Read 1 Kings 19:1-18.
4. Record any thoughts that you have from this passage
5. Listen to hear the ‘still small voice of God’.
6. Write out a prayer that expresses your desires as you identify with Elijah.
7. Conclude your time by sitting in silence for five minutes and then
give thanks to God for his presence in your life.
Day 2. To be Renewed Physically and Spiritually
All of us need to be renewed inwardly and outwardly on a regular basis. In the creation story God rested on the seventh day and gave the command that we are to do the same. In other words God did not intend that we keep going day after day but that we need periods of rest and renewal on a regular basis.
Jesus understood this concept and taught it to his closest followers. In one account in the Gospels, Jesus and his disciples were ministering to the crowd and were so busy they did not even have time to eat lunch. Finally he said to the disciples they needed to have a break. “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while” (Mark 6:31)
Many are caught up in a lifestyle of busyness. We have no time to rest. Even our weekends are filled with feverish activity and we wonder why we are so stressed out. We need to have regular periods of silence and solitude to renew our body and soul.
Henri Nouwen who was a busy academic had a six-month sabbatical at Genesee Abbey in New York. During that time he wrote about his experiences and the apparent paradoxes in the search for silence and solitude.
“While complaining about too many demands, I felt uneasy when none were made. While speaking about the burden of letter writing, an empty mailbox made me sad. While fretting about tiring lecture tours, I felt disappointed when there were no invitations. While speaking nostalgically about an empty desk, I feared the day when that would come true. In short: while desiring to be alone, I was frightened of being alone. The more I became aware of these paradoxes, the more I had indeed fallen in love with my own compulsions and illusions, and how much I needed to step back and wonder, “Is there a quiet stream underneath my fluctuating affirmations and rejections of my little world? Is there a still point where my life is anchored and from which I can reach out with hope and courage and confidence?’ (4)
Exercise
1. Take some time this week to look at your schedule. Do you regularly take time for rest and renewal? When did you do it last? What did you do? When you take time to rest and be renewed do you feel guilty?
2. Read Mark.6:30-56. What do you discover about Jesus as he ministers to people? How would you describe His approach to ministry?
3. Make a plan this week to take some time off. What will you do? When will you do it? When you have completed this exercise take a few moments to reflect upon your experience.
4. Will you make this a regular experience?
Day 3. To Learn to Trust God
Most people like things to happen quickly and according to their timetable. And most often we are in a hurry. Dr. Archibald Hart a Christian psychologist suggests that our culture suffers from ‘the hurry up sickness’.
John Ortburg states: “we will buy anything that promises to help us hurry. The best selling shampoo in America rose to the top because it combines shampoo and conditioned in one step, eliminating the need for all the time consuming rinsing people used to have to do…”
He goes on to say, “we worship at the shrine of the Golden Arches, not because they sell ‘good food’ or even ‘cheap food’. But because it is ‘fast food’. Even after fast food was introduced, people still had to park their cars, go inside, order, and take their food to a table, all of which took time. So we invented the Drive – Thro Lane to enable families to eat in their vans as nature intended.” (5)
When things don’t work out the way we hoped or expected we want to get busy and try to fix it. Sometimes we become anxious and upset. As long as we are busy doing something there is the feeling that it will work out because we are working it out. Perhaps we are just going around in circles.
Coming before God and waiting upon him in silence and solitude is really an act of trust that God in his sovereign way will act in his time. David the Psalmist states “My soul waits in silence for God only; from Him is my salvation. He is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken….My soul waits in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He is my only rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken…. Trust in him at all times O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge” (Ps.62:1-2; 5-6.; 8).
Exercise
1. Slowly read Psalm. 62
2. Having read the text sit in silence before God.
3. Write in your journal any thoughts that come from the reading.
4. What does it mean for you to trust in God as you contemplate your situation in life today?
Is it difficult for you to leave this with God?
What do you think He wants you to do?
5. Read Philippians. 4:6-7. Write a prayer that applies this truth to your life.
6. Memorize Philippians4:6-7 and recall it during the day especially when you become anxious.
Day 4. To Develop Sensitivity Toward Others
When we are constantly with others it can become extremely demanding and draining upon us. Regularly we hear of people suffering from ‘burn out’. This is a place where we are drained and we feel we have nothing more to give. We are emotionally ‘flat lined’. In silence and solitude we can be renewed physically, emotionally and spiritually so that we can go back into the mainstream of life and minister ‘in the name of Jesus’. Most will not be called to live a life of separation from society; we are called to live in community, but this is a demanding place simply because people are demanding.
As we spend time alone with God, He will renew us and enable us to minister to others with the same tenderness and compassion He showed. Without this time of renewal we have a tendency to become ‘weary in well doing’, and begin to resent the demands people make on us. When Jesus saw the needs of the people He always showed compassion toward them, for He saw them as ‘sheep without a shepherd’.
Thomas Merton stated, “solitude is not turning one’s back on the world; it is turning one’s face toward God”.(6) When we do this we have a different attitude toward people. We start to listen to them, to be less judgmental of them, and to be fully present with them.
Exercise
1. Take five minutes as you enter into silence to repeat the ‘Jesus Prayer’ “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner’.
2. Having prayed this prayer take another five minutes to allow the meaning of the prayer to resonate with your soul. What does the mercy
