The following exercise is intended as a companion to the message “Inside/Out: Patterns We Experience When God Transforms Us – Part 2” preached by Pastor Rick Schupp on May 17, 2020. You can listen to that message here.
Find a quiet place, free from distractions. If silence and solitude is new to you, set a timer for five or ten minutes. This allows you to forget the time and settle into the quiet.
Take two or three deep breaths and place yourself in the presence of God. You might pray, “I’m here Lord” or something like that, God is already here, but it helps us center our thoughts on his presence.
As you seek to be quiet, you may hear voices, traffic, your breath, wind, distracting thoughts. Seek to let the noise go and the silence to deepen. Be with God.
If it helps, have a pad of paper next to you and jot down a word or two when a thought comes so you can let it go and come back to it later.
When the time is up, reflect on the time. What was it like for you to become still enough to hear the background noise? What feelings did you experience during the time of quiet? Why do you think?
Silence and solitude is the kind of exercise that becomes easier over time. It’s also the kind of practice that we will not usually see immediate benefits from; but if we persist, the fruit will make itself visible in time.