Be Still: Embracing Silence and Solitude with God

Noise is not neutral. Hear me today. Whatever fills your attention will shape your affection. If noise is forming us, silence must reform us. So what do I mean when I say silence and solitude? Let's get a working definition for this series. Silence and solitude is intentional time in the quiet to be alone with ourselves and God. One more time for the people in the back. Silence and solitude is intentional time in the quiet to be alone with ourselves and God. [00:26:01] (46 seconds)  #IntentionalSolitude

Solitude is what happens when silence creates space. Now let's be clear. Solitude is not loneliness. There's a difference. Loneliness is inner emptiness. That's why you could be in a crowd full of people and still be lonely. Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fullness. Solitude is chosen separation for the refining of your soul. Isolation is what happens when you crave and neglect the first. When you neglect the solitude, you generally move towards isolation. And here today, this is not about personality. [00:30:18] (47 seconds)  #SolitudeNotLoneliness

Because if the son of God needed silence and solitude, what makes us think that we don't? And so for the next several weeks, we're going to recover it. I'm a give you practical tools of how you can do it. Because silence and solitude is not weakness, it's strength. Silence and solitude is not retreat. Silence is formation in a world addicted to noise. Choosing the silence and the quiet might be the most brave thing you do. [00:39:43] (37 seconds)  #SilenceIsStrength

The voice of my father was inside the noise. The problem wasn't distance. It was noise. I wonder what your heavenly father is speaking over you right now that you can't hear because your life is too noisy. Over the next four weeks, we're gonna learn how to quiet the noise. And hear me, you don't gotta wait till next Sunday. You can start tomorrow morning. Can I show you a move when you wake up in the morning? Don't let this be the first thing. If you gotta put your phone in another room, Can you wake up and start with silence and solitude? [00:44:21] (72 seconds)  #StartWithSilence

God does not shepherd us through frenzy. He leads us through stillness. I love what that profound thinker who writes so much on spiritual formation and solitude here in Nauwon says. He says, without solitude, it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life. We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and listen to him. [00:17:49] (29 seconds)  #SolitudeIsEssential

When you are truly alone by yourself, it is a scary thing. Maybe you've never experienced it because you always got your phone in your hand, but if you ever have a moment to truly be alone with you and nobody else, it can be scary. It can be haunting because you don't have anything to distract you from you. Maybe that's why the mathematician mathematician and French philosopher Blaise Pascal said that all of humanity's problems stems from man's inability to sit quiet in a room alone with the silence, with the solitude. [00:04:19] (42 seconds)  #FaceYourselfInSilence

However, if you're ever gonna grow and be mature, maturity knows when to shout loud in a crowd and when to be still. Maturity knows when it's time to come together and when it's time to retreat and get in solitude and silence so that God can do deep work on the inside of us. So today, we're just beginning this journey. It's gonna be a four week series. I'm gonna challenge you not to miss a week. [00:07:11] (33 seconds)  #MatureThroughSolitude

God has always met his people and done his deepest work in stillness. It was in solace and silence and solitude that Moses encountered God on the backside of a mountain. And all of a sudden, there he is. And he takes time to notice a bush that is burning but isn't consumed. And he takes off his sandals on holy ground, and God did his deep work in silence and solitude. [00:16:46] (27 seconds)  #EncounterInStillness