Being Quiet

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Waiting, resting and quietly waiting for God may seem alien in our society but so necessary to be able to hear God and move with him. I have been challenged by Doctor Howard Morgan (from the States who is visiting the UK at present) to spend a day not saying anything.

I’ve decided to take up the challenge of having a partial day in silence with notebook and Bible to hand and see what transpires. Even though we have all our gadgets and media stuff, the still small voice of God needs to be heard if, as Christians, we are to be effective.

I’m aware that Moses spent a lot of time alone with God – two lots of 40 days at least.  He had no notebook or Bible and yet the presence of God must have been tangible and very fulfilling to him.  Jesus Christ, of course, spent 40 days in the wilderness before he set out on the ministry that his Father had called him to do. He was filled with the Spirit before going there and came out in the power of the Holy Spirit. This enabled him to do all the miracles and wonderful deeds that we know about from the 4 Gospels of the Bible. John says at the end of his gospel that these accounts were just a bit of what he did and all the books in the world couldn’t contain what Jesus did in entirety.

Amongst all the hustle and bustle of this world, let’s give God time to speak and communicate with us ordinary people who have an extraordinary God who was able to part seas, burn up a soaking wet altar, raise people from the dead, rescue a man from lions, protect some young men from fire, and cause a huge wide city wall to collapse just by his people obeying him by walking (silently) and then blowing trumpets and shouting.  It all sounds so foolish but then God takes the foolish things of this world and surprises the so called wise people with what God can do!

Let’s continue to honour God with our lives laid down so that whatever he wants to do with us we’ll say ‘yes’ and not argue or make excuses.  We only have one life to lead on this planet – let’s simply be available to the Highest!