When Quiet Time Isn’t So Quiet

Every morning, I set aside time to meditate on God.  Going into a quiet room, I begin by repeating Psalms 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” My goal is to spend time worshipping God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and to invite Him to be present with me.

Some days the silence that surrounds me is as real as the peace that calms me.  Saying the verse slowly, then repeating it, I easily focus on God.  As the moments pass, I am filled to overflowing with gratitude, worship, and awe.  On those days, when my time of meditation is done, I feel I have accomplished my goal.

My preference is that every day my time of meditation be like this, filled with peace in God’s Presence.  But some days, my silent time is not so tranquil.  On those days, my experience is very different. 

Though I start out well and with good intentions, shortly after repeating the verse, “Be still, and know that I am God,” a person or situation pops into my mind and demands my attention.  Though I refocus on God, it isn’t long before another person or situation pops up. On days like this when my “silent time” is less than silent, condemning thoughts cause me to wonder if I really trust God or if I’m just going through the motions.

One day, I discovered a strategy that has helped me use these distractions to my advantage and to affirm my trust in God’s sovereignty. 

When my time in silence is interrupted by distracting thoughts, instead of fighting them, I intentionally focus on the person or situation that has come to mind.  I tell it, “Be still, and know that I am God.”  When reciting this verse, I am not saying that I am God, but that God is the God of whatever is distracting me.

By repeating this verse, I remind myself that the same God who controls the universe, is also the God of each person and situation in my life.  This strategy allows me to reaffirm my trust that God can take care of every detail in my life. That done, I am free to refocus on God.

I recently had an opportunity to apply this strategy during my time of silence.  Shortly after repeating the verse, “Be still, and know that I am God,” an email I needed to write but had been avoiding popped into my mind.  Instead of worrying that I was not trusting God, I focused my attention on the email – the words that would be typed, the recipient, and finally on my feeling of inadequacy in communicating my thoughts.  I then reminded myself of Jesus’ promise, “Behold, I am with you always.”  I pictured Him sitting with me at the computer.  Then, to the image of the email in my mind’s eye, I said, “Be still, and know that I am God.” 

Immediately, peace surrounded me.  Knowing I could trust God with every aspect of the email, my anxiety vanished. I was then free to return my focus and gaze on God. 

My preference for time spent in silent meditation on God will always be the days when focused worship brings awe and peace.  Yet when my intended time of silence is disrupted by anxious thoughts, I am grateful for the opportunity to re-remind myself that the same God who controls the universe also controls the smallest detail of my life.

As I conclude this post, I am wondering how you are doing? My hope is that you are finding peace in your time of meditation. If you have struggled with thoughts that pop up during your time of silence, I encourage you to try using the strategy I’ve shared in this post. If the strategy is helpful for you, please let me know by leaving a comment.

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Thank you for visiting my site. I am praying for God’s favor on your life as you seek to know Him more.

This post was written by Robby Kautz and published on Christianquietude.wordpress.com

Time with God

 

 

Time with God

Matthew 5:6  “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” KJV

Morning and evening, my habit is to spend time in silent meditation on God.

I tell Him I have come to be with Him.  I tell Him I want to know Him, and that I am listening should He want to speak.  I invite Him to be present with me.  Though my body stays still during this time, my mind frequently wanders in any number of directions.

My purpose during these times of quiet is to focus on God.  Though I fail to always stay as focused as I would like, I am convinced of something that gives me hope.  I believe it is impossible for me to sincerely seek God, and for Him not to show up.

Though I may not be exactly sure what has happened during the time I spend with God, I am sure that something has happened.  Somehow, as a result of time spent in His Presence, I am changed.

God sees my heart.  He knows my desire is to know Him.  He is faithful to keep His promise, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.”

Watch Night Wishing

On New Year’s Eve, I found myself missing the Watch Night services I attended at church as a child growing up in Michigan.

The service started between 10 or 11 in the evening.  We sang, spent time in worship, then listened to a sermon.  There was time set-aside for people to share about God’s work in their lives in the past year, and when midnight neared we gathered at the altar or remained in our seats to “pray in the New Year.”

Since leaving home and moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, I’ve never attended a church that held a Watch Night service.  Recently over dinner, my family was discussing the ways people celebrate New Year’s Eve, and I mentioned this service and the practice of “praying in the New Year.”  The mixture of disbelief and shock in my son’s eyes informed me that this may be something foreign to many people, and it made me sad.

I miss this tradition of the Watch Night service when I set aside time to invite the Holy Spirit to look back with me on the previous year, and to seek His guidance for the coming year.  I miss taking the final few moments of each year to stand still and acknowledge that God is God, and I am not.

I may not be able to bring Watch Night services back into vogue, but on December 31st as midnight was nearing I spent some time in quiet.  I invited the Holy Spirit to speak to me about 2017, and to pray for His guidance in 2018.  It was hopeful, and time well-spent.

If you’ve ever attended a Watch Night service, let me know your thoughts about the experience?

How do you spend New Year’s Eve?

This article was written by Robby Kautz for the blog:  Christianquietude.wordpress.com

Notice

The expected call came at 10:15 that morning.  Answering the phone, I felt relief when I heard the pride in my husband’s voice: “The meeting went exceptionally well.  The president even took the time to compliment me on the quality of my presentation.”

I stopped what I was doing.  Knowing that for my husband to fully enjoy this success, he needed my complete attention and appreciation for his hard work.  As he filled in more details about the meeting, I became aware that his love for me and our family motivated him to work hard and to take pride in his accomplishments.  In that moment my heart filled afresh with love for him.

Later that morning I went outside for my time of Bible reading and prayer.  It was then that I received another call for my attention.  As I began to read I sensed God’s Spirit urge me to stop my self-imposed devotional routine and to simply sit in the quiet with Him.

I put down my Bible and looked around.

A soft breeze caused the branches of the trees to sway ever so slightly.  I noticed the blue of the sky, the warmth of the sun, and the different shades of green in the bushes and trees.  I saw with new eyes the intricacy and beauty of the flowers at my side.

Like my husband, God wanted my undivided attention.  He wanted me to stop what I was doing so I could notice and appreciate the beauty of His work, His provision, and His care for me.

In that moment my heart filled afresh with love for Him.

*This blog post is the work of Robby at Christianquietude.wordpress.com

 

I Love the Sabbath!

 

I love the Sabbath!

Shortly before sundown and the start of the Sabbath I knew I needed to sit and journal about my week and the many things I wanted  to get off my mind and onto the written page.

I wrote about talking on the phone while rushing to jot down a prayer request, missing a step, and falling onto the bathroom’s hard tile floor.  I wrote about how foolish I felt lying in pain,  about needing to go to the chiropractor because of the effects of that fall, and about how grateful I was for his help.  I wrote about the multitude of calls I’d made searching for a caretaker for my elderly mother.  Finally, I wrote about the to-do list I’d created at the beginning of the week, how few tasks I’d checked off the list, and the many tasks I would dutifully transfer to next week’s list.

Looking up at the clock and seeing that it was four minutes until sundown, I  quickly wrote, “I love the Sabbath!”

Four minutes later I lit a candle to welcome the Sabbath. Externally, time shifted me from  a week of work to a twenty-four hour period of rest.

Wanting to help myself shift internally, I settled into a comfortable chair.  My thoughts went to that final sentence, “I love the Sabbath!”, and  I asked myself what, specifically, in that moment, did I love about the Sabbath?

Do I love it because it’s like taking a deep sigh of relief after a week that typically feels like a marathon? Or was it simply an honest statement  that  I really do love the Sabbath?  Both reasons are true, but I was determined to find the most compelling reason that in that moment I chose to write that final sentence.

I continued sitting in silence, and before long I knew the answer.

When I started my journal entry I felt all jumbled and frazzled, yet as I wrote, things started to untangle.  In the same way, at the start of most Sabbaths I tend to feel  jumbled and frazzled.  Yet each week as I honor the Sabbath by spending time resting and focusing on God, what looked like a confused mess slowly untangles, and peace descends.

Each Sabbath while I rest in God’s Presence, He reminds me that He is working on my behalf in ways I can only imagine and that He can be trusted with everything that concerns me.

On this Sabbath, He reminded me that all the things that only moments before I’d hurriedly poured onto the page  were under His control.

 

 

Changing My Habit

Recently I had friends coming for dinner.  Knowing it was going to be a long night of cooking, hosting, and cleaning, I decided to spend time meditating on God before starting to prepare dinner.  Up to this point my evening time of meditation was reserved for just before bedtime.  I knew that if I waited until then on this night, I would likely be thoroughly exhausted and unable to focus.

Spending time with God at this earlier hour was wonderful!  Because I wasn’t tired, I was able to more fully focus on Him, and I loved it.

As I left my meditation time to prepare the meal and host my friends, I was surprised at how the moments I’d spent with God positively affected my energy level and creativity.  The effect was as if I’d spent time in an oxygen chamber (though I’ve never actually been in an oxygen chamber, from what I’ve heard about the experience, that’s how it felt).

Since that evening, I’ve been working to make this time-switch my new habit.  I find that when I meditate on God at this earlier hour, I am more available to Him and better able to stay focused on Him.  Sitting, standing, or kneeling silently in His Presence, I sense His love.  When I leave my time of silence, I notice His creative energy and help as I prepare dinner and through the remainder of the evening.

Luke 5:16

“And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.”  Luke 5:16, KJV

New Year’s Eve Watchnight Service

Growing up in Grand Haven, Michigan, my family always spent New Year’s Eve attending the watchnight service at the Assemblies of God church near our home on Beechtree Street.  When the service began between 10:00 and 11:00 pm, we sang, listened to a sermon, then time was given for personal testimony when congregants stood to share their joys and sorrows as they talked about what God was doing in their lives.  When the clock’s hands neared midnight we gathered at the altar or stayed in our seats to “pray the new year in”.  Walking home after the service, I remember feeling at peace.

Praying the new year in was a way to stop at the end of one year and the beginning of the next, to be still and know that God is God.

As I look back on those watchnight services, I say to myself, “Good times!”

I am thankful that in my family and in that community there was an acknowledgement that each new year is a gift from God.  I’m thankful that as a child I developed the habit of looking back at each previous year to asses my life, to repent when it was needed, and to thank God for what He had done in my life.  I now see that this yearly service helped me develop the practice of praying as David prayed in Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

Though watchnight services seem to be out of fashion, I plan to spend some time “praying the new year in”.  I want to take time to consider this past year and to express my profound gr attitude for all God has done.  I want to assess the year that has passed, and repent where repentance is needed.  And I want to invite God’s Spirit to be present in my life to guide me into and through this new year.

*A watchnight service is a Christian church service held on New Year’s Eve that concludes shortly after midnight.  Those in attendance review the past year, and seek God’s guidance as they look to the year ahead.

RK

I Come to the Garden Alone

Recently on the TV show The Voice, Emily Ann Roberts sang, “I Come to the Garden Alone” – a song she chose to honor her grandfather.  Listening to her angelic voice, I was reminded of how Sabbath keeping and silent meditation on God has shifted my perspective of that well-loved hymn.

Though I always thought the song was beautiful, I used to wonder about the words in the chorus that say that the joy God and I share in quiet is shared by us alone.  This portion of the song confused me, I thought the words were a bit prideful and misguided.  How dare the songwriter assume that the joy they experienced was a joy no other Christian had ever experienced?  That was before I began the practice of Sabbath keeping and silent meditation on God.

Since developing this practice I find that through His Spirit, God speaks to me personally.  He never contradicts His Word, but He reaches my heart and spirit with the exact message I need.  I have come to understand that having a relationship with God means intimacy, and that intimacy sometimes involves messages that are for me alone.  I don’t mean that when God tells me, “I love you”, He never says it to any of His other children.  I do mean that when He says it to me, He says it in the exact way He wants me to receive it at that moment.

I recall experiencing this kind of intimate communication one Sabbath while meditating on the love of God.  His voice came to my heart and asked,”Robby, do I love you?”  I answered, “Yes God.  You love the whole world, and because I’m part of your world I know you love me.”  God’s voice again spoke to my heart, “I’m not asking you about who or what else I love.  I want to know if you believe I love you?”  Oh.  I had never considered that question for myself.  I knew God was asking me what I believed about His love for me, and that He wanted me to answer this very important question.  Asking myself that question, I thought back on all the ways God has been such a loving Father, how He has led and protected me, and all the answered prayers.  My answer came easily, and I knew in a way I had never known before that God loves me personally and intimately.  In that moment I went from believing God loved the world enough to send His Son to die for all people, to believing that I am His especially loved child.  Because of that moment of listening to the truth God was speaking into my life, my view of God, my relationship with Him and my life have been forever changed.

In that moment I experienced what the songwriter was saying, that God’s voice to me in quiet will be specific and personal.  I now know the words of this song are not prideful or misguided, but awe-inspired and humbling.

I am thankful Emily Ann chose this song to honor her grandfather.  And I am thankful for the truth of the words of the song  – that God communicates personal messages to His children that He knows we need to hear.  RK

God’s Specific Love

Why do I continue the practice of Christian meditation?  In the silence, in the being-with-God time, He speaks to me at a heart-level.

For many years I experienced God’s love solely from head-knowledge.  Logic told me there was a God, and that through Jesus Christ He demonstrated His love for all mankind.  I knew that if He loved all mankind, He must also love me.

This was good information and was what I clung to for many years.  Yet during those years I don’t ever remember feeling like God’s especially loved daughter.

When I spend time with God in silence, as if in layers, His love becomes real to my heart.  When my intention is to listen to His silence and His voice, His Spirit shows me how His love for me is specific and unique.

Knowing I am loved by God in this one-on-one kind of way alters how I view life and how I walk through my days.  This love permeates my heart, transforms my life, and makes my relationship with Him more complete than it has ever been.