Silence
“To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven . . . a time to keep silence and a time to speak.” —Ecclesiastes: 3:1,7
Our world is full of noise - noise around us, and noise made by us. Technology has improved our lives in many ways, but has brought with it much clutter as well. We phone the doctor’s surgery, and we’re played inane, tinkly music while we wait on hold.
Silence can truly be golden. When we make decisions to switch off the smart phone (turning it off for technology sabbaths can be the smartest thing we do with it) enables us to stop, pause, reflect, think, whisper to God.
And we can escape from ourselves - facing our challenges, acknowledging our sins, making wise decisions - by engaging in endless conversations. So called ‘small talk’ can crowd out the possibility of big, good choices.
Jesus punctuated His life with regular times of withdrawal - deliberate social distancing, which enabled not only solitude, but silence. This enabled Him to replenish, to engage with the Father who had sent Him. Rather than dashing into ministry, He retreated to the desert for forty days (Matthew 4:1-11). He shunned the clamouring of the crowds for time alone.
Earlier in this study we saw the importance of taming the tongue (28th July). Giving ourselves to seasons of silence can help in that taming process.
David Mathis:
“We might get alone and be quiet to hear our own internal voice, the murmurs of our soul easily drowned out in noise and crowds. But the most important voice to hear in the silence is God’s. The point of practicing silence as a spiritual discipline is not so we can hear God’s audible voice, but so we can be less distracted, and better hear him speak, with even greater clarity, in his word. Getting away, quiet and alone, is no special grace on its own. But the goal is to create a context for enhancing our hearing from God in his word and responding back to him in prayer. Silence and solitude, then, are not direct means of grace in themselves, but they can grease the skids — like caffeine, sleep, exercise, and singing — for more direct encounters with God in his word and prayer".1
1 https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/take-a-break-from-the-chaos