Why silence?

God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer. ~Mother Teresa

There come times when I have nothing more to tell God. If I were to continue to pray in words, I would have to repeat what I have already said. At such times it is wonderful to say to God, "May I be in Thy presence, Lord? I have nothing more to say to Thee, but I do love to be in Thy presence." ~O. Hallesby

The hardest thing to do is to empty myself of me....& there is so much of me to get rid of. For me one of the attractions of silence is that is is possible to do this to some extent. Given an hour 15 or 20 minutes of it is wasted chasing my own rabbit trails. It takes at least that long to clear my mind enough to even begin to think about God in any meaningful way.

People who leap straight into prayer amaze me. They amaze me because it takes me a bit to organize my thoughts. They amaze me because I try to allow the Holy Spirit to guide & direct my prayers ~ which are not often the things I am fretting about when I set out to pray & rarely concern me when I'm done. Go figure! People who leap straight in to prayer amaze me because I'm still trying to clear my thoughts when they start & I'm left wondering because while the prayers of a righteous man availith much, sin will have our prayers bouncing back at us & going nowhere.

Prayer, deep prayer, requires time & patience...& practice. After twenty minutes I usually start to *centre*. My mind clears & the tranquil presence of the Holy Spirit settles. Outside distractions subside so that is becomes possible to listen to the still small voice of God. This is the prayer I like best ~ to simply rest in the presence of the most high God. This is not prayer as it is practised in the majority of our churches & what passes for prayer leaves me empty & dissatisfied.

Now I know most people can't cope with a whole hour of silence. This is why our homes are filled with the noise of the radio or television. So it has been a blessing as our home church evolves to find oasis of silence in unexpected places. One of these is in music. I can't sing, that's Ditz's department, but I don't mind belting out a simple tune with the best of them on occasion. With just the 6 of us & Liddy providing the music from modern bands like Casting Crowns we aren't making a joyful noise unto the Lord. I can shut my eyes & simply listen to the words & the melody & allow the Holy Spirit to minister to my spirit. This is bringing me into a meditative state of prayerful attention so that as we read through the scriptures I don't feel the need to talk much ~ so odd for me I know.

The simplicity of our service is spiritually satisfying. Reading the scriptures & just talking through them is edifying & it is bringing close fellowship. So having finished Philippians this week we had a short discussion as to where to read next & are moving into Revelation. I love Revelation. After the gospel of John it is my all time favourite book of the bible. For a chronic fantasy reader Revelation is an absolute feast!

The other thing we are considering is our first outreach which sounds much fancier than it actually is. Our other family goes away camping regularly so on those weeks we are thinking of doing a youth fellowship in the evening with those youngsters Liddy has already been outreaching to. Maybe. Just a think but we're thinking about it. Prayerfully. In silence.