April 23
In Stillness We Find Power
“…that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and dignity/.”
I Timothy 2:2
How God longs to have extended periods of silence in our lives where He can bring us to the place of sensitivity to His voice. The noise of life has a way of desensitizing us to His small still voice that simply cannot be heard above the clutter and clamor of our hurried lives. The deepness of God’s love the busy soul will never know because it has missed the beauty and power of silence and necessary solitude with God. The Psalmist wrote “Be still and know that I am God…” (Psalm 46:10) (KJV). It’s been said that “solitude is the furnace of transformation”. I love Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of this verse,
“step out of the traffic!
Take a long, loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything”
(The Message).
In his book, the way of the Heart, Henri J.M. Nouwen writes, “silence makes us pilgrims… it guards the fire within our souls”. Hurried lives extinguish the spiritual fire of the heart determined to follow God. Our world is a living breathing advertisement of activity. We are bombarded with it everywhere; along the roadside, on the billboards, the radios, I-Phones, Smart Phones, Televisions, Texts, Pod-Casts, Emails, Face Book, Yahoo, Google and more! We live “quiet challenged” every day of our life. With this challenge, God often has to slow us down and at times even bring our lives to a complete halt just to silence the noise enough that we can hear Him and feel that ever so slight nudging of His Spirit within us. It’s His way of covering our ears from those things that are competing for His attention. But what would it take for you, for me, to hear from God at this point in our lives? Have you ever pondered this thought, precious student? What would it take for you to be put in a position where God had your complete and undivided attention?
Silence and solitude is the fire and passion that is missing in Christendom today. We are so busy that we have drowned out the very voice of God and because of it we have become blind to the spiritual condition of the times we are now living in.. After all, we are too busy trying to stay afloat with the demands of our own lives. So how can we be concerned about anyone else? What we fail to realize is that the spiritual condition of others is not the only reality we are missing. Our own spiritual condition is not known either. If we are blind to the times we live in, we are blind to our life in the times as well. But this is not the heart of God for us. He demands a higher standard than this for His children.
Our pursuits shape our character.
Pearls of Grace is a book of devotions for the entire year, including a read through the Bible in a year calendar, broken down for every day. Beautifully written with encouraging words of hope and empowering words of joy and strength for every woman. Pam draws from the truth and richness of God's Word and gives real life examples in her down to earth style. A must have in your library, click here for more information.
For more from Pam Jenkins and Jabbok Ministries, please visit www.jabbokministries.com!
Listen to Pam Jenkins's daily broadcast on OnePlace.com.
