Live Like a Champion – Week 40
The Promise of Silence!
Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
Jakob to read Psalm 46.
Today’s promise comes with hard practice and one that is counter-cultural, not just with the broader culture, but with most church cultures. The practice is to be still—to cease and intend your attentions to the Lord’s presence! This is often called the practice of silence and solitude but allow me to be clear in the Christian faith it is silence and solitude with a focus.
Personally, I have had seasons of glory walking in this promise, but I have also had many seasons of drought because of my struggle to use my set aside times and places of silence and solitude for the intent of attending to the presence of God.
Ultimately, as you may relate, I find it difficult to do the things I know I should do. There is an enemy of our soul who has animated our culture to be against times of experiencing our union with the eternal godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Silence and solitude sound like torture to our souls, not the promised liberation of our souls that God promises them to be!
Here is the hard truth of this promise in today’s frenetic 24/7 culture: The promise of silence requires of us to disconnect from the feeds and all else that has captured our attentions and intentions to experience the rhythm of being still by intending our attention to the presence of God during times of silence and solitude!
We are hyper-connected, yet many of us are lonely; we are over-committed, yet many of us are bored. We love our activism (religious, political, economic, entertainment, etc.), yet our souls languish from the drought and exhaustion of not being still before the Lord. We are too focused on our own important plans and activities to prioritize and protect intentional times of tending to our souls through the promise of being still and knowing that He is God, and that He will be exalted among the nations. We are too busy exalting ourselves and our opinions to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to His own, so we end up tired and burned out (Luke 10:38-42).
Be still = cease striving = practice living in the unforced rhythms of grace found in the easy yoke of Jesus Christ! Listen again to what Pastor Ken reminded us of last week when he taught us the promise of waiting: Jesus’ words from Matthew 11:28-30 (this time from the Message):
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.
Is there a greater sanctifying opportunity for a productive people than to wait upon the Lord?
The purpose of the promise of stillness is to remember that God’s will cannot be thwarted—“I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10b).
God makes Himself known in places of silence and solitude because it is in these times and places that God reveals to us the truth about ourselves and how worried and bothered we are by so many things that we cannot simply rest in His loving embrace and be accepted for who we are and not have to consume or produce, perform or prod, control or manipulate.
Because most of us are in the full time of job of making life work out for ourselves based on our own desires, here is a great experiment: sit in silence for twenty minutes and see what happens to you and where your mind goes. No radio or TV, no background noise, no active study or message, no scheming or planning, just you intending your attention on the presence of God.
Step out of the social media, network news, and talk show “traffic” and stop being seduced by the unceasing discontentment—these are the birth pangs of the Lord’s return so stay focused while there is still time; the Day of His return is imminent so please stop wasting time on lesser things that will fade away with the next news feed or next political agenda item!
Practicing the promise of stillness disciplines your worship of the Sovereign God!
With this promise and its practice set before us in our current historical context, I want to help you by inviting you to take times to be still, just like Jesus did. When you look at the bookends of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus intended His attention on the presence of God: Jesus prayed at His baptism (Luke 3:21) and then immediately went off for a prolonged forty days of silence and solitude in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-2). Jesus gave Himself to the Cross after a time of being still before the Lord, as was His custom, in the Garden of Gethsemane. Listen to Luke 22:39-42,
And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
Here are 4 practical steps to putting into action the promise of silence so that you, too, can pray with Jesus and mean it, “not my will, but Yours be done”:
- PRACTICE INTENTIONAL STILLNESS AT THE BEGINNING AND END OF YOUR DAY!
The practical invitation is for you to begin and end your day with an intentional time of silence and solitude—to be still and know that He is God. This will require of you to plan and protect, to fight against temptation with work, food, and entertainment, and to be wise with your goals for how much you can do in your days and nights, including protecting your sleep patterns.
- PRIORITIZE BEING STILL BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY BIG DECISIONS BY PRACTICING WEEKLY DISCERNMENT!
Praying, which, shockingly for some of us, includes listening for the Lord’s answer, is key to making godly decisions. Don’t ask God to bless your plans; rather, ask God to bless you to be a part of His plans. To discern God’s next steps for your life requires of you to be still before Him and wait upon His will and timeline (Romans 12:1-2).
I encourage you to prioritize a set apart time of silence and solitude once per week (sabbath day exercise) to ask God to reveal to you His good and acceptable and perfect plans for your life for the coming week. This disciplines your flesh to be able to do this at the exciting and scary moments of decision making, because you’ve already made discernment a weekly habit of grace.
- BE STILL AFTER BIG EVENTS BY LEARNING TO RETREAT!
The higher the experience, the more dangerous the fall! The insidious danger for most people is the pride that may unwittingly creep into a person’s heart after the excitement of being used by God to do something big, especially if it is a repeated event. I believe this is one of the reasons we see good and godly people making bad and unbiblical decisions and blowing up marriages, families, and churches. People are burning out on life and godliness; they forget the solution!
It is not enough to give lip service to humility; we must practice and cultivate it through the discipline of silence and solitude. When you believe you are so important or that your work is so important that you are unwilling to cease and be still before God, then the pride has already captured an enemy foothold in your heart and life. Create a rhythm of once per month or once per quarter where you take a day away to cease striving by taking a spiritual retreat day.
- BE STILL WHEN YOU NEED GOD’S MINISTRY IN YOUR OWN LIFE BY CULTIVATING AN AWARENESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!
While we know the importance of community and fellowship; let’s never forget that Jesus modeled for us the ministry of the Holy Spirit in comforting us in times of need. While people are wonderful instruments of God’s grace in our lives, they cannot and should never replace the direct ministry of the Holy Spirit, who is always available to us.
The final practice of silence and solitude is to cultivate your intention to attend to the Holy Spirit by learning to quiet the noise of your heart (emotions and desires) and mind (thoughts and ideas). This yokes with the promise of peace of God which promises to guard your heart and mind with the peace of God that transcends all understanding.
The good news is that I will be taking the next three weeks (October 10, 17, and 24) to teach you about the promise of peace and how to experience it as a follow-up to this message.
In conclusion, as you do these things, you will learn that the practice of silence and solitude helps you cultivate a greater awareness of the Lord’s presence and His peace that is yours through union with Him. Intentionally go to a secluded place and be alone with God and allow Him to heal your soul of loneliness and boredom!
Learn to rest in His presence and then bring His peace into every moment of your life. You will find solitude in a crowded room and silence in the cacophony of culture. You will find rest for your soul, not from the circumstances of your life, but as you walk with Jesus through the circumstances of your life (Isaiah 40:31).