Spiritual Disciplines // SILENCE AND SOLITUDE
This past week I (Donia) had the opportunity to spend a weekend away with some beloved friends. For more than 15 years we’ve taken this time together annually to reconnect and catch up as we’ve all gone our separate ways across the state of Oregon.
You’ve probably heard the phrase: absence makes the heart grow fonder.
In my absence, this statement became a realization for my youngest daughter. At age 10, she has been asserting her independence bigtime, no longer wanting the cuddles and cutie-pie talk her mother has showered on her for the better part of a decade. I confess, it’s been a season of grief for me, letting my last baby go in the way that she needs me too, so that she can do what she inevitably must do-grow up. So you can imagine how pleased I was to receive this text from my husband just before I returned from my time away:
“I want to run into her arms when she gets home. I want her to pick me up.” -Ava
My heart thrilled at those words. When I arrived home, my sweet girl did indeed run into my arms, though she’s too grown for me to pick up.
I believe this is a picture of God’s love for us. He thrills to encounter time with us. This coming Sunday I will be teaching the kids out of Ephesians 3:18-19 which says:
“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.”
The disciplines of silence and solitude afford us an opportunity to spend time with our creator. To run into his arms and to be wrapped up in his love. The enemy wants to steal this from us. He wants to convince us that we are too busy, that the Bible is too boring, that we are too sinful or unworthy, that God isn’t really who he says he is. He wants to divide us away from God’s love. But God sent his son as the fulfillment of the plan of redemption for all humankind, so that we might experience God’s love, though it is indeed too great to understand.
Application:
- Read Ephesians 3:6-20.
- Spend 1 minute (or more) in quietude before the Lord, meditating on his love for you. Write down what you felt, heard or experienced.
- Pray: ask God to show you any lies you might believe that are dividing you away from his love and thank him for the work of Jesus which makes it possible for us to run into his arms.