My friend and mentor Bill Reed, wrote this week about the disciplines of Simplicity, Silence, Serenity, and Surrender espoused by Charles Swindoll in his book Intimacy with the Almighty. Bill passed on this quote from pages 51-53:
Harassed by life, exhausted, we look about us for somewhere to be quiet, to be genuine, a place of refreshment. We yearn to restore our spirits in God …. But we fail to look for him where he is waiting for us, where he is to found: in his Son, who is his Word. Or else we seek for God because there are a few thousand things we want to ask him, and imagine that we cannot go on living unless they are answered. …
We fail to listen where God speaks: …[His] Word …. Or else we think that God’s Word has been heard on earth for so long that by now it is almost used up…. We fail to see that it is we ourselves who are used up and alienated, whereas the Word resounds with the same vitality and freshness as ever; it is just as near to us as it always was. As all of us can testify, God does not speak to the hurried, worried mind. It takes time alone with Him and His Word before we can expect our spiritual strength to recover.
Thanks Bill, for passing on some wise words for all of us.
Find a place or time to be quiet before the Lord today. Open up his word and tell your soul: “I hold in my hands the very words of God.” Then thank the Living God for His Living Word and read it as His invitation to greater intimacy with Him.
Two young boys from our neighborhood are doing that today, after coming to worship with us and receiving Bibles for the first time. Join them in the transformation that comes to lovers of the word of God. (Psalm 119:9-11)
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