121115
"The praise of silence befits you, O God, in Zion." Ps. 65:2.
"Whoever cannot be alone should beware of community." We decide to follow God alone, and we will give an account to God alone. If you don not want to be alone, you are rejecting God's call.
The reverse is also true--"Whoever cannot stand in being in community should beware of being alone." If you neglect the community of other Christians, you reject the call of Jesus Christ…
The mark of solitude is silence, just as speech is the mark of community. "There is a time to keep silence and time to speak" Eccles 3:7. "The Word comes not to the noise-makers, but to those who are silent." "No one speaks more confidently than the one who gladly remains silent." Thomas Kempis
There are three things that a Christian needs regular time alone for during the day:
- Mediation on the Scripture. We are required to do this by God, and therefore it is good if for no other reason. The Scripture could be short and the same for a period of time. It is not necessary to:
- get through the entire text
- be anxious about our thoughts and words
- find new ideas
- have any unexpected, extraordinary experiences
- Prayer (121116) Praying should be guided by the words of the scripture in order to not fall prey to our own emptiness. If our thoughts wander, then draw into prayer those people and events to which our thoughts are turning and slowly return to the main point.
- Intercession. A community cannot exist unless its members intercede for each other.