Alone with God in Silence

The cultural norm of our society is busyness, action, hurriedness, and often chaos. In fact, our society is so bent toward a fast-paced, hectic, rushed lifestyle that being incessantly busy has almost become a status symbol that people sometimes boast about. Solitude and silence breaks the power of stress, anxiety, and haste over our lives. In being alone with God we find meaningful, experiential interaction with Him.

Many people are often uncomfortable with being alone. They ask, “What do I do in solitude?” The answer is “Nothing!” Just be alone with God. A life filled with chaos, worry, and hurry seldom takes time to listen to God. When we tune out God, we ignore His teachings and become disobedient children. The word obedient comes from the Latin word audire, which means to listen. In solitude and silence, we get away from our hectic paced lifestyles, slow down, and allow our spirit to meet with God.

Solitude has many rewards. Peace, focus, reorientation of purpose and goals, self-examination, clarity of mind, and a keen sense of God’s abiding presence are just several of the blessings of solitude. If you are going to build an intimate relationship with God, you are going to have to learn to be alone with Him.

What are some of the blessings one receives by spending time alone with God?

How might God use solitude to transform your soul?

Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 28, 2009 at 11:35 AM

    Bro. Terry
    I really appreciate your comments on Solitude, I have for many years cherished my private time being alone and especially with God. I find the silence of the world out of my mind and ears and just using that time to speak to God in that quiet moment seems to get me back to a much more relaxed mood and positive thinking. When I get really worn down from the rush of everyday life and the frustrations of it I search for a quite place to pray. We all have someone in our lives that we have a special relationship with that we know we can go to to talk with (a safe person) well We all need to remember that God is the ultimate Safe person who will help us thru our everyday life trials. Thanks

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  2. Ryan ConnorAugust 3, 2009 at 5:02 PM

    Great post, Terry!

    By the way, it may be some kind of providence that the same letters in the word SILENT are used to spell LISTEN.

    Check out my blog @ www.northpointechristiancounseling.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousAugust 7, 2009 at 6:05 AM

    Thank you, Terry. I have been blessed by solitude and silence in the past. Their value in relating to God, and in "soul training," is immeasurable. From a practical standpoint, though, I am currently struggling. I have a good job, which is a blessing in today's economic conditions. But it is eroding my once-regular diet of solitude and silence. I have a Blackberry that is to be with me at all times, and the expectation is that when it buzzes, beeps, rings, or otherwise annoys, that I'll respond. And it does these things around the clock. The hours are also long (~60 hours/week) at the office, which means that the normal stuff of life has to be crammed into a shorter amount of time away from the office. While the Blackberry is buzzing. It's getting harder to live without hurry and worry. I feel like I am being robbed of my opportunities to really experience and listen to God in solitude and silence, and even the simple blessing of adequate sleep is rare. Do you have any advice for how to reverse this, or are there others who have faced this and overcome it? Any input is appreciated.
    ss

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  4. TerryAugust 19, 2009 at 10:44 PM

    Steve,

    Whereas your daily routine may have become prohibitive in making time for solitude, perhaps you can alter your times of solitude from a daily occurrence to occasional prolonged periods, like a retreat or three day weekend, or very brief moments like five minutes each hour.

    There is no exact prescription. It doesn't have to be an hour each day. The point is simply to make sure you have times where you are alone with God, and your spirit can really connect with His.

    Love means making time for the one you love, in this case the One you love.

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