like Judas went and hung himself and you go . Lord , help me not to ever get to that place where I feel like my only avenue of escape is to go do that dastardly deed right . It doesn't matter what text it is , you can pray in the text and you can be focused . I did this kind of unusual exercise today on the way to work , where I was thinking Imagine if the Lord granted me the ability to pray anything I wanted to pray from the moment I left my house to 30 minutes later I'm at work . And he was going to say yes to everything .
Speaker 2I'm about ready to pray , wow , and I consumed my mind and my thought with this could be my very last day , my last opportunity to pray , and I found myself so focused on my prayers and careful with what I was praying . It's like somebody says give me $100 million , you'll see what I'll be able to do . Careful what you pray , right , don't say anything . I know Ray wants to buy tracks for the whole world , but the idea of what we're praying , that we have the bent ear of God when we talk to God , that we have the bent ear of God when we talk to God , you can't get that in the midst of the commotion . Right , silence your commotion because God's not going to compete with your commotion .
Speaker 4And I was looking at Psalm 62 , verses 1 and 5 . Truly , my soul waits , silently waits for God . From him comes my salvation . So if anything should make us wait silently on God , is meditation on the fact that God brought salvation to us , salvation from death , expressed his love through the cross . That should keep us silent . Yeah , this is what Samuel Chadwick said . The soul , isn't it great . I hope you enjoyed that . The soul is never less alone than when it's alone with God , isn't ?
Speaker 4that good , that's deep , oh , less alone Never less alone , never less alone than when it's with God . In other words , you're not alone when you're with God ever .
Speaker 2Richard Baxter the Puritan , the theologian . He said Noise is not strength . A still and quiet Christian is often the strongest Spurgeon , he said . There is no better cure for the soul than to be alone with God , and solitude is not an absence of something but a presence of someone .
Speaker 3There's an addictive behavior in every single one of us , and when you
start this new spiritual practice , it's going to be hard , it's not gonna . The fruitfulness of the reward is it might not be instantaneous , but the reality is it reminds me of what Augustine said , which is that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you , god . And so what , ultimately , we in the Lord mostly are inviting you to is to find the rest that your soul is desperately seeking , and that is something that is just . It's going to take time for you to understand Amen .
Speaker 1You go to like bare minimum , right , Bare minimum . What you need right now is accountability , which means , if you're convicted by this right now solitude with God , shutting out the noise , sitting with the Lord you must communicate about this with someone right now . So that's your first step . I'm gonna talk to a brother , I'm gonna talk to a sister , I'm gonna talk to my wife , my husband , and I'm gonna say I have this problem and I want to get it right . Will you please hold me accountable ? And then , from there , what you do is with that person , you chart a course Again , just like this brother and I .
Speaker 1For six months now almost , we have had a commitment to send each other prayer hands every time we finish our prayer time , and it's become a routine and it's beautiful . So we established an accountability mechanism . So do that and then , from there , begin to weed out the things that distract you , Identify them Again . It's not about getting rid of your phone altogether . It's about how do I not let my phone control me , how do I not let social media control me ? How do I not let work control me ? For those of you workaholics out there , you must put the priorities in order . Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights from the Living Waters podcast
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