Quiet Devotion

"...rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place and there prayed."

(Mark 1:35)

We live in an age of religious activity in the church and yet the call for all of us as children of God is to "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place...Be still and know that I am God." It is the empty heart devoid of an abiding sense of the all-present Jehovah which craves activity and fellowship like a drug. Still the loneliness that grips our souls can never be completely thwarted by our hectic pace and the myriads of people we surround ourselves with. Only a lasting encounter with God will fill our hearts with the sense that we are not alone. Our great King and Creator has designed us that way and nothing can replace our need for fellowship with Him.

 

Such truth is seen in those hungry souls that sought God above all else. They that understood this reality manifested the truth that in one sense all God-hungry souls walk alone in this world. It is in this solitary place that God does His greatest works. Here God walked with Enoch, here God met with Jacob, spoke with Moses, fellowshiped with the prophets and communed with Christ in prayer.

Tozer speaks of such a truth when he says that "There are some things that you and I will never learn when others are present. I believe in church and I love the fellowship of the assembly. There is much we can learn when we come together on Sundays and sit among the saints. But there are certain things that you and I will never learn in the presence of other people. Unquestionably, part of our failure today is religious activity that is not preceded by aloneness, by inactivity. I mean getting alone with God and waiting in silence and quietness until we are charged with God's Spirit. Then, when we act, our activity really amounts to something because we have been prepared by God for it.... "

While it is true that we are called into the fellowship of Gods true called out assembly, it is also equally true that even the fellowship of believers can never replace that solitary walk with the King of glory. Feverious activity that hides that still small voice and fellowship with others that crowds out our fellowship with God has led to a shallowness in our inner experience with God. This in turn has led to the shallowness in our corporate worship that in turn has led to the great weakening of our churches today.

We need to get back to the stillness of God and the contemplation that begats true fire. Only when we are filled to overflowing with that great glory that comes from those solitary times with God will we have anything worthwhile to bring to the fellowships that we are also called to by God.

The greatest need of the human soul is God Himself and only in that consistent quiet time spent alone with Him can a soul be washed with the sweet savor of His presence. It is this savor and this savor alone that will be of any use to those around us and will once again make our fellowships God-centered instead of man-centered.