Month: April 2026

Posted on in Challenge, Faith, Focus, Just do it, Listen, Obedience, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Surrender, Yield

Keep Silent

How difficult is it for you to keep silent? How long can you go without speaking? How about your brain chatter? We all have a constant stream of self-talk, an inner voice that seems to never shut up. Even when we want to scream, (though it is ineffective to shout), “Shut the *&^*%&^%( Up!”

https://happyeasier.com/quiet-your-inner-voice-take-control-of-your-mental-chatter/ Mel Mac writes about our inner voice. She concludes her article with the following. “Remember, the goal is not to eliminate the inner voice completely but to reduce its influence and regain control over your thoughts and actions. By doing so, you can live a more peaceful, productive, and fulfilling life.” She emphasizes that a good start is with 60 seconds of meditation. Learning to stay focused is essential to gaining control over our run away mind.

That took me to the image from Harry Chapin’s song 30,000 pounds of Bananas and run away truck.

“He passed the sign he should have seen saying ‘shift to low gear or a $30 dollar fine my friend.’ ” Just listen to the first 3 minutes and you will get the message! Is my mind lost in thought about something I long for (like the truck driver) or can I pay attention to what is going on right now?

Here. Now. Before I create the odor of smashed bananas? Can you imagine the fruit flies in the aftermath?

When words are many, transgression is not lacking,
    but the prudent are restrained in speech. Proverbs 10:19 NRSVUE

That inner voice, with ceaseless chatter. Can I still myself and focus? Am I willing to try throughout the day, not just during my morning quiet time of prayer and meditation?

I made a typo in the last paragraph and wrote mediation. Then I corrected it. Then I thought perhaps it was not an error at all. Quieting the monkey mind is like mediation between my overactive brain and the Spirit of God. Mediation: intervention between conflicting parties to promote reconciliation, settlement, or compromise. We cannot mute that brain chatter. Literally impossible, but we can soften it, reconcile the thoughts to Christ, compromise to be more like Jesus.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30 NRSVUE

Jesus spoke that commandment in Mark. He was repeating the Father’s will to us recorded in Deuteronomy 6:5. Paul shows us how in his works of the New Testament.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 NRSVUE

Are you willing to do the work for this sort of discipleship? God will help you. I am certain of that. When I let my mind run rampant is when I am likely to get into the most trouble.

Mediation between our nature and the call of Christ. Meditation, focus our minds upon God. Center our hearts in Him who loves us and died and was raised to life for us. Walk throughout the day with this mind.

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.  Philippians 1:1-2 NRSVUE

May you have a deeper participation in the understanding of the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf that we might share in His glory.

Posted on in Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Focus, Just do it, Listen, Look, Praise, Prayer, Rest, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Yield

Why Meditate on Scripture?

https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/biblical-meditation/ has a terrific article well worth your time to read. Here is part of it: Meditating on the Scriptures is vital practice for maturing in the Christian life. As one anonymous writer said, “The Bible is not meant merely to inform but to transform.” Throughout history, godly leaders have commended the transforming effects of meditation. Consider this beautiful description by Thomas Brooks, a seventeenth-century church leader:

Remember that it is not hasty reading but serious meditation on holy and heavenly truths, that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the mere touching of the flower by the bee that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time on the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most but he that meditates most that will prove to be the choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian.

I used to tell some fellow Bible students that I was not impressed if they could recite all the books of the Bible, even if they could recite those books in backwards order. To me the best accomplishment was if one could LIVE a single verse. I cannot attempt to come close to living a verse if I am unaware of the heart of God towards me. I get closer by trying to understand Hesed, loving kindness, mercy, grace and compassion. All of that for each of us. Knowing I can not do anything to make God love me more. Knowing God will never choose to love me less, motivates me to want to become more like Jesus. I have gained this knowledge from reading the Word of God, sitting with those concepts over decades, trusting to believe this even about myself.

Have you tried meditation? The practice has gotten a bad name from Christians who are motivated by fear. Understand that this is sometime that God has called us to throughout the Bible. Do your own study on the concept. Practice it a few times. Then try it a few more times. Be still and listen for the voice of the Lord to your heart and soul. I think you might find this a way to stir your soul into a deeper walk.

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1: 6-7 NRSVUE

The love and care God has extended to me has changed me as a person.

35 You have given me the shield of your salvation,
    and your right hand supported me,
    and your gentleness made me great.
36 You gave a wide place for my steps under me,
    and my feet did not slip. Psalm 18:35-36 ESV

What has your meditation on the Word of God done for you? Have you learned more about the character of God? Have you allowed the Spirit of God to make changes in you? What might the future hold if you made it your practice to meditate upon the Word and upon the character of the Trinity? Are you willing to give it a try?

Read and then spend sixty seconds of quiet in the Presence of the Living God. Then two minutes. Then five. Move along to ten as you are able. It truly is a practice. Not something we accomplish and then stop.

Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Listen, Obedience, Trust, Worship, Yield

Silence

ABBA Poemen was right. “Whatever troubles you

can be overcome by silence.”

Have you tried this wisdom for yourself? Take your troubles. Set them down. Surround them with silence. Let things unfold without your words. If need be, muzzle that situation or yourself. Are you willing to put a shroud of silence over the situation? You remember in the movies how the house that was to be left for a time had all the furniture covered with sheets? Cover your troubles with silence and leave them in the hands of God. “Overcome by silence.”

What of our current world and silence? I do not mean we should not speak out against injustice. I mean do we approach God with endless words and ideas and solutions? Are we willing to let God be in charge and have us be the servants, wielding no power or influence. A willing servant of the mercy of God?

There are times I know I just talk too much.

The desert fathers and mothers warn us about too much talk and not enough action. Is that us?

A word from an anonymous Mother of Father of the desert: An Abba said, “There is no need for a lot of words. Human beings have plenty to say for themselves in these days, but it is deeds which are needed. This is what God wants, not mere words which bear no fruits.” (2-4th centuries A.D. sound like 2026)

Holding our tongue, stopping our words, is one major form of humbling ourselves.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10NIV

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.1 Peter 5:6 NRSVUE

But the Lord is in his holy temple;
    let all the earth keep silence before him! Habakkuk 2:20 NRSVUE

As I walk through the final few days of this Lenten season I am more aware than ever of my need to humble myself before the Lord. My need to keep silence. My heart longs to go to the Convent or some place where I would not need to speak for more than a few minutes.

One of my favorite artists, Brandon Lake, wrote in his song Gratitude,

“All my words fall short
I got nothing new
How could I express
All my gratitude?

I could sing these songs
As I often do
But every song must end
And You never do.”

Even that is using words. The wise old man who went to church everyday and just sat looking at the Christ was right. “I looks at Him and He looks at me.” That is what I need right now, and always.