Week Four: Silence and Trust

Distractions or focusing during prayer are the two most common prayer struggles I hear about from subscribers to this site. It’s hard to know where to begin with prayer if you can’t even clear your mind for a few moments.

This is why practices such as centering prayer encourage us to choose a word, phrase, or icon to focus on while sitting in silence before God. This is a a learned discipline, not a simple trick or life hack that immediately makes it easy to pray. In fact, we are surrounded every day with some of the most sophisticated distractions ever known to man. Sitting in silence before god is no easy task.

Perhaps today’s reflections from 100 Days in the Secret Place will help you keep going with prayer. Silence is not easy to cultivate, but it is such a valuable discipline to practice. In addition, just the act of silence can prove a valuable starting point for prayer. Silence gives God raw materials that can be shaped and directed.

Here are this week’s selections from 100 Days in the Secret Place:

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Simply bringing yourself quietly before God will do more than worrying or being too religious.

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Silence also helps you put space between you and the world. Out of the silence that you cultivate, you will find strength to meet your needs.

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Offer Him your tangled mess and He will turn everything toward His own merciful purpose. You must learn to let go of everything whether God ever gives you what you so eagerly desire or not. The most important thing is to go back to communion with God—even if it seems dry and you are easily distracted.

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How are you going to cultivate an inner silence if you are always talking? You cannot want God and the things of the world at the same time. Don’t you realize that your prayer will be affected by what you cultivate in your daily life?

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Real prayer is nothing more than loving God. Prayer is not made great by a lot of words, for God knows your inmost feelings before you say them.

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Read more in 100 Days in the Secret Place.

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For Reflection