Christian Living

Be Still Be Silent

by Michael Wilmot 
09/30/15
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God, is that you?

Have you had this question as often as I have?  In your daily prayers when you have stopped talking and turned on your ears to hear what God has to say what happens?  Do you hear anything?  Is your mind silent as a tomb or do you experience the extreme of crescendos of chaotic noise?

Going silent, being still is hard work and frankly not always achievable.  We read in Psalm 46:10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”  But how do you reach stillness?

For me it always starts with preparing for prayer.  It is like how an athlete prepares to take the field, but in the opposite way.  Instead of taking on pieces of equipment I need to take things off.  I have to prepare an environment to be still in.  It is quiet and comfortable.  I don’t just leave my phone in another room, I turn it off along with anything else that might chirp or remind me of the matrix.  I might have music playing softly but this too can pull me into noise.  Perhaps the lights are on or dim but it is never dark.

I am physically ready for being still.  I have taken care of the needs of my body so that it can have no excuse to intrude.  I have eaten, visited the restroom, showered and so on.  I am removing the need for anything by meeting those needs ahead of time.  I may have some tea available or not.  There is something comforting and opening for me in holding a warm cup of tea.  This may just be my own quirk but it works for me so I use it.

Finally there is time.  I have set aside more time than I think I will need for this.  I remove the menace of the ticking clock, the next meeting or the task list.  This is perhaps the most important because this might take a while.  The challenge here is not preparing God to speak, it is preparing me to hear.  God speaks constantly.  The transmitter is not broken, it is the receiver that need help.

Prayer starts with reflection and reconciliation with Father.  Seeking His cleansing and healing of my heart and the removal of sin.  There is a measure if guilt, deserved or not, that accumulates with me over time as I live this life.  Perhaps this is a self-inflicted wound, but a wound nonetheless.  I find I cannot reach stillness while these are unresolved.  They stand before me and Father as accusers and resisters.

When it comes time for silence I find it helps me to visually focus on something.  If I am in my home I might use a candle or a stone or a spot on the rug.  If I am outside perhaps a tree or a spot in a flowing stream.  Giving my mind a single something to think about acts like an anchor and prevents random thoughts taking me into brier patches.  It is not easy however and to be honest I fail at this more often that I like to admit.  My brain seems to always be working on so many things that seem exotic and fascinating to me.

When God’s voice comes all other voices will be pushed away. There is, however, one thing that pushes God’s voice out of my head with ease.  Me.  My doubts and fears and rejections of what I hear will pull up walls between us.  There have been isolated times where God breaks those walls when He needs to be heard but this is not common.  I am the maker of the barriers between God’s voice and my ears.

Search the scripture and you will see a refrain repeated, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear!”   Do you want to hear from God?  Reserve time to be still.  Discover how to be silent.  

Listening is hard work.