“Be still, and know that I am God!” Psalm 46:10
We are called and led to interior silence before God. Jesus’s ministry started and ended in silence. His birth was with only Joseph and Mary present. Imagine event so important, someone this important being born without even a press release. Then, His first public miracle recorded in John 2 at the wedding was done in a quiet back room with some unnamed servants to witness. His last miracle just before His arrest, passion and crucifixion was done in the darkness, no one barely noticing. When in Luke 22:51 Jesus healed the ear of the high priests’s slave.
Jesus doesn’t ask us to use a lot of words in our prayers or to ‘speak loudly’ in our actions. He asks us to do things like “go to your private room”, and to “not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.”
“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:5-6
God looks to us to be silent and simply “know that He is God.” That is to trust in Him – period. “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” Matthew 6-7. God doesn’t need us to explain to Him what we need and what our prayers mean. He already knows, He knew before you were even born what your need was now.
Trust me, I know. When our prayers get lengthy and we hang upon those prayers, we can fall into a trap of no longer listening to God. We talk so much, we miss what we hear the Father saying. When my daughter was first sick, I prayed alot. Probably in that first year I had more prayers then all my prayers cumulative in my whole life. But, I failed to hear God’s words despite the fact that I heard Him speaking. He told me over and over to trust Him, He told me again and again that He was listening and acting in the situation. But I was so busy praying that I missed His words despite hearing them clearly. Read the full story in ‘I Knew His Voice.’
The fact of the matter is that God was speaking clearly to me and I couldn’t have an interior silence to hear what He was saying. It wasn’t until the Father shut me up by pressing me into a dark night of the soul that the silence made me hear.
God wants us to listen to Him. He IS trying to talk to each of us right now. But we are too busy praying or seeking Him to hear his Voice. He speaks to our heart, through Scripture, and even audibly at times. We just need to find the silent little room within our souls and draw our heart and minds within.
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