Recently my husband and I went out to dinner. The restaurant was easy to find, the wait staff were cheerful, and the food was tasty. It was obviously a popular spot to come to as people were crowding in, with some people even lining up outside waiting for a table.
But there was one thing that proved to be a problem. My husband and I couldn’t talk to one another. The noise was just too loud! So we decided to forego dessert and found a quieter place to spend the rest of our evening.
It made me wonder if we have overlooked the importance of being in the quiet? “A quiet place affords sanctuary for the soul, where the difference between right and wrong becomes more readily apparent. It is a place to feel the love that connects all things, large and small, human and not; a place where the presence of a tree can be heard. A quiet place is a place to open up all your senses and come alive” (Psychology today)
Albert Einstein, a man with a brilliant mind said, “the monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.”
We live in a world that explodes with noise. Are there in fact any quiet places left free from the noise of mankind. We are surrounded by so many unnatural noises with our beeping, buzzing, ringing, nudging, devices. We have appliances, such as our refrigerators that hum so constantly that we don’t even notice. Many of us live within earshot of traffic, or other noise generating technology. Many of us have become unaware of how noisy our world actually is until we try to find some quiet space, or attempt to talk and be heard by someone? We’ve grown accustomed to the din.
The same can be said for when we try to sit and spend time quietly with Jesus. Even when we dull down the sounds around us, there is the noise of our busy minds and hearts that can often override the quiet voice of God speaking to us.
Times spent quietly with God can fail because even if we want to, the noise around and within us shouts for attention, and we quickly become distracted. We’ve learnt to hear the voice of the world in the constant chatter and noise; but we learn to hear God’s voice in the quiet.
In the quiet is where God restores our soul. It is in the quietness that we are made strong. He is the one that calls us to be quiet, so that He can bring rest and peace to our busy minds and hearts.
Psalm 23 encourages us to be led to quiet places.
“The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, to guide and to shield me], I shall not want. He lets me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still and quiet waters.
He refreshes and restores my soul (my life);
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
for His name’s sake. (Psalm 23:1-2 Amplified version)
Think about the past 24 hours of your life. How much quiet have you had? What noise in your life keeps you from hearing God’s voice?
Try this challenge – for one week. Spend five minutes each day sitting with Jesus in quiet. Don’t read, petition or recite off your list of thoughts and requests to him. Just sit and absorb the quiet and the time with Him. What might He say when we stop long enough in the quiet to listen?
Let Him restore your soul and bring you strength. For “In quietness and confident trust is your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15)
To help, have a listen to, “In the quiet” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzuHsX4YecY
Prayer: Lord please help me to find you in the quiet. To take the time to still my heart and mind each day, and to just sit with you. In Jesus Name. Amen.