Believe it or not, there’s a time to shut up! Our students at school (in PR) did not know how to be silent! I’d tell them when they were born, they didn’t utter goo-goo, ga-ga; they spoke sentences, fluidly!
It is said that Silence is Golden. It is! It’s a time to contemplate. It’s a time to dwell on thoughts, on ideas; a time to reflect on life (Reflections of My Life, 1969by Marmalade). Silence hushes out distracting noises. It welcomes solitude (Song of Solitude (Terry Talbot). It allows serenity with God; Oneness with the Holy Trinity.
Ever sat in silence before a crackling fire, or by a window watching snow fall? Ever sat in the snow in perfect silence? It is so gentle; you can’t hear it. Yet, God speaks in the silence! He speaks to our hearts!
Scripture welcomes silence. It tells of when Job lost his ten kids, livestock, and health. It tells how his friends went to visit him. Job 2:11-13 says, “They cried out in lament, ripped their robes, and dumped dirt on their heads as a sign of their grief. Then they sat with him on the ground. Seven days and nights they sat there without saying a word. They could see how rotten he felt, how deeply he was suffering.”
If only they had remained in silence!! But as we know, not everyone can! At least for a few minutes! Did you know people have recorded “songs” of nothing but silence?! People paid for them only to hear several minutes of nothing!! Some artists even provided extended versions!! It’s the kind of “music” I could snore to!
Does God care about silence? Duh! That’s why it’s in His word. Scripture tells us:
“But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:20).
Yes, we worship Him and we sing to Him, but we need to always remember whom we’re talking to and how to behave ourselves before Him. We need to reverence Him. Check it out:
“Quiet, everyone! Shh! Silence before God. Something’s afoot in his holy house. He’s on the move! (Zechariah 2:13MSG).
Simon and Garfunkel in 1964 sang, Sounds of Silence on how we don’t communicate as we should with those around us. God waits to hear us-even when we sit in silence! He knows our thoughts and our inner concerns! “Well, shut my mouth!” some have said.
Today, we sing Silent Night, Holy Night. All is calm, all is bright. It paints a scene of calmness when snow gently falls and we’re within warm walls by a fireplace entranced by blinking Christmas lights enveloping us, and for a moment there’s peace around us.
When all is lost or gone, can we still worship God? Some people think they always need cymbals, guitars, and drums as the only means of worshipping God, not so. The question, “Can you praise God when all is taken away?” is what prompted Matt Redman to write the song, A Heart of Worship. As the lyrics say: “When the music fades/All is stripped away/And I simply come/Longing just to bring/Something that’s of worth/That will bless Your heart….I’m coming back to a heart of worship”
Silence is so important, that in heaven where “..The four beast… rest not day and night, saying Holy, holy, holy LORD God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8) worship God incessantly, suddenly cease as there was silence in heaven for thirty minutes (Revelation 8:1)!
Today is the time to be silent not just to those around us, or to situations on all sides, but before God also. Amen!
Get your vocals ready!
God Bless!
Sam