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Psalm?46

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah

?Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.?

The?Lord?of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Psalm?22

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame. But I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people. All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads; ?Commit your cause to the?Lord; let him deliver? let him rescue the one in whom he delights!? Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother?s breast. On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.

Matthew 27:46

And about three o?clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ?Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?? that is, ?My God, my God, why have you forsaken me??

Psalm?13

How long, O?Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O?Lord?my God! Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, and my enemy will say, ?I have prevailed?; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken. But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the?Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm?130

Out of the depths I cry to you, O?Lord. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! If you, O?Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. I wait for the?Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. O Israel, hope in the?Lord! For with the?Lord?there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

I remember singing in the choir in late elementary/middle school at my home church. Doug was our church musician and he was great. The music piece we were working on was called ?Be Still, and Know that I am God.? Doug would hold the tennis ball that was cut for a ?mouth? and had eyes drawn on it-he would push open the tennis balls mouth with the expectation that we would open our mouths with such intent and verbal pronunciation as the tennis ball. We sang this song so much! But the words of this scripture passage are forever ingrained in my mind- ?Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted in the nation. I will be exalted in the earth. Be still and know that I am God.? Being still before God has been something I have always known to be important and have always longed to be able to do. Yet, there is something about stillness and silence that don?t always seem to happen; stillness and silence is something that is very minimal for me.

If we think about silence, we almost instantly move to noise. For many of us are constantly bombarded with sound, images, information, news, Facebook, text messages, marketing calls, people, or just noise. Sound is everywhere. Silence takes effort and it might be difficult or uncomfortable. Yet, I also recognize for others, that the silence is very real and can be something that is frightening. Silence is not wanted because we remember what it was like when there wasn?t silence because of other people around us. We remember when things were once filled with sounds, are now just endless silence.

If we think about stillness, we almost instantly think of the opposite?movement. We might sit still in the car while driving, or in the chair when reading or watching our favorite show or movie, but choosing to sit still and be present, might not be on our agenda for every day.

And then I think about silence and stillness and God. I have sat still in times of listening and prayer?and have fallen asleep. I have attempted to rest in the arms of the Lord, remembering the importance of being held by the one who loves me unconditionally and offer thanksgiving and praise, only to begin working on my to-do list and grocery list for the day. I have sat and written in a journal about everything what is happening in my life and how I feel God is walking (or not walking) the journey with me, only to do so for a few days and stop?forgetting to make time to be still with God and reflect on my life through the words given to me at that time. I also remember times through prayer when I did sit in stillness, listening and waiting?and waiting, and waiting. And there was just silence on the other end. Silence from God, silence with God, silence in prayer, silence. In my stillness, there was nothing but silence. In my silence, I was still and present with God. And sometimes, I have felt God present with me. Other times, I haven?t. Sometimes it feels like an empty space, a void, and God?s presence isn?t with me.

When I look closer at the words of Psalm 46: Be still, and know that I am God; I am reminded the importance in my prayer life to be still. Not just sitting still, but intentionally sitting still before God. Spending time in God?s presence with the one who is our creator and redeemer of this world, God is the one who is to be exalted among the nations. This passage reminds me that stillness as a form of prayer creates a conduit for our relationship with God. In the same way that are relationship with our partners or family members struggle when we aren?t together sharing space, when we aren?t still with God, our relationship will struggle.

When I look closer at silence, I believe to goes both ways. Our silence in communicating with God through our prayer and our actions and the silence as non-response or unanswered prayers we feel we receive from God. The psalmist cries these words from Psalm 13: ?How long, O?Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O?Lord?my God!? The psalmist is pouring out his heart because in his time of stillness and prayer, he is hearing nothing from God. It is almost as if an empty void is created between God and psalmist. The psalmist shares how the presence of God is not felt through these time of hardship, and there is a ?disconnection from the most important relationship in his life?he feels disconnected from God as if a void is between them. This psalm and many others are addressed to a God who seems either deaf, completely absent, and as a dark void between them.

And as we continue we realize that Jesus too felt the absence of God. He used the prayer from Psalm 22: ?My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?? from the cross in his darkest moment. Feeling the void or absence of God is incredibly difficult and can cause many people to question their faith when prayers go unanswered.

I recently read this: A women did not pray for more than a year, benumbed by the fear that she must have committed the unpardonable sin. Thomas Green, a wise spiritual director, dispels that fear. We judge as immature, he says, a friend who pulls away wounded but refuses to reveal what we might have done to hurt him or her. Surely the God of love as revealed in Jesus does not act in such a childish way. Green recommends the following prayer:

?Lord, you care for me more than I care for myself. I cannot believe that you are playing guessing games with me. If the dryness I experience is due to some failing of mine, you make it clear to me and I will try to remedy it. But I will not entertain vague doubts; unless and until you make my failing clear to me, I will assume that is not the reasons for the dryness.?

Some would refer to the silence as ?the dark night of the soul.? I have been there. I have wanted and waited for God to answer my prayers. I have cried tears, yelled and screamed, and waited for God to respond, only to hear nothing but silence. But I continue to pray through all times of life-the good and the bad-knowing and believing and hoping for what could come. Have you? And I believe the psalmist did the same. Even in times of not feeling connected to God, his prayers continued with a bit of hope. Including hope in what God can do is vital in prayer during hard times and not feeling a response from God.

Psalm 13 continues with these words: ?Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, and my enemy will say, ?I have prevailed?; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken. But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the?Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.? Faith, trust, salvation, song, continue and show the foes/enemy that God will prevail and I will prevail with God. The psalmist reminds us of the importance to keep on praying?in the stillness, in the silence, during the silence. That even if we suffer a time of spiritual dryness, of darkness and blankness, of silence, should we stop praying until new life enters my prayer? No. If I stop praying, how will I know when prayer does become alive again?

In Philip Yancy?s book ?Prayer: Does it Make Any Difference?,? he shares seven survival strategies when we experience silence from God and feel the void between us.

1. Ask yourself the question, ?Have I caused the blockage?? If so, then spend some time in confession and asking for that blockage to be removed.
2. Examine our motives in prayer. Our you seeking God on your own terms? Or God?s terms? And as Dietrich Bonhoeffer shares, seek God not happiness as a fundamental rule. If you seek God alone, you will gain happiness?that is the promise.
3. If you feel you are in a period of dryness in prayer, then sometimes the rest of your life becomes alive. Listen attentively to friends-God might be speaking through them; ideas could leap off the pages of books; nature could speak more deeply during these times.
4. Ask yourself, ?Have I been pursuing results from my prayers rather than companionship with God?? In the same vain, if you took out all of the prayers you prayed for yourself and your family, what prayers would be left?
5. During this time, ask God to prepare for your future growth. Is God desiring you to prune something in your life so you can grow more?
6. Try to see this dry period as a time of waiting. If we think about all the times Jesus was approached in the gospels with a question (about 183 times) and he only directly replied to about 3. Instead, he responded with a different question, a story, or some other indirection. It seems that Jesus wants us to keep asking the questions, keep praying, keep connecting, maybe even working out the answers on our own-implementing the principles the he taught and lived. Waiting to see what will happen once we take something to God can equip us to serve God too.
7. A final survival strategy is to lean on the faith of others. Jesus taught us to pray, ?Our Father,? not ?My Father.? And Jesus reminded us that when two or three are gathered in my name, I am with them.

Yancy shares this story about the foxes in his back yard. Once, when a visitor from New Zealand stopped by, I took him to the fox den, warning him that he may see and hear nothing at all. ?They are wild animals, you know? I said. ?We?re not in charge. It?s up to them whether they make an appearance or not.? A bold young fox did poke his nose out of the den that day, thrilling my visitor, and a few weeks later I received a letter from him, now back home in New Zealand. As he reflected on it, oddly enough, my comment about foxes helped him understand God more. He had just gone through a long season of depression. Sometimes God seemed as close as his wife or children. Sometimes he had no sense of God?s presence, no faith to lean on. ?He is wild, you know,? he wrote. ?We?re not in charge.?

James wrote, ?Come near to God and God will come near to you.? James reminds us that keeping company with God involves two parties, and I have an important role in the relationship. It?s a two way street.

Friends, God has probably a lot more room to complain about us being silent and absence in our relationship. We might reserve a few minutes a day for prayer, but how many times a day do I drown out or ignore the quiet voice that speaks to my conscience and my life?

I believe we have a great deal of work to do when it comes to prayer. I truly believe in the power of prayer. I believe we need to create more avenues in our personal lives to be still with God to listen and to wait. And I know what a challenge this task is. As I shared last week, I do believe that one of the reasons there seems to be so much evil in the world is because those of us who can pray, don?t pray as if we believe it will change the world. It is time to truly be the bridge builders with God in this world?this place we live in needs prayer warriors to work with God to bring God?s kingdom to earth. This place we live is in need of authentic followers of Jesus who believe in the power of prayer and put their faith and trust in Jesus. I do hope you will work on this too. Let us pray like we believe it and live it out. Amen.

One of the most sacred times I have been able to have is our meditation service on Sunday mornings at 8:30. Sacred Space has become a time of much needed stillness and silence for me in my life. It has allowed for me to feel more connected to God, scripture, this space of worship, and our community. The crazy thing, is we typically have 13-15 minutes of silence during the service, and I have realized this is something that is so rare in my life that I crave it on Sunday mornings. Yet creating that space during the week hasn?t been something I have made a priority during the week. This is something I am working on in my life. Creating the opportunities for stillness and silence are incredibly important as we continue to work on being the bridge builders with God in our world.