Have you ever wondered why it is important to sit still, quiet, and alone with God? Have you tried to do it and can not last more than three minutes before life creeps in and your mind starts racing? You are not alone in this, in my opinion silence and solitude is one of the hardest disciplines to master. I believe it is because of the instant gratification of information we can get from the technology that we have in the world right now. Our society is also very fast paced and always on the go. This thought process makes us feel like we do not feel like we have time to sit still and silent before God because of the “millions” of other things that we have to accomplish in a day. But when we look at the bible and the example that Christ gave us or any of the prophets in the Old Testament we see that the way our society wants us to think and move in a fast paced way is not how God designed us when He created us. We need rest, silence, solitude and we need it with Him. In this week’s blog we are going to look at why silence and solitude is important, look at the example that Jesus gave us in the New Testament and look at the example of the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19 in the Old Testament. We will also look at ways we can implement this habit into our day to day lives and why having this in our daily life will help us be women who are more like Christ and who can walk boldly into each of our different callings He has given each of us reading this post. So join me as we work through what this is all about and how we can grow in this spiritual discipline.
Before we jump into scripture let us look into what silence and solitude is and why it is so hard for us to do this. We find this so hard to do in our world today because we have been conditioned to be comfortable in the noise and to video or other distractions. Just think about it when was the last time that you just sat in complete silence? Whether it be in you car while you are driving or in your house. When was the last time you were doing something with no noise going on around you while you did it? We are conditioned to have background noise in all that we do because the world around us is so noisy. Technology is and amazing invitation in our world and it has helped us in so many ways, but it has also given us 24/7 access to music, news, tv, movies, each other, unlimited information at our finger tips, and so much more. In Donald Whitney’s book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life he explains the discipline of silence and solitude by first talking about the discipline of silence, he says it is voluntary and temporary abstention from speaking so that certain spiritual goals might be sought.(pg 224) This silence can be observed while you are reading scripture, praying, journaling, fasting, etc. Whitney says that the discipline of solitude is a voluntary and temporary withdrawing to privacy for a spiritual purpose. This period of solitude can last for a little while or for days. This discipline may be to seek out time to be alone with God or can be practices within other spiritual disciplines, much like silence, such as reading the bible, praying, fast, etc. These two disciplines go hand in hand with each other so they are often put together and talked about at the same time. Silence and solitude also compliments the other disciplines and can improve them as we practice silence and solitude. Silence and solitude are important disciplines because it focuses on the one who is in control and has the power to change things within us, God. It also slows our brains down so that we can rest in who God is and find the peace that only He gives in all circumstances.
We will start with the example that Jesus left us for silence and solitude. There are many examples of Jesus withdrawing from the crowd into silence and being with the Father. The one that we are going to look at today is found in Matthew chapter 14. In this chapter we see John the Baptist get beheaded, Jesus feeds the five thousand, and Jesus walking on water. Starting in verse 13 going through verse 33 we see that after Jesus hears that John the Baptist, his cousin, was beheaded He withdrew from where He was by boat to a remote place to be alone. The crowd found Him again and Jesus had compassion on them and healed the sick. He then feeds all of them with five loaves of bread and two fish. He then sent the disciples ahead of Him from where they were to go to the other side while He dismissed the crowd. Once the crowd was dismissed Jesus went up on a mountain by himself and prayed and He stayed well into the night. We then see a storm come on the disciples and the boat was being battered by the waves. Jesus started going toward them by walking on the water. The disciples were terrified and thought it was a ghost. Peter asked the Jesus to let him walk on the water and he does as long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus he was walking on the water but as soon as he looked away he began to sink and called to Jesus to save him and He did. They then worshipped Jesus and said He was truly the Son of God. We see in these two big miracles that Jesus did in these verses both times He stepped away from the crowds and went to be alone with the Father. It centered Him on the Fathers and the plan He had for Him. It allowed Him to lay his feelings down before the Father and be empowered to do these great signs.
The second example that we are going to look at is that of Elijah in 1 kings 19. Before this chapter in chapter 18 we see Elijah being used by God to prove He is the one true God over baal, by raining down fire on the alter when He was called upon by Elijah. Starting in chapter 19 we see that Jezebel wanted to have Elijah killed for what he did, so he ran and asked God to let him die. God told him to rest and eat because the journey ahead was to far for him if he did not. Elijah did that and when he was ready God lead him to a cave in the mountain alone. He asked Elijah why he was there and his response was that he had been zealous for God but the Israelites had abandoned His covenant, torn down His altars, and killed His prophets and they were trying to kill him now. God then told him to stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD at that moment a great wind was tearing at the mountain and the LORD was not in that wind. Then came an earthquake and then a fire and the LORD was not in either of those. Then a voice that was as soft as a whisper came and Elijah covered his face and went out because he knew it was the LORD. The Lord asked him again what he was doing their and Elijah gave the same answer as he did earlier. After he answered the Lord told him to go back the way he came and along the way he was to anoint Hazel as king over Aram, anoint Jehu as king over Israel, and anoint Elisha as prophet in Elijah’s place. The LORD then told Elijah all of his plans for where he had come from and Elijah did as the LORD commanded him. We see in this account of Elijah’s life he was overcome with fear and frustration at his situation so he was led by the Spirit to a place where he would be alone and quiet so that he could hear the LORD clearly and encounter Him in a very unique and intimate way. We see through this that our time in silence and solitude not only gives us peace and understanding of what God is leading us to do but it also allows us to experience God in a very unique and intimate way that speaks directly to our souls in a way that we can receive it. So if we always stay in the noise there is no room made for God to come in and speak and for us to encounter Him in this way because the noise around us drown it out.
In these times the LORD is able to speak things to us clearly and help us understand what He is doing in the current season of life when it seems hopeless or frustrating at the time. It gives us an opportunity to speak our frustration, anger, sadness, fear, or unbelief to God and allows Him to cover us with His strength and peace to continue on the path He has us on. It gives us those quiet still moments that we see Jesus have so many times throughout the New Testament throughout His ministry on earth to just be still and be with the Father in prayer and reading of His word. Some practical ways to start strengthening these disciplines is to start out small start with five minutes a day that you sit alone in a quiet place with no distractions focusing on God in prayer, scripture meditation, journaling, or just sitting and being still. In these five minutes try to quiet your mind and focus on the things of the God. a good way to do this is meditating on a passage of scripture as you sit. You could also journal your prayers so that the prayer is the only thing you are focused on. As you pray be sure to keep space open for Him to speak. This will be hard and awkward at first because we have been conditioned to be in noise always, but as the five minutes gets easier go up to 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, then 30 minutes. Go up to the next stage each time you feel you have mastered the one before it. It may take a little while to hear from the Lord clearly because you are still strengthening that muscle but keep on doing it as you grow. Also He may not answer you in that moment of silence and solitude but it may be later in the day while you are working, or cooking, or driving, or cleaning the house but He will speak and He will make Himself known to you. I like to think of this as opening the conversation with God for the entire day to be in communion with Him throughout all that you do in each day. I would encourage you to do this when you wake up before you start the day and then at the end of the day spend time with thanksgiving and worship of all the things He did in that day to close out your conversation with Him as you go to sleep.
I hope this post helped you and challenged you to start doing this if you are not doing it already. Next week we are going to take a break from the spiritual disciplines series and look at the life of Ruth and break down how she obediently followed God and how women in her life encouraged her and taught her what she needed to do as she followed God. If you have any questions about today’s blog feel free to reach out to me here or on either Instagram or Facebook under Becoming Titus 2 Women. I would love to talk with you more about this or anything else you would like to talk about! The links to my social media pages are below.
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