Solitude
Notes
Transcript
NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
Engagement
[One minute of silence]
I intentionally began this morning with 60 seconds of silence. And it was really interesting to note just how uncomfortable some of you were even with just that short of a period of time of silence.
We live in a culture where we just don’t have a whole lot of solitude, and even when we do, we tend to immediately fill the quiet with something. I guess that’s not surprising when from birth we’ve conditioned our kids to not even be able to sleep without the white noise machine. And we’re certainly no different as adults. For many of us the day begins with the sound of an alarm clock and from that point forward most of the day is filled with activity and noise. We get in our car and we immediately turn on the radio or a podcast. We go to the doctor and the TV is playing in the waiting room. We go to the gym and put on our earphones so we can listen to music while we work out. Even here at church, we work hard to make sure that we don’t have any silence between songs and we play background music during other quiet times.
Tension
Last week I said that I thought that the rhythm of fasting was probably the least understood and least practiced of all of the rhythms of grace that we’re talking about in this series. And while I still think that is the case, I’m not sure that the rhythm of solitude that we’re going to talk about this morning might not be the most difficult for many, or even most, of us. I think what philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote back in 1670 might be even more true today than when he wrote these words:
I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, in that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.
Truth
Today’s message is the fourth in our current sermon series titles “Rhythms of Grace”. In this series we’re taking a look at 8 different rhythms that God wants us to build into our lives because they will help us to know Jesus better and become more like Him. So far we’ve covered the rhythms of meditating on God’s Word, prayer and fasting. And you’ve probably already noticed that even though we’re covering these rhythms one by one, in real life they often overlap. For instance meditating on God’s Word is often the beginning of prayer, and fasting is often accompanied by time in God’s Word and in prayer.
The rhythm of solitude that we’ll be talking about today is not really a separate rhythm at all, but rather a means by which we facilitate many of the other rhythms that we’re covering in this series. It is a rhythm which can intensify many of the other rhythms of grace and make them more effective.
This message is going to be a bit different than most of my messages. Most of the time, even if I’m preaching topically, like in this current series, I’ll still take one passage - usually consisting of a good sized chunk of Scripture - and use that to develop the main idea. I think it’s important to do that in order to avoid just basing the sermon on my own ideas and then finding some random verses in order to support that idea.
But when it comes to Biblical solitude, what I found this week is that it’s hard to find one specific passage that primarily deals with that idea. Maybe the closest would be a passage that we looked at recently in 1 Kings 19 in the life of Elijah when he was in the wilderness. However, we do find a pattern of God’s people practicing solitude all throughout the Bible, and we particularly see it in the life of Jesus. So I’m going to begin today by sharing a number of passages that demonstrate that pattern and then we’ll come back to one verse that will provide us with some practical guidance on how to incorporate this rhythm into our lives.
Many of the significant people in the Bible practiced solitude, so we don’t have time to cover every example, but let’s look at a few. We’ll begin with Moses:
18 Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger.
Here Moses is recounting the time he had spent in solitude with the Lord after coming down the mountain and finding the people making a golden calf. During that time Moses pleaded on behalf of the people of Israel.
I’ve already mentioned how Elijah went into the wilderness and how God spoke to him in a low whisper that he was able to hear in the solitude.
The apostle Paul understood the importance of solitude.
9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
For three days after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus he spent time in solitude, fasting and praying. And then after being ministered to by Ananias an visiting with the disciples in Jerusalem, he withdrew to the Arabian desert for three years.
15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
We don’t really have any details about what Paul did during those three years, but when we define Biblical solitude in a few minutes, we’ll see that his time there certainly met that definition.
The best illustration of solitude in the Bible is the life of Jesus. He regularly incorporated the rhythm of solitude into His life even though his ministry was urgent since He had only about 3 years to prepare the disciples for their mission. Let’s take a quick look at how Jesus incorporated solitude into His life.
35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.
42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them,
16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.
13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”
That is certainly not all the references to the times in the gospels where we see Jesus incorporating solitude into His life, but I think it’s enough for us to see how important it was for Jesus to do that. And if it was important for Jesus just think how important it must be for us.
With that background in mind, we’re now ready to look at the verse we’re going to use to help us define Biblical solitude.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
Today we’ll go back to our usual practice of revealing the main idea and then building on that through the rest of the message.
Biblical solitude is the intentional, temporary absence of human activity in order to more fully know God.
Biblical solitude is the intentional, temporary absence of human activity in order to more fully know God.
Most of us are probably familiar with the first line of Psalm 46:10:
Be still and know that I am God.
But I’m not sure that we really understand the idea of being still because we haven’t taken the time to consider this verse in the context of the entire Psalm. We tend to think of being still as inactivity and passiveness, but there is more to the way the command “Be still...” is used here.
The Psalm was likely written during the reign of King Jehoshaphat when the nation of Israel was facing the armies of Moab, Ammon and Edom. It was written to encourage the people of Israel to trust in God as they faced their enemies.
The command “be still” literally means to stop or to cease. In fact the NASB translates it “Cease striving...” In the context of this Psalm it is not completely clear if this command is directed towards Israel’s enemies or to the people of Israel. Perhaps that ambiguity is intentional because God is speaking to both groups here.
To His enemies God says “stop” trying to attack my people because I am their refuge and strength and it is futile to fight against me.
To the people of Israel, God says cease trying to fight this battle in your own strength. I am your refuge and strength. and it is futile for you to try and stop your enemies without me. By the way, it is this Psalm that inspired Martin Luther to write “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”.
As God’s people, it is this second application that is most relevant to us this morning. In effect, God is saying to us that we need to cease from our frantic going to and fro and to take time to rest and to trust in Him. That’s why I have described solitude as the “absence of human activity”.
Bill Gaultiere, the founder of an organization called “Soul Shepherding” which ministers to pastors, wrote this in a recent blog post:
In solitude and silence you’re learning to stop doing, stop producing, stop pleasing people, stop entertaining yourself, stop obsessing — stop doing anything except to simply be your naked self before God and be found by him.
Although Biblical solitude is no doubt enhanced by quiet and stillness, it is more an attitude than a place. In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster puts it like this:
Solitude is more a state of mind and heart than it is a place. There is a solitude of the heart that can be maintained at all times. Crowds, or the lack of them, have little to do with this inward attentiveness.
You’ll notice that I’ve described solitude as being both intentional and temporary. While this verse doesn’t bring those ideas out explicitly, they are certainly both implied here.
The fact that this is a command means that we have to take intentional action to obey it. We can’t obey any command, including this one, just by accident. We have to plan for it and take intentional steps if we are going to keep it. So in just a few minutes I’m going to give you some practical suggestions on how to intentionally incorporate solitude into your life.
The examples of solitude that we looked at earlier make it clear that solitude is only to be temporary. Moses, Elijah, Jesus and Paul never remained in a constant state of solitude. They entered that state for a period of time and then got back to their ministry. So this command is clearly not suggesting that we all become monks.
I’m reminded here of the monk who entered a monastery where the rules only permitted him to say two words every 5 years. So at the end of the five years, he came to the head monk and said “food bad.” He didn’t speak another word for five more years and when it was his turn to speak again, his two words were “bed hard”. Finally, five years later he had apparently had enough so his two words were “I quit”. The head monk replied, “I’m not surprised. All you’ve done since you got here was complain.”
The reason that we are to intentionally and temporarily refrain from human activity is so that we can know God. The Hebrew verb that is translated “know” here does not primarily describe knowing information about God. It is a verb that expresses sympathy, pity or affection for someone. As one commentator I read this week put it, it means feeling what God is feeling.
Like Israel we have plenty of information about God. But what was lacking for them, and what is often lacking for us is a sensitivity to and empathy with God. When we know God in the way that the Psalmist writes about here, we
Feel sad about the things that make God sad
Feel angry about the things than impugn His character or eclipse His glory
Feel joy and excitement when we are in His presence
That is why solitude must be a time where we primarily listen to God rather than talk to Him. That is the only way we can know God like that. We’ll come back to that idea in just a moment.
Biblical solitude is the intentional, temporary absence of human activity in order to more fully know God.
Biblical solitude is the intentional, temporary absence of human activity in order to more fully know God.
Application
Before I share some practical tips for incorporating solitude into our lives, let me just remind us that solitude is not really a separate rhythm, but rather a means of incorporating some of the other rhythms we’re learning about into our lives. So solitude is often a way to enhance those other rhythms of grace and it will therefore often be used in conjunction with some of them.
Some Tips for Incorporating Solitude into My Life
Some Tips for Incorporating Solitude into My Life
Incorporate different types of solitude:
Incorporate different types of solitude:
There are three different types of solitude that all of us should work towards incorporating into the rhythm of our lives.
Daily
Daily
We need to build intentional times of solitude into our daily schedules. I could make a pretty good case from the Scriptures that it would be profitable to do this at the beginning and the end of each day. That is a rhythm that we see throughout the Bible. From the passages we looked at earlier, we see that Jesus often began and/or ended his day with a time of solitude.
Retreats
Retreats
There is certainly value in having some longer periods of solitude. We saw earlier that Moses had a 40 day period of solitude and we’ve also talked about how Jesus had a 40 day period of solitude before He began His earthly ministry.
Most of us can’t do that, but we can periodically take a day, or even a half day to spend some time with God in solitude. I have done that at times in the past and I can personally testify to the value of those extended times of solitude.
Random
Random
We need to take advantage of the “little solitudes” that we have throughout our day. Maybe it’s those few moments in bed before anyone else wakes up, or a quiet bath or shower when no one else is around, or even our commute to work, although a lot of times that isn’t the best way to find solitude. Maybe it’s just closing your office door for five minutes or taking a walk outside during your lunch time.
Chose a place
Chose a place
Find a quiet place where you can escape from the hustle and bustle of life. It might be a quiet place in your home or in your office where you know you won’t be interrupted. For me personally, when the weather is nice I like to find a place outdoors, sometimes on my back porch, sometimes on a trail in Catalina State Park.
Make an appointment
Make an appointment
For those daily times, put it on your calendar and treat it just like you would any other appointment. Same thing for those retreat times. And then resist the urge to interrupt that time to do something that seems more urgent.
The time of that appointment is probably going to change during different season of life. When I was working in an office and had kids at home. I would try to get to the office by 7:00 a.m. before anyone else arrived at the office, Not only could I get in some Biblical solitude but I found I could also be more productive in my work during that time. Now, I usually have that time in my home office after Mary leaves for work, but on Monday mornings when I have to be at church by 6:30, I usually have that time later in the morning.
For you, it might be first thing in the morning or your lunch hour or a break at work or a time in the evening after the kids are in bed.
Minimize distractions
Minimize distractions
A lot of distractions can be eliminated by picking the right time and place. But even if we do that we may need to take some extra steps to make sure that we minimize distractions. I need to turn off my computer, phone and other devices, or even better, don’t even have them with me. I like to have a notepad with me so that if something comes to mind, I can just write it down so I won’t forget it later. That way I won’t have to continue to think about it.
Listen
Listen
Most of us are not naturally good listeners, so this is going to be the hard part for us. And it is especially difficult because God is probably not going to speak to us in an audible voice. So at first, we are probably going to feel awkward about just listening instead of doing all the talking. That’s why it’s a good idea to start small. Practice listening for just one minute and then expand that to longer periods of time as you get more comfortable.
Obviously the best way to start listening to God is to begin in His Word. But the idea here is just to let His Word speak to you and to quietly listen for His voice. Resist the tendency to fill the silence with words. Turn your thoughts toward God and let Him fill your mind with His thoughts. Let Him remind you that He is your refuge and your strength.
Action
Obviously I’m going to ask all of us to make this really practical by taking some concrete steps this week to incorporate this rhythm of grace into our lives. So just as we’ve been doing every week in this series, I’ve given you a “homework assignment” which you’ll find on the back of your sermon outline in the worship guide. And I’m praying that all of us will follow through with that this week.
Biblical solitude is the intentional, temporary absence of human activity in order to more fully know God.
Biblical solitude is the intentional, temporary absence of human activity in order to more fully know God.
Inspiration
I’m pretty sure that even after what we’ve learned this morning that a lot of us might think that solitude is optional or that it is just a waste of time. Our natural tendency is to think that if we’re not doing something, that time isn’t profitable.
But think about Jesus. He had a lot to do in just three years of ministry. He had people wanting His attention all the time. So if there was anyone who didn’t have time for solitude, it was Jesus. And yet He found it necessary to find that quiet time alone with God throughout His ministry. If it was that important for Jesus to include the rhythm of solitude in His life, then I know it must be even more crucial for you and me.
Discussion Questions for Bible Roundtable
What is the difference, if any, between solitude and silence? How are they related?
How is the idea that solitude is a state of mind and not a place helpful in incorporating solitude into our lives?
What did you learn today about what it means to “know God”? What are some things we can do that will help us to know God like that?
How can solitude enhance the first three rhythms of grace that we’ve talked about - meditating on God’s Word, prayer, and fasting?
How can we listen to God when He doesn’t speak to us in an audible voice?