Silence & Solitude (Psalm 46)
SERMON NOTES
Sermon Series: Spiritual Rhythms of the Psalms
Sermon Title: Silence & Solitude
Sermon Text: Psalm 46
1. Living under God’s protection brings us peace (v1-3)
2. Living in God’s presence brings us peace (v4-7)
3. Living by God’s power brings us peace (v8-9)
Spiritual Practice of Silence & Solitude
1. Prepare for this time of silence with God.
Grab your phone, a journal, and a pencil.
Find a quiet, comfortable spot.
Set a timer on your phone for 10 minutes so you don’t have to think about when your time is up.
Take three deep breaths in - inhaling and exhaling slowly.
As thoughts enter your mind: acknowledge the thought (don’t fight it), jot down the thought (just a couple of words in your journal), release the thought, and then return to God.
2. Pray over your time - marking your entrance into this time with God, positioning yourself before God, opening yourself to God, praying this prayer “Gather me to be with you” by Ted Loder in his book Guerrillas of Grace:
O God, gather me now to be with you as you are with me.
Soothe my tiredness; quiet my fretfulness;
curb my aimlessness; relieve my compulsiveness;
let me be easy for a moment.
O Lord, release me from the fears and guilts which grip me so tightly;
from the expectations and opinions which I so tightly grip,
that I may be open to receiving what you give,
to risking something genuinely new,
to learning something refreshingly different.
O God, gather me to be with you as you are with me. Amen.
3. Read Psalm 46, reminding yourself that living in Christ under God’s protection, in God’s presence, and by God’s power brings peace.
4. Sit in the stillness and silence of this refuge with God - be still and know that He is God - aware of His presence - don’t rush anything, don’t force anything - you are simply sitting with God and spending time with God - breathing and being. As you sit, pay attention to your inner being - your thoughts and emotions - feel them, name them, express them - and share them with God. Ask yourself what lies you are hearing and believing and how they are robbing you of the peace you find in GOd. How are these lies contradicting God’s Word? Then release your cares and worries and fears to God.
5. Thank God for this time together when the alarm goes off!
SERMON FOOTNOTES
“The farther I run away from the place where God dwells, the less I am able to hear the voice that calls me the Beloved, and the less I hear that voice, the more entailed I become in the manipulations and power games of the world.” - Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son (p46-47)
Story of Mother Theresa taken from The Deeply Formed Life by Rich Villodas
Additional Resources
Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence by Ruth haley Barton
Chapter 2 of Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
