For my VCC friends, here are the extended notes from my November 13 message.
1. “I just need some peace and quiet!” Yes, you do…probably more than you know.
2. Think how noisy our world is. Is this a good thing???
3. People in Bible times had at least two important things we don’t have anymore: a quiet environment and a slower pace of life. Think about the implications of that!
4. Some compelling statistics.
· Research now shows us that noise can affect our sleep, our hearts, and even our children's ability to learn. Our bodies were not designed to live under a constant assault of noise.
· Research also shows that our brains need time to process information. A constant stream of information without time to process it is the norm today, but we were not created to live that way! This means that we can listen to sermons, read Scripture, attend Bible studies, and consume endless amounts of Christian teaching. But if we never stop to reflect, ponder, pray, and respond, how can it shape us? Think about how many times the Bible talks about meditation.
· Bottom line is noise is bad, quiet is good. But I wonder if there's an even greater cost to noise that science cannot measure. What happens to our capacity to build a relationship with God and hear His voice when we have forgotten how to be quiet?
5. How important is it to have “peace and quiet” (outside and inside of us)? Do you want to live in peace and quiet? Living with inner stillness is a key. Here are a few thoughts on how to reach inner stillness and maintain peace and quiet within, despite the noisy world outside.
Note: these are practices, not 8 easy steps! They are disciplines that take time to fully take root in our lives!
Believe that it's possible to learn to quiet your soul. My pursuit of inner stillness grew out of an increasing desire for intimacy with Papa. I couldn't hear God’s voice due to all the internal noise in me due to my driven nature. But the persistent pursuit of stillness made it a reality even for me. If a driven person like me can attain consistent inner stillness, then so can you.
Begin with humility and come like a child like David does in Psalm 131. "My heart is not proud, O Yahweh. My eyes aren't prideful. I don't concern myself with lofty matters or try to figure out things that are too complicated for me. Instead, I have stilled and quieted my soul. Like a young and trusting child is my soul within me. Yes, my soul is like a young and trusting child." (Psalm 131:1-2, TW paraphrase). And remember to come as a son or daughter! Seek to enter God’s Presence as Abba’s child, not like an orphan! Can you sense Him ready to welcome you?
Make a plan: establish time, place, and practices: Jesus had a plan. Luke 5:16 — "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Want to be like Jesus? Jesus didn’t merely find moments of quiet when his schedule permitted. Withdrawal was part of his way of life. So set apart some special time to learn to get quiet inside and protect that time. You may have to put some other things aside to do that. One lady I knew had her quiet time in her bathtub!
Rest and surrender your way into stillness. "Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him." Psalm 62:5 (NIV) Quieting our souls is about relaxing rather than fighting our way into stillness. You may be tempted to try to make or force yourself be still but that does just the opposite! David says, "I have stilled my soul," and then shows us he did so by relaxing his way into an awareness of God as his Father, picturing himself as a little child. Stilling one's soul is about surrender, not effort. It involves a decision to relax and re-surrender things into Papa’s loving hands.
Let Scripture to lead you into stillness. Scripture gives language and power to our desire to enter God's embrace where stillness is found. Psalm 25:1 often finds its way onto my lips as I quiet my soul: "To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. In you I trust, O my God." The picture of lifting up my soul, my life, to Papa tenderly invites me to stillness in a way that draws me in. You will find your own verses draw you in, of course, but feel free to borrow some of mine.
Live the Bible! Filling ourselves with God’s Word and living it out by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit helps to quiet the loud voices of sin and shame! It’s hard to get still when voices of accusation are shouting at us. But if we live our lives set on obeying God because of our love for Him, those voices can be silenced.
Trust your way into stillness. Inner stillness is about relationship, not mind control or new age meditation. I quiet my soul because of my relationship with my totally trustworthy Abba. I quiet my soul to hear my Abba's voice, experience his embrace and honor him with my focused attention. And it's my trust in him that assures me that he is waiting there in the stillness.
Finally, remember that it's a journey, not a project. Learning how to quiet your inner world doesn't happen overnight. You don't learn to still your soul in seven easy, five-minute lessons.
It requires time, lots of it at first. When you first start out, it takes lots of time each time to get your mind to stop whirling. It used to take me over an hour to quiet my mind, but persistence has enabled me to do now that in a few seconds. You can learn that too.
But when you do learn it, “when stillness comes, we become remarkably aware of him and are wrapped in indescribable peace. And our hearing and seeing and worshipping rise to new levels.” (from my book, 30 More Days with Papa, p. 105.)
One more thought: Consider giving others the gift of quiet—a novel thought for Pentecostals. Have you ever been quietly ministering to someone only to be interrupted by loud laughter, shouts, etc.? Sometimes stillness and quiet are a huge gift to others.
Response:
1. Take a moment to create a plan for learning to “quiet your world, quiet your soul” if you don’t already have one.
2. Consider taking a moment to quiet your souls right now. Research shows that even two minutes of genuine quiet has benefits. Try it. You will like it!
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