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Silent Mode


“Speak up, shut up and look up”, those were the words of personal application that I wrote about last week as I considered my prayer life.  It was based on a verse from Psalm 5:  “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”  (Ps 5:3)

It appears, from the verse, that the psalmist spoke his heart to God and then looked up in expectation.  While it doesn’t say that he “shut up”, it could probably be inferred.  But since “shut up” sounds a bit harsh and not so very spiritual, I thought about another word to focus on that is much more gracious:  “silence”.  So, I looked up some verses that use the word and I broadened it a bit to include “silent”.

But before I list the verses, perhaps it would be good to define the word:  silence is the “forbearance from speech or noise”; and silent is “to compel or reduce to silence.”

“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.”  Ps 62:1

“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.”  Ps 62:5

“Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.” (Zeph 1:7)

“But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” (Hab 2:20)

“Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.” (Ps 4:4)

“A time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;”  (Ecc 3:7)

“Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.” (Amos 5:13)

It is interesting that one use of the word “silence”, according to the web, is that silence  offers a way to ponder and listen for the divine. 

So following up on my “speak up, shut up and look up”, it seems that by compelling myself to be silent, I might be creating a way to ponder what God is doing.  In addition, that time of silence also gives me the opportunity to listen to what God will say.

Being silent, by the way, is not as easy as it sounds! 

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