“Walk in thestreet and chat with your friends, offering yourselves in continuousobedience. Live this present moment,this present hour as you now sit in your seats in utter, utter submission &openness toward Him. Listen outwardly tothese words, but within behind the scenes, in the deeper levels of your liveswhere you are all alone with God loving the eternal one, keep up a silent heart”Spiritual Classics edited by Richard Foster.
This is a beautiful excerpt on living aprayer full life that is dependant on the Holy Spirit and available to yield toobedience. I think today there are manywell meaning Christians who would obey “if the Lord asked them to do something”(that’s what they say) but they live such busy, full lives, that they don’thave any time to stop and hear from the Lord. The only time in the day that thy truly yield to the Lord is during a(usually short) devotional reading or prayer time (that often get’s pushed asideor shortened for the sake of “important” activities or work) or the weekly‘alter-call’ made by the preacher each Sunday and those are usually onlyresponded by the ‘brave’ ones willing to ‘risk’ the possible ensuing embarrassmentor judging by stepping out and publically admitting that they are not supperhuman(or at least the fear of it). Isanyone willing to “be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10
There is anamazing thing that happens when we become silent before Him. There is a Holy submission that happens whenwe truly stop before Him the Lord – there is an awkward place at first, muchlike the silent times in our human to human relationships but as time passesand we grow to love one another more deeply the silence is not awkward or filledwith the fear of the unknown. Silencebefore the Lord has an addictive element to it once you begin to develop thediscipline and practice. You long for it– you long for the time when you have the peace that someone else is making thedecision (and making the right one!) and you can trust what is happening. There is a refreshing that comes from the quiet, a reminder thatall the things of this world, this music, talk, technology, it’s all just stuff– all vanity, all fading away, lacking eternal value – a reminder that if it’sall taken away life can still go on!
Silencebefore the Lord is also active and engaging – there is also an on purposeelement, Your mind will wonder –especially at the start – the cares of the world, cares of the day will stillbe on your mind vying for your attention. There will be people to contact, text messages will interrupt, guilt ofunfinished projects will come to visit, suddenly you’ll be hungry – there willbe all kinds of distractions but you must be diligent to focus and push pastthe needless interruptions of the day so that you can encounter the Lord! “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and allthese things will be added” Matt 6:33 Theremust be priority placed on seeking God. Being prayerfully available to God will transform your life – it will bewell worth any sacrifice that you have to make. So start with some silence – quietly open your heart to Him and see howHe wants to work in & though you. Start seeing the value of simple prayers that remind you of youravailability to God and your dependence on Him. All the noise in your life might start making more sense after you havebeen quiet for a while! Being quietalways reminds me that the world goes on fine without me – as I sit quietly atStarbucks and read my Bible, a book and write I am reminded that I am but asingle person – capable of nothing more than what the Lord allows for me toaccomplish and anything outside of that it is subject to my human fallen sinfulnature – I’m capable of nothing good or worthy of praise on my own fruition.(Romans 7:18)
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