SOLITUDE
I commend
solitude to any of you who are seeking salvation, first, that you may study
well your case as in the sight of God.
Few men truly know themselves as they really are. Most people have seen
themselves in a looking-glass, but there is another looking-glass, which gives
true reflections, into which few men look. 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 outward 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!
Solitude, Silence, Submission, in
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, reprint Pilgrim Publications, 1976, v. 42, p.
266.
Retire from
the world each day to some private spot, even if it be only the 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 and a
sense of God’s presence envelops you… Listen for the inward Voice till you
learn to recognize it. Stop trying to compete with others. Give yourself to God
and then be what and who you are without regard to what others think… Learn to
pray inwardly every moment. After a while you can do this even while you work…
Read less, but more of what is important to your inner life. Never let your mind remain scattered for very long. Call home your roving
thoughts. Gaze on Christ with the eyes of your soul. Practice spiritual
concentration. All the above is contingent upon a right relation to God through
Christ and daily meditation on the Scriptures. Lacking these, nothing will help
us; granted these, the discipline recommended will go far to neutralize the
evil effects of externalism to make us acquainted with God and our own souls.
A.W. Tozer
The Best of A.W. Tozer, Baker Book House,
1978, p. 151-152.
The
Discipline of silence is the voluntary and temporary abstention from speaking
so that certain spiritual goals might be sought. Sometimes silence is observed
in order to read, write, pray, and so on. Though there
is no outward speaking, there are internal dialogues with self and with God.
This can be called “outward silence.” Other times silence is maintained not
only outwardly but also inwardly so that God’s voice might be heard more
clearly.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 184, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved. For more information
please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
Solitude is
the Spiritual Discipline of voluntarily and temporarily withdrawing to privacy
for spiritual purposes. The period of solitude may last only a few minutes or
for days. As with silence, solitude may be sought in order to participate
without interruption in other Spiritual Disciplines, or just to be alone with
God.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 184, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved. For more information
please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
Without
exception, the men and women I have known who make the most rapid, consistent,
and evident growth in Christlikeness have been those who develop a daily time
of being alone with God. This time of outward silence is the time of daily
Bible intake and prayer. In this solitude is the occasion for private worship.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 195, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved. For more information
please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
The worship
of God does not always require words, sounds, or actions. Sometimes worship
consists of a God-focused stillness and hush.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 187, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved. For more information
please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
Put yourself
in Jesus’ sandals for a moment. People are clamoring for your help and have
many real needs. You are able to meet all those needs. Can you ever feel
justified in pulling away to be alone? Jesus did. We love to feel wanted. We
love the sense of importance/power/indispensability (pick one) that comes from
doing something no one else can do. But Jesus did not succumb to those
temptations. He knew the importance of disciplining Himself to be alone.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 185, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved. For more information
please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
Solitude is a
release to the soul that was imprisoned in company.
George Swinnock
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 284.
Some are
greatly affected when in company; but have nothing that bears any manner of
proportion to it in secret, in close meditation, prayer and conversing with God
when alone, and separated from the world. A true Christian doubtless delights
in religious fellowship and Christian conversation, and finds much to affect
his heart in it; but he also delights at times to retire from all mankind, to
converse with God in solitude. And this also has peculiar advantages for fixing
his heart, and engaging his affections. True religion disposes persons to be
much alone in solitary places for holy meditation and prayer… It is the nature
of true grace, however it loves Christian society in
its place, in a peculiar manner to delight in retirement, and secret converse
with God.
Jonathan Edwards
The Works of Jonathan Edwards, rev. Edward
Hickman, reprint, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974, v. 1, p. 311-312.
Solitude,
silence, and the strait keeping of the heart, are the foundations and grounds
of a spiritual life.
Rules and Instructions for a Holy
Life.
There is a world of difference between the
silence of apathy and the silence of passion!
John Piper
From
the Sermon: Take Care How You Listen – Part 2, Luke 8:4-18, February 22, 1998, www.DesiringGod.org, Used by
Permission.
It has been
said that no great work in literature or in science was ever wrought by a man
who did not love solitude. We may lay it down as an elemental principle of
religion, that no large growth in holiness was ever gained by one who did not
take time to be often long alone with God.
Austin Phelps
The Still Hour or Communion with God,
1974, p. 64, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.