THE SOUND OF SHEER SILENCE

THE SOUND OF SHEER SILENCE

There is so much to see and hear in this busy and media-flooded world of satellite television, home cinema and the internet. We need seasons of the soul in which we somehow find space away from the noises of everyday life and still our heart to perceive the intimate whispers of God.

Silence is a great environment to see and hear God.

One man who encountered God in the stillness was the prophet Elijah. Burned out in every way, in 1 Kings 19 we find him in a dark night of the soul and in desperate need of a touch from God. Here’s a man who has scaled the heights of powerful ministry, seeing miracle after miracle, witnessing the breakthrough of God in the most challenging of circumstances. But in this passage we find him in a far from victorious state of mind. He is, quite frankly, depressed. And then God speaks but not through the shock of an earthquake, the force of a powerful wind or the theatrics of a mighty fire. God speaks to Elijah in a still, small – or as the New Revised Standard version so powerfully phrases it, in a “sound of sheer silence” (v.12). What a beautiful and mysterious thing – to hear the whisperings of God in the sound of sheer silence.

The God of glory, who thunders over the mighty waters, reveals Himself intimately and quietly to the depths of our heart. When alone and when gathered as a worship community, we must learn to listen for Him – in the sound of sheer silence.

Taken from the Book: Facedown

Written by: Matt Redman