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by Pastor Abby Davidson

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew 6:6

One of my professors once gave us a reflective exercise to do. He asked us to draw a pie chart of our time on any given day. How many hours do we spend sleeping, eating, in class, etc. I was a little embarrassed when I had completed mine as only a thin, sliver of a line was dedicated to prayer every day. Being a seminary student, I was a reading lot of books about God and had somehow let this take the place of actually spending time with him. It was like trying to get to know someone by studying their Facebook page rather than actually spending time with them – it can be very informative but it doesn’t hold a candle to the real thing.
Upon further examination of my prayer life, I noticed that my prayers had become very one-sided, mostly pleading with God to help me get through a certain course or offering up a list of my wants. I wasn’t leaving room for God to speak.
I decided to take up silence as a discipline and spend 30 minutes once a day sitting with God and listening to what he had to say.
Sitting in silence for even five minutes proved to be very difficult but with practice and time (aka discipline!) it became easier. I found it was helpful to begin by reading a verse or picking a phrase like ‘Be still and know that I am God’ and then ask God to speak to me.
I found these times to be very refreshing. They became the most important part of my day as I heard God speak words of blessing, encouragement and conviction. Often we’re looking for God to appear in thunder from heaven, full of drama and force but he comes instead in the gentle breeze (1 Kings 19:10-12). He comes to us in the silence.
“We need to find God and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence … We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say, but what God says to us and through us.” - Malcolm Muggeridge
We worship a God who speaks. Let’s be people who listen.