Journey into Lightl

One lazy Sunday afternoon, several years ago, I spontaneously sat alone in the backyard doing nothing. This felt weird because I usually have an agenda for everything I do.

At first, my thoughts were crowded with current events and problems. But as time passed, thoughts from deep within began to surface.

At times, I would pray about my thoughts. At other times, I would just listen to them.

At the end of an hour, I felt refreshed and renewed. I also had a better perspective on my life. I sensed that I had connected to God in a deep way.

I liked the experience enough to repeat it on a regular basis. I called them “veg times.” I sat like a vegetable and let God bring to mind whatever he wanted. When I got to seminary, I learned that I had been practicing the ancient discipline of silence.

Why would you want to practice silence?

One reason is that silence helps us to receive God’s help and guidance. We learn to “ceasing striving and know that [God] is God”  (Psalm 46:10). We learn that God is the one who makes things happen, and not we.

Another reason for silence is to know ourselves better. God often reveals what our thoughts and feelings are deep within. This helps us know our need for him.

We also gain a better perspective of how special and loved we are to him. We would never fully realize our great worth, acceptance and being loved if we did not take a break once in awhile from trying to earn these things. Keeping busy all the time can doom us to the rat race of trying to impress and perform our way into being loved and special.

In silence, we can better receive them as gifts from God.

God promises, “in quietness and trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). Silence is a good way for us to learn to allow God to help us fight our battles.

So, how do we do silence?

We need to look to the Holy Spirit to lead the way (Psalm 139:23-24). Thoughts from our heart will often surface. We need the Holy Spirit to help us sort out our thoughts coming from our heart. “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick, who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

The Holy Spirit helps us to determine which thoughts are from God and which are not. Some of our thoughts could be from Satan or from ourselves.

One big way we can know God’s voice is to determine if what we hear is biblical. God never speaks contrary to what he says in the Bible.

We also need to work hard at silence. “Be diligent to enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:11). It may drive us crazy at first. We feel like we are wasting our time and need to get busy. Satan will bring a million things to mind of what we should be doing.

Yet, we need to persevere. Through silence we can learn to better listen to God and to receive from him. Through silence we can grow in our dependence on God making life happen in and through us. And through silence our love relationship with him can deepen.