Quiet

Shhh. Can you hear that? Neither can I! It's quiet, except for the whirring of some fans.

My husband is at work, my oldest son is on a backpacking trip and my youngest is on the computer with headphones. This level of quiet is unfortunately a rarity in my household.

So, this morning I am pondering why I (and I assume others) try to fill the silence with unnecessary noise.

So, it is with my relationship with God; it shouldn't be filled with extraneous noise. Nonetheless, I choose the noise more often than I'd like to admit. I turn on music, log on to Facebook, and find a myriad of ways to distract myself. Quiet can be uncomfortable; being quiet is a discipline that takes practice.

I remember an assignment I had in a interpersonal communications class. I was paired up with someone and had to listen to that person for 5 whole minutes without saying a word, without interjecting anything. It was so hard. It took concerted effort, but it wasn't impossible.

Time to be quiet before the Lord should be set aside.

set apart.

sanctified.

made holy.

Why is quietness so important? Here are a few reasons:

In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength...

The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever

A woman should learn in quietness

Instead, [your beauty] should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight

Having never been a morning person, I have always struggled to get up while my house was still quiet to seek the Lord uninterrupted. This, I'm coming to learn, is so paramount to my walk. It's more important than sleep or schedules. It should be like air to me.

So I start out small, like a mustard seed (can I get in 10 minutes?) and ask God to grow it and He does! Sure, I have off days, but nothing compares to sitting at the feet of Jesus as He shows me how to be still and know that He is God.

Do you have 10 minutes today for the One who offers you eternity?

Surrender

Surrender. This has been an over-arching theme in my life; the strands of which have been woven through books, scripture, Bible studies, women's retreat, video series, worship, sermons, spoken sentiments and so on.

Have you ever had the feeling like God was trying desperately to communicate with you, and moreover wanted your complete attention?

Unlike an exhausted mother's smile, head nods and occasional 'uh-huhs' directed toward a child who seeks her undivided attention, God isn't fooled by our meager attempts of going through the motions. Case in point, Isaiah 29:13:

And so the Lord says,“These people say they are mine.

They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.

Ouch! If I am being at all honest, I have to admit that I was convicted by this scripture. How many times has this been true in my life? How many times have I become distracted and taken my eyes off of Jesus only to settle for the less-than of this world?

Yet, all of my inadequacies cannot erase this simple truth:

I. am. His.

So, what does the God of the Universe want?

EVERYTHING. All that I am.

And how is this accomplished? By willingly surrendering all of ourselves to Him daily, until the habit takes root in our lives and hearts, then we surrender some more!

One of the biggest hurdles to completely surrendering ourselves to Christ is fear (I'm not talking about fear of the Lord here). Fear, when given a foothold in our lives, squashes our hope and weakens our faith.

Another way fear is so debilitating is when we forget God's favor. A story that illustrates this beautifully is found in Exodus 15. The Israelites were just rescued from slavery and witnessed God's power firsthand with the parting of the Red Sea. Shortly thereafter as they were in the Desert of Shur, they couldn't find water. When they finally arrived at Marah, they couldn't drink the water because it was bitter.

Did they trust in the Most High God? No! They complained. God showed Moses a piece of wood and turned the water sweet. Here's the ironic part: Marah was next to Elim, an oasis with twelve springs and 70 palm trees!

How many times have I been so caught up in bitterness that I have missed the 'Elims' God had for me?

So, in this season, God is teaching me to:

Reflect (forgetting God's favor leads to paralyzing fear and lack of faith)

Exalt (I will exalt God, my strength and salvation)

Surrender (it's an ongoing practice of willingly giving myself over)

Trust (I will trust Him in all circumstances, even if that means having to do things afraid)

Did you catch the acrostic above? I just did.

REST.

Yes, God desires to give us rest. You see, the more that we give, we are given infinitely more!

For the Lord your God is living among you.
He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness.
With his love, he will calm all your fears.
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

~Zephaniah 3:17

**This blog post is lovingly dedicated to my sweet kindred spirit, Amy, whom encouraged me to keep writing. xo