Quiet

Excerpts from Dr. D. V. Adams The Act of Quiet (New Wineskins)

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We live in an energized culture that moves at the blink of think. Adrenaline rush is the drug of choice. The busier we become the happier we think we are. Even without conditioning our lives to live at a rested pace, we will eventually be stopped. It may happen in the form of a failed relationship, a death, legal action, or some other collision course. We are not created to live on adrenaline and feelings alone.

To come to a place of quiet in our hearts means to physically be at rest. Psalms 46:10 (NIV) gently reminds us that we are to, “Be still, and know…” that He is God. The Hebrew word for still is Raphah (raw-faw) which means: “to be quiet, to relax, withdraw, to let drop, abandon.” This verse has two separate statements that have one meaning: “Be still… and… know…” The Hebrew word for know is Yada (yaw-dah), which translates: “to know, to perceive, to find out and discern, to know by experience.” How can we know God, really experience Him, if we aren’t still or quiet? 1 Thessalonians 4:11(KJV) says, “And that ye study to be quiet…” meaning that we can only know God by experiencing Him and we can only experience Him when we are in a quiet, intimate place with Him.

But when do we have time to listen to God? We race from work to home to our TV or we are ‘Church-atized’ which is to say that we spend much of our time attending a multitude of church functions, thinking that we are learning more “about” God instead of getting to “know” God.

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Thus today’s Christians don’t practice the Act of Quiet, which involves a significant act of physical and mental discipline. The late Henri Nouwen, who wrote extensively on solitude comments, “We have become alienated from Silence…when we are invited to move from our noisy world into this sound filled silence we become frightened…our ears begin to ache because the familiar noise is missing.” The familiar noise we hear should be that of God speaking to us, not the chatter of voices calling to us from our TV.

A simple act of denying TV time in exchange for prayer is an act of discipline. It is simply fasting, which is denying ourselves of worldly pleasures for the benefit of spiritual gain. How do we expect to live forever with God and rest in the luxury of his amazing love and presence without getting to know him now?

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