Silence is the Spiritual Strategy
“Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything.” ~Gordon Hempton
It’s hard to hear yourself think.
I’m not talking about the construction next door or your teenager’s music. I’m talking about the relentless noise inside your head. The pings. The opinions. The fears. The comparisons. The busyness disguised as productivity.
The noise that drowns out clarity, that steals your peace, that makes everything feel urgent and nothing feel important.
It’s drowning out the voice that matters most.
Mark Batterson says it perfectly: “A whisper is the most intimate form of communication.”
God whispers. Not because He’s weak, but because intimacy requires proximity. You have to get close to hear a whisper. You have to lean in, get quiet, and move beyond the noise.
God won’t shout over the noise. He waits until you’re in position to hear the whisper.
Remember Elijah? After the showdown on Mount Carmel, after calling down fire from heaven, he ran for his life and hid in a cave. God showed up. But not in the way Elijah expected.
“The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” (1 Kings 19:11-12, NIV)
Not in the earthquake. Not in the fire. Not in the wind.
In the whisper.
What are the ‘winds’ and ‘earthquakes’ in your life right now that make it hard to hear God or, even each other? What’s screaming so loudly that it makes survival even feel like a luxury?
Silence is a spiritual strategy.
But we’ve forgotten how to be still. We fill every moment with sound because silence feels empty. We’ve trained ourselves to be afraid of quiet. But I hope that you’ll find that silence isn’t empty. It’s actually full of God’s voice, and full of the clarity you’ve been missing.
Your breakthrough is waiting in the stillness you’ve been avoiding. Are you afraid of what you might hear if you slow down long enough to listen? Will you take a chance on it?
Chip, here’s my challenge for you: Schedule ten minutes of quiet this week. Not ten minutes of reading your Bible. Not ten minutes of worship music. Just ten minutes of silence. Phone off. Distractions gone. Just you and God.
Pick the time. Pick the place. Show up. Listen.
You might not hear anything the first day. Or the second. But keep showing up because God still speaks. You just need to get quiet enough to hear Him.
He’s whispering. The big question is: Are you in a place to listen…and hear?
Let’s get beyond the noise. Together.
If your soul had a speedometer, what speed would it read right now?
What are you afraid you might hear if you actually got quiet?
When was the last time you sat in complete silence for ten minutes?
Where’s the quietest place in your world, and when will you go there?
Is the noise controlling you, or are you controlling the noise?
