TITLE – A Heart Quieted: Silence & Solitude TEXT – Various Texts

A.W Tozer – “Retire from the world each day to some private spot, even if it only be a bedroom (for a while I retreated to the furnace room for want of a better place). Stay in the secret place till the surrounding noises begin to fade out of your heart… Give yourself to God…learn to pray inwardly every moment….Gaze on Christ with the eyes of your soul…. Lacking these, nothing will help us; granted these, the discipline recommended will go far to neutralize the evil effects of externalism and to make us acquainted with God and our own souls.”

SILENCE Voluntarily & temporarily abstaining from speaking to pursue certain spiritual goals SOLITUDE Voluntarily & temporarily withdrawing to privacy for spiritual purposes

We must regularly quiet our hearts for the purpose of…

1 – FOCUSED PRAYER – Mark 1:35

Mark 1:35 - And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.”

2 – SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE – Luke 1:20

Luke 1:20 – And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

3 – SALVATION & SUPERNATURAL HELP – Lamentations 3:25-28, Psalm 62:1-2

Lamentations 3:25-26, 28 – “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord…. Let him sit alone in silence…”

CH Spurgeon – “I commend solitude to any of you who are seeking salvation…To study one’s self in the light of God’s Word, and carefully to go over one’s condition, examining both the inward and the outwards sins, and using all the tests which are given us in the Scriptures would be a very healthy exercise; but how very few care to go through it!”

Psalm 62:1-2 – “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”

Jim Elliot – “I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, crowds… Satan is quite aware of the power of silence.”