{"id":4763,"date":"2017-11-06T11:01:49","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T17:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=4763"},"modified":"2017-11-06T11:01:49","modified_gmt":"2017-11-06T17:01:49","slug":"dont-run-from-the-stillness-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2017\/11\/dont-run-from-the-stillness-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Run from the Stillness of God"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When was the last time you were totally and intimately silent? Even now, if you stop reading this, chances are sky high it won\u2019t be silent. You\u2019ll hear your fan or heater, or kids if you\u2019re at home. You\u2019ll hear the buzz of conversation in the coffee shop.
\nBut as we\u2019re about to see, it\u2019s in silence we meet God .\u00a0.\u00a0. and in silence God meets our need for intimacy.<\/strong>
\nBe still. That\u2019s what God tells us. Be still and know. Isn\u2019t that fascinating?
\nGod doesn\u2019t say, \u201cBe still and hope that I am God.\u201d Or \u201cBe still and try to convince yourself that I am God.\u201d
\nIn stillness we know God is God.<\/strong>
\nAnd that\u2019s the knowledge that leads to true intimacy.
\nGod\u2019s Word shows us over and over that God is found in stillness.
\nUs, though? We\u2019re people who live with a near total lack of silence, a near total lack of stillness and solitude and rest. So is it any wonder we struggle to know that God is God?
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\nConsider how different Jesus\u2019 life was from our connected, hectic, frantic lives. This is a man who spent forty days alone in the wilderness. His phone didn\u2019t get any reception, of course, and neither did his tablet.[1]<\/a>
\nIn all seriousness, Jesus spent a ton of time alone, in silence. A quick but not exhaustive list of times he sought out stillness: forty days in the desert;[2]<\/a> after hearing about his friend, John the Baptist, being killed;[3]<\/a> after miraculously feeding thousands;[4]<\/a> after healing many individuals;[5]<\/a> and before he was arrested.[6]<\/a> He sometimes avoided\u2014or even ran from\u2014crowds. He spent nights outside by himself. He rose before dawn. Over and over he sought solitude.
\nWhy? Because that was where he found his Father. That\u2019s where he met God.
\nIf Jesus needed to seek solitude and stillness and silence, then we definitely do.<\/strong> I don\u2019t care how hectic life in the ancient Near East was, things are way crazier for us.[7]<\/a>
\nAnd Jesus wasn\u2019t the only person in the Bible to seek out quietude. Paul went into the Arabian wilderness. Moses tended sheep for years in the desert before returning to Pharaoh\u2019s court. Gideon met the Lord while he was alone in a cave. Jacob slept outside by a stream at Bethel with a rock pillow. When we read our Bibles, we see that God seems to communicate most clearly<\/strong> in times of solitude and stillness.
\nIt\u2019s still that way today.
\nRecently a man at church shared this story with me. He had been on a hunting trip by himself, and on that Sunday morning he climbed to the top of a nearby peak. He wanted to be alone, in silence. What he didn\u2019t know was that at the same time, his wife was at church, praying for him.<\/p>\n

Know what happened on that mountaintop? He met God in a new and special way. God spoke to him about his life and his marriage. The very things his wife was praying for, the true and living God was speaking to him. And he wept and worshiped. He told me he took Communion up there, with trail mix and his canteen.
\nIn that mountaintop stillness, he knew God was God. That intimacy changed him.<\/p>\n

Gentle Whisper<\/h4>\n

If you\u2019ve hung around church before, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019ve heard someone talk about the \u201cstill small voice\u201d of God. This is from 1 Kings:11-13. However we translate it, the emphasis is on God upending our expectations about where he can be found.
\nWe simply cannot learn the art of living if we are unable to find personal places of stillness, because it is only in that stillness that we can hear the whisper of God.<\/strong>
\nBy the way, this stillness and silence we\u2019re talking about has nothing to do with whether we\u2019re introverts or extroverts. If you\u2019re an introvert, you\u2019ve been nodding along with some of what I\u2019m saying. Like, I totally relate to hearing from God in the silence\u2014preach it! But this intimate solitude is for everyone who wants to follow Jesus. With me being an extrovert, I need to hear this message repeatedly. My wife will sometimes look for me after the kids are in bed, and she\u2019ll find me downstairs on the couch. I\u2019ll have the TV on an old episode of Criminal Minds, music playing in the background, and a book open on my Kindle\u2014and I\u2019m also playing bass. The more noise and sound, the better.
\nStillness is not my sweet spot.
\nBut as much as I realize that doing everything at once brings me a certain amount of happiness, and as much as I enjoy multi-multitasking, I also realize that those are rarely the times I hear the voice of God.
\nWe\u2014introverts and extroverts alike\u2014are good at seeking intimacy in almost every place except the still, small voice of God.<\/strong> That\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to tune into, rather than the wind, the earthquake, and the fire.<\/p>\n

Think about the order of creation. Land, water, plants, animals .\u00a0.\u00a0. and on the sixth day, humans. That means the first thing humans experienced was rest. Why? To remind us\u2014then, now, forever\u2014that we are created beings, that we aren\u2019t designed to always be working, because God is the one who works according to his perfect will and love<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Click the book to read chapter 1 for free .<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That seems backward to a lot of us. We run from stillness, in part, because we\u2019re trying to earn God\u2019s favor. We want to do the work before <\/span>we come to God. We hope to pay God back or give God a good reason to love us. I know God will start loving me once I stop doing this. I know God will start loving me once I finally .\u00a0.\u00a0. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s where stillness comes in. We\u2019re meant <\/span>to rest. And Sabbath rest can only be found in an intimate relationship with Jesus. To understand that we need to dig a little deeper.<\/a><\/p>\n

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You’ve been reading Daniel Fusco’s Upward, Inward, Outward: Love God, Love Yourself, Love Others.<\/em> Daniel is an expert on illustrating how Jesus is at street level with you and me. In this book he unpacks how the greatest commandment Jesus gave us is to be lived out today. We only have one life, so we need to live the most meaningful life possible!<\/p>\n