Month 5 - Spiritual Disciplines | Week 4: In the Quiet
Anchor Scriptures
“Be still, and know that I am God.” - Psalm 46:10
“And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper.” - 1 Kings 19:12
“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” - Luke 5:16
Month 5 hasn’t been about mastery, intensity, or religious achievement. It has been about availability.
W1 - Prayer.
W2 - Scripture.
W3- Hunger.
W4 - Quiet: This week!
As we move into this final week, if last week’s look at fasting removes what fills us, silence reveals what remains.
Quiet has a way of exposing us.
When distraction fades, when input slows, when the background hum finally drops, what rises is often not peace at first, but restlessness. Thoughts we’ve avoided. Longings we’ve dulled. An ache we didn’t know how to name.
Scripture doesn’t treat stillness as passive or empty.It treats it as relational.
Elijah doesn’t meet God in wind, earthquake, or fire, but in a whisper.Jesus doesn’t withdraw because He is weak, but because intimacy requires space.Stillness is not where God becomes silent.It’s where we finally stop competing with His voice.
If we think about it for a second, space is not the absence of things, it is the removal of things, to reveal God already present. He is always present, always near. We are here today to learn to create the quiet, so that we can Behold him. It is not about drawing closer to God; it is about acknowledging his already-here-ness.
Sometimes, quiet can feel threatening. Noise gives us control. Activity gives us identity. Silence strips both away. It places us face to face with God - without props, without performance, without commentary.
And yet, again and again, Scripture shows us that this is where formation happens.
Not because God is distant.But because we are finally present.
As we close Month 5, resist the urge to use quiet as another productivity tool.Don’t rush to “feel something.”Don’t measure success by clarity or emotion. Don’t trust your emotional response more than the word of God.
Feeling is not as important as beholding.
Simply make room.
Sit.Wait.Listen.
However you choose to do it. Let stillness do its slow, honest work.
Next month, we move outward again, but only after learning how to remain rooted when nothing is happening, nothing is loud, and nothing is rushing us along.
The discipline of quiet is not an escape from life.It is training for faithful presence within it.
Quiet & Space In Scripture
From Genesis to the Gospels, we see God repeatedly forming His people by creating space before He gives direction.
Rather than silence being an interruption to God’s work, it is actually often the preconditionfor it.
Moses first encounters God not in Egypt’s noise but in the wilderness. Exodus 3 places him “keeping the flock… on the far side of the wilderness” when God speaks from the burning bush. Forty years of obscurity precede a moment of clarity.
The Psalms consistently frame silence as trust, not passivity.
“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation” (Psalm 62:1).
Waiting quietly is not inactivity; it’s resistance against self-determinism.
Elijah’s encounter at Horeb makes the point unmistakable. God bypasses spectacle and speaks in “a low whisper” (1 Kings 19:12). The text emphasizes not emotion, not volatility, not the storm, the fire, not a big worship band, high speakers, or LED screens, but space, quiet, discernment. Elijah had to be still enough to recognize that God is already speaking.
Jesus follows the same pattern. Before choosing the Twelve, “He went out to the mountain to pray, and all night He continued in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). Before confronting the cross, He withdrew to the garden. Before major movements, Jesus creates space, not because He lacks resolve, but because obedience flows from communion.
There is a teaching moment here, that if we arent careful, we will miss.
God’s presence is not dictated by your emotions; he doesn’t wait for the crescendo of the worship song to arrive, he isn’t any more present in your fervent loudness or the bright lights than he is in your quiet loneliness. He is speaking in your car, when you close your eyes at night, in the steady plod of your solitary walks, he is as close when your dispair turns into tears, as he is in your praise. If you can meet him in the silence, in the quiet, in the space, you will have an intimacy that outlasts any event or emotional experience. Stop trying to add experiences to draw God to you, and start removing experiences to draw nearer to him.
Scripture does not treat quiet as emptiness.It treats it as alignment.
Creating Space: Practices From The Church Across History
From the early church to our modern renditions, Christians have consistently recognized that God is not forced into the margins of a busy life. Space must be intentionally made.
The Desert Fathers withdrew not out of world-hatred, but out of attentiveness. Abba Arsenius famously prayed, “Lord, lead me in the way of salvation,” and received the answer: “Flee, be silent, pray always.” Silence was not avoidance - it was a way of staying awake to God.
One of my favorites by him is: “I have often repented of having spoken, but never of having been silent.”
John Cassian wrote in the 4th century that silence trains the soul “to listen for God rather than to speak at Him.” The early monastic tradition understood that unguarded speech and constant activityfragmented attention long before modern technology ever did. They chose the practice of space, quiet, and attentiveness.
The Rule of St. Benedict formalized this wisdom into daily life. Benedict insisted on ordered rhythms of silence, especially at night, believing that quiet protected the heart for prayer. His aim was not withdrawal from obedience, but stability of soul. Silence created space for discernment.
During the Reformation, Martin Luther, despite his public intensity, seems from his writing to have been focused and disciplined about solitude. He warned that constant activity without prayer “turns the soul into a marketplace.” Luther believed Scripture could only be rightly heard when the heart was first stilled before God.
The Quaker tradition took this further by practicing corporate silence. Meetings often begin without speech, waiting for God to initiate. George Fox wrote:
“Be still and cool in your own mind and spirit from your own thoughts, and then you will feel the principle of God to turn your mind to the Lord God.”
More recently, Henri Nouwen wrote that modern Christians fear silence because it exposes our inner poverty. He wrote:
“In silence we discover that we are not what we do, but who we are before God.”
For Nouwen, solitude was not retreat from ministry, but the ground from which meaningful ministry could grow.
Across traditions, monastic, Reformed, charismatic, contemplative, the conclusion is the same: space is not accidental. It is purposefully cultivated.
Practical insights drawn from these streams:
Treat silence as a practice, not a mood
Anchor “quiet” to a time and place, not convenience
Expect resistance before clarity
Stay even when you perceive that nothing “happens.”
Let silence expose before it comforts
God has always spoken.The question has never been volume, only “beholding”.
Practice For The Week
This week, your practice goal is intentional quiet.
Not silence as an escape.Not quiet as a productivity hack.But stillness as attentiveness.
Below is a beautiful technique offered from the Orthodox stream.
Suggested rhythm (adapt as needed):
Set aside 10–15 minutes, once a day if possible
Remove input: no phone, no music, no reading
Sit or walk comfortably, but alert
Begin by acknowledging God’s presence
Then say nothing
When thoughts come, don’t chase them away.Notice them. Release them. Return to attentiveness.
If prayer emerges, let it.If nothing emerges, remain anyway.
This is not about achieving peace.It is about making room.
Reflection Questions
Use these slowly. Don’t rush to answers.
What rises in me when the noise stops?
What do I instinctively reach for when silence stretches on?
Do I trust God enough to remain without clarity?
What might God be forming in me through quiet rather than action?
Closing The Month
Month 5 hasn’t been about mastery, intensity, or religious achievement.
It has been about availability.
Prayer.
Scripture.
Hunger.
Quiet.
Each discipline has pointed us toward the same reality:God forms us not through constant doing, but through faithful presence.
As we move into the next month, carry this with you:
Stillness is not withdrawal from obedience.It is preparation for it.
What is formed in the quiet shapes how we walk when the noise returns.
📅 This Week’s 30-Min Rally Point
We’ll meet for our first 30-minute rally point this Thursday at 7:00 PM EST via Zoom.This is a space for reflection, encouragement, and activation, a rhythm of checking in, praying together, and pressing forward.
🕖 Zoom Time: Thursday @ 7:00 PM EST🔗 Click to join the Zoom call - Zoom URL
Bring a Bible, a journal, and any wins or wrestles you want to share. This is a safe space to grow.
Sneak Peek at Month 6 | Evangelism - Week 1: Salt and Light
Anchor Scriptures
“You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.” - Matthew 5:13–14
“As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” - John 20:21
“Always be prepared to give an answer… with gentleness and respect.” - 1 Peter 3:15
Evangelism in Scripture is the natural overflow of a life shaped by God’s presence.
Jesus doesn’t call His disciples to becomesalt and light. He tells them that they already are. The question is not whether we are sent, but whether our lives are present enough, distinct enough, and grounded enough to be recognizable.
Throughout Scripture, God forms His people inwardly before sending them outward. Calling precedes commissioning. Presence precedes proclamation. When the church skips formation, evangelism becomes pressure. When formation is rooted, witness becomes inevitable.
Next week, we will explore what Jesus meant bysalt and light, why evangelism is first about who we are before what we say, and how Scripture reframes witness as faithful presence rather than forced outcomes.
God is with us!
Father,
We acknowledge that You are present even when You are quiet.We confess how quickly we rush to fill space, with words, plans, noise, and effort, rather than remain with You.
Teach us to be still before You, not as an escape from obedience, but as the place where obedience is formed.Where our motives are revealed.Where our hunger is clarified.Where our trust is tested.
Like Elijah, train us to recognize Your voice without spectacle.Like Jesus, give us the courage to withdraw without guilt and to return without fear.
We offer You our waiting, our silence, and our unfinished thoughts.Form us in the quiet so that when we are sent, we carry Your presence, not just our words.
In Jesus’ name,Amen.
I’m glad you’re here.
Let’s run the race - Eyes Up, Chin Up!
Grace and peace,
Sam Johnston
