On Being Alone...

Someone has said "We would be better Christians if we were more alone". Perhaps if we attempted less and spent quiet time waiting on God, things would be better. Our Lord Jesus often went to be alone in communion with His Father.

We get the feeling that we must always be "doing something" and we fill our hours with "doing things" and rushing to and fro. Some of us, by reason of age and circumstance are often alone. The modern pattern of life seems to be filled with things that are really not important and these often shut out the "whispers of God".

Silence is an increasingly precious commodity. The only golden thing we are not interested in is silence. How many turn on the television, put on the Hi Fi or the radio. Thomas Carlyle said "Silence is as deep as eternity; speech as shallow as time". So often, even for Christians, the hustle and bustle of living makes it hard for us to hear what God has to say.

Now, since the fountain of wisdom is God's word, if you read what it tells us, you will see that God often put His servants where they were alone, so that He could speak to them. It is when all the props of life are put aside and only God is near that we can hear the whispers of Heaven. Jacob heard the angels' whisper. It was the Name of our Lord Jesus "Wonderful" (Genesis 32:24). You can track this truth through scripture. Abraham was left alone in Horeb satisfied with his tent dwelling (Genesis 13:14). Lot went into the cities of the plain. Abraham had the angel come to him. Moses, although learned in all the arts of the Egyptians, had to be taken from these so that he could hear the call of God. Forty years in the desert, then he heard the call of God. Daniel was left alone and then he saw those visions which filled him with awe and wonder (Daniel 10:8). Paul, after his encounter with our Lord Jesus, went away to Arabia, away from all the voices of others and there he heard the voice of God and knew he was the apostle to the Gentiles.

John was left alone on Patmos island and there he saw the glorious visions and the print of Heaven and the coming glory.

Like Elijah, we need to hear the whispers of God. For him, it wasn't in the storm or earthquake or the fire, it was in the calm and the silence that followed.

Don't think that hustle and bustle is the answer.

"The little cares that fretted me
I lost them yesterday
out in the fields with God".

Don't rush, especially if you have no word from God. It is folly to go without hearing His whisper of love.

May you learn to be often alone with God. He has wonderful things to say to you and He'll make you a blessing.

Those who "wait on the Lord, renew their strength and mount up like eagles" (Isaiah 40). The eagle is a lone flyer. Of all the birds that fly, the eagle is most solitary. You only see one or two at the most and they fly above in the heights. So we may mount up, run and not be weary, walk and not faint. God seeks eagle men and women.