DAILY DEVOTIONAL – October 29, 2019
“Shocking Silence”
Prayer: Heavenly Father, our Maker and Creator, we know and confess that our sin has separated us from You and that without You we are left only to despair in ourselves. How desperately we need You Lord, and we praise You and thank You for Your infinite love and mercy that You have given to us in Your Son Jesus. It is by faith in Him that we know hope and assurance and only in Him that we can ever find true rest for our souls. Bless us in our time of devotion in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Scripture: Isaiah 57:18-20
I will comfort those who mourn,
bringing words of praise to their lips.
May they have abundant peace, both near and far,”
says the Lord, who heals them.
“But those who reject me are like the restless sea,
which is never still but continually churns up mud and dirt.
Devotional – “Shocking Silence”
In 2014 Time Magazine published the findings of a study that was literally quite shocking. They found that a surprising number of people would rather give themselves an electric shock than spend fifteen minutes alone in a room, in complete silence and with nothing to do but think.
In a total of 11 studies, the research found that participants typically did not enjoy spending even as little as 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think. It was observed that the majority of participants in the study found it difficult to sit still and that they much more preferred mundane activities. The biggest surprise of the study revealed that many preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts. Most people preferred to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that something was negative and painful.
University of Virginia psychologist Timothy Wilson and his co-authors who published the study reported that 67% of male participants and 25% of female participants in one study gave themselves at least one shock during the time they were left to sit quietly thinking.
Researchers are unsure about the reasons for the aversion to “alone” time. They speculate that it could be anything from the mind immediately straying to negative self-thoughts, to not being able to mentally focus on a topic to think about, thus experiencing ill-ease and frustration. In the end, they admit that the reasons remain a mystery. Not even the participants themselves were able to clearly articulate their discomfort with the alone time. At best, researchers postulate that “minds are difficult to control … and it may be particularly hard to steer our thoughts in pleasant directions and keep them there.”
While the researchers in this study may not be certain of why it is we have such an aversion to silence, God’s Word gave us the answer ages ago in our text for today from Isaiah 57:18-20.
I will comfort those who mourn,
bringing words of praise to their lips.
May they have abundant peace, both near and far,”
says the Lord, who heals them.
“But those who reject me are like the restless sea,
which is never still but continually churns up mud and dirt.
Simply put, without God, we are left with no hope and no purpose. Without God we are left only with ourselves; with the depravity of our hearts and minds. In our Western way of thinking that prides itself on individuality and self-sufficiency, we have come to believe that thoughts originate in our mind. However, Jesus teaches us something different. Jesus teaches us that our sin and rebellion against God has corrupted our hearts. In the Bible the word that Jesus and the authors of Scripture use for heart is the word “kardia”…from which we derive the word cardio, as in cardiovascular. Though this word was certainly used to refer to the actual physical heart God gave us in our body, Jesus and His contemporaries who wrote Scripture more understood the heart to be the center of not only our physical life but also our spiritual life. Whenever the word heart is used outside of a clear reference to the anatomical organ in our chest, the best understanding of what Jesus and the authors of Scripture are referring to when they say “heart” is to think “soul” or “spirit” or “mind”. According to God’s Word, the heart is the fountain and seat of thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavors, character and understanding.
It’s with this understanding of the relationship between the heart and mind that Jesus says in Matthew 15:19 that it is “out of the heart come evil thoughts…” And in Matthew 9:4 Jesus asks the Pharisees who hated Jesus and wanted to kill Him, “Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts?”
Why don’t we like to be alone with ourselves with nothing else to do but think and be left alone with our thoughts? Because whether we want to admit it or not, the fact that our hearts are corrupt and full of sin is painfully obvious to us. As our world of industrial and technological advancements continues to move forward at warp speed, you can’t help but wonder what propels such an insatiable appetite for more gadgets and gizmos and our clear inability to ever be satisfied with what we have. The reason for our preoccupation with always having more and doing more, is the restlessness of our conscience. While this wicked world, made wicked by our sin, only continues to increase in its sin and rebellion toward God as we draw ever-closer to the Last and Final Day of Judgement when Christ returns, our hearts grow increasingly restless. We know how broken we are and despite our efforts to try and save ourselves, we know deep down in the conscience God gave to each of us that there will be a reckoning and that God will have His day of Judgement. When left by ourselves and left alone with our own hearts and thoughts, it quickly becomes too much and we will go to great lengths to distract ourselves from ourselves. We will buy any number of new gadgets, from iPads and automobiles to needless accessories and fidget spinners, to try and comfort our hearts and minds – and some would even prefer the physical pain and discomfort of electric shock over the pain and discomfort of facing our own sin. Yet, there will never be enough things in the world and we could never endure enough physical pain in order to calm our restless souls.
There is only one cure for our sin and only one hope of salvation from the death our sin deserves. There is only one remedy for a guilty conscience. Only one Word that is powerful enough to quiet and calm the restless thoughts of our desperate hearts. It is that One Word of God that tells us in our text from Isaiah today:
I will comfort those who mourn,
bringing words of praise to their lips.
Our own thoughts will never truly comfort us. No human reassurance of self-worth or self-esteem will ever quiet the restlessness of our hearts. Only the Words of God have that power – the power to comfort and the power to save us from our sin and from death – the Words of God that tell us He comforts those who “mourn”. The comfort of God’s grace is promised to and received by those who know and do who mourn over their sinfulness and desperate need for God’s love and forgiveness that He has promised to give all who turn to Him and put their hope and faith and trust in the blood of His Son Jesus who took on our sin and died our death in order to rise again and give us everlasting life.
This is the very truth that Jesus taught in His Sermon on the Mount when He said in Matthew 5:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
The truth is we very much need regular times of quiet and silence. God’s peace and rest is found when we separate ourselves to Him. When we let go of everything and everyone else in this world and turn to Christ in prayer and meditation. When we empty ourselves of ourselves then we are able to be filled up with His Words of promise and salvation. When we dare to come fully into the silence and bring our brokenness to Jesus, instead of trying to distract ourselves from it or try to drown out the thoughts of our broken hearts with more things or activities, Christ Has promised and will have mercy upon us and give us the peace and rest we need and desire.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek.” The word meek literally means “quiet”, “mild”, “humble”. One definition of the word meek that I think truly captures the essence of what our Lord teaches is “easily imposed upon.” To be meek is to be quiet so as to be easily imposed upon. It is in the quietness and silence in prayer and meditation to God, as uncomfortable as that may be sometimes, that God in His Word comes to us and imposes His Word upon us and makes His thoughts our thoughts.
We are told in James 1:21, “Put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” In other words, put away yourselves and this world and receive in meekness, receive in quietness and humility, the Word of God and allow God’s Word to be imposed upon you and to be implanted in your heart and mind.
We receive rest and peace from God’s Word in meekness because Jesus Himself is meek. Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me all who labor and all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Meekness is not just a one-time or incidental thing. We are not called to set aside time to be meek toward God, we are called to live our life in meekness. Anything that we acquire or possess in this life, anything that we chose to do or not to do, whatever it is that occupies our attention or fills our calendar should be only those things that bring us closer to God and that enable us to live a life of meekness toward God. There is nothing and no one in this life that can provide the peace that our hearts and minds need; either in this life or the next. As Jesus tells us in His words of comfort in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
Have a wonderful week everyone, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
