Topic: Make Time to Be Quiet [RICK WARREN Devotional 27 September 2021]

Click HERE for Previous MESSAGES

Make Time to Be Quiet

BY RICK WARREN — SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
FROM HEARING THE VOICE OF GOD

“Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.”

Matthew 6:6 (The Message)God isn’t going to speak to you if your life is filled with noise. You’ve got to get alone, and you’ve got to get quiet. We call this a quiet time with God.

Jesus says it like this in Matthew 6:6: “Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace” (The Message).

Here’s the key to hearing God speak and getting his vision for your life: God wants to meet with you.

You need to realize you’re not waiting on God; he’s waiting on you. God made you to have a relationship with him. He wants you to spend time with him daily. He wants you to schedule a date with him every day. God is waiting.

Getting alone in a quiet place can be difficult today. I don’t know if you realize how much noise there is in your life. Maybe you’ve always got the radio on in the car, or you’ve got earbuds in or Bluetooth turned on. Every waiting room, grocery store, and elevator has music. There’s very little time or space in your life that’s absolutely quiet.

If you’ve got kids at home, it’s even more difficult! But let me give you some hope. Susanna Wesley, one of the great women of history, had 18 children. One of her sons, John, founded the Methodist church and helped spread Christianity across America; another, Charles, wrote more than 6,000 hymns.

How do you find time alone when you have 18 children? In her biography, it says that Susanna Wesley would sit in her favorite rocker every afternoon, and she would throw her apron over her head for an hour. Her kids knew that Mom with an apron over her head meant, “No child bothers Mom, or you face the consequences!”

Wesley said the prayers of his mom shaped his life.

Susanna Wesley found space every day to spend time with God, and you can too. Do what you need to do to make time to be quiet and meet with the Lord.

• How much of your day is spent in silence?
• How can you help your family understand your need for quiet time so that they can support you in it and not distract from it?
• What effect can your consistent quiet time have not only on you but also on your family?