Make Space for God's Still Small Voice

We live in a noisy world, and it’s not just the external sounds coming from machines, gadgets, and media that assault our senses. We all experience a constant flow of internal noise coming through emails, texts, Instant Messages, and social medial notifications. According to the most recent data, people in the U.S. take in five times as much information as they did in 1986. That’s a lot of noise.

“This noise makes a claim on our consciousness,” write Justin Zorn and Leigh Marz. “It colonizes pristine attention. It makes it harder to focus on what’s in front of us, to manage our mind’s impulses, to notice, to appreciate, and to preserve open space: the space of silence.”[1]

So where do you go to get away from all the noise? Short of going on a “silent retreat” at a mountain-top monastery or spending time in an Anechoic chamber (otherwise known as the world’s quietest room) may I suggest a place that you don’t normally associate with silence: the church. That is, if you can find a church that makes space for silence.?

The thing is, most churches these days find it necessary to fill every space with some kind of sound. From the rousing welcome to the powerful worship music to the energetic sermon, there’s nothing but noise. Granted, most of the noise is?joyful,?but there is rarely a time when it’s quiet enough to hear your own voice, let alone the voice of God.

Don’t get me wrong. God speaks through the words and music written and expressed to give him glory and praise and honor, no matter how noisy. But what if we made space for silence, allowing God to speak to us in a still small voice?

There’s a remarkable story in the Old Testament about Elijah, a fiery prophet of God who challenged the prophets of Baal to a showdown on Mt. Carmel, where God’s power was on full display. After that victory, Elijah should have been brimming with confidence, afraid of nothing. But all it took was a threat from Jezebel to fill his heart with fear and send him into a depressed state. “I have had enough,” Elijah told God. “Take my life” (1 Kings 19:4).?

God responded to Elijah’s despair by telling him, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Here’s what happened next:

And behold, the?Lord?passed by, and?a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the?Lord,?but?the?Lord?was?not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake,?but?the?Lord?was?not in the earthquake;?and after the earthquake a fire, but?the?Lord?was?not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. (I Kings 19:11-13,?NKJV)

As you would expect, this passage on the “still small voice” of God has prompted?reflection through the centuries. Matthew Henry comments, “Gracious souls are more affected by the tender mercies of the Lord than by his terrors.” F.B. Meyer writes of Elijah, “The accents of the ‘still small voice’ fell upon his ears, calming, quieting, soothing.” My favorite comment comes from Dallas Willard:

"Unfortunately, the still small voice of God may easily be overlooked or disregarded, and it has been discounted or despised by some who think that only the more explosive communications can be authentic. For those who follow this view, a life of hearing God must become a life filled with constant fireworks from heaven."[2]

The secular world seems to be catching on to this idea of stillness and silence. “We have to be able to transcend the noise,” write Zorn and Marz, “to withstand and even appreciate the naked reality without all the commentary and entertainment and decoration—if we are to perceive what matters.”

Could the church learn something here? Is it possible that we evangelicals have been more concerned about filling the spaces we use for worship with sound than creating space for God’s still small voice??

Does God speak through our exuberant expressions of worship and praise? Absolutely. But as we see in the life of Elijah, God’s presence often shows up in the most gently, loving fashion. Like he did for Elijah, he wants to meet us in our moments of stillness and silence.?

Of course, these moments don’t occur only in church, although they certainly belong there. We can be proactive in our private lives and make space for stillness. We can “transcend the noise” on a regular basis so we are more open and receptive to God’s still small voice.

When I was a young Christian, my spiritual mentor taught me the value of having a “quiet time” each day for the purpose of reading the Bible and praying. Since I’m not an early riser, the time of day that worked best for me was in the evening, after the rest of the family had retired for the night. To this day, I treasure these moments when the world is quiet and I can hear God’s voice most clearly.

Call me old fashioned, but I believe there should be space for the still small voice of God in the church as well. It is entirely appropriate to shout to the Lord with voices raised at full volume, but if we never become still in our worship, we may deny ourselves the beautiful and emotional experience of hearing God whisper to us, inviting us to connect with him in an intimate and soul-satisfying way.

“Generally speaking, God will not compete for our attention,” Dallas Willard concludes. “That’s why the still small voice—or the interior or inner voice, as it is also called—is the preferred and most valuable form of individual communication for God’s purposes.”[3]

May we create space in our own lives, and may the church provide moments for us to hear the still small voice of God.

[1]?Justin Zorn and Leigh Marz, “The Power of Silence in a Deafening World,” Vox.com, July 29, 2022, https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23178783/the-power-of-silence-in-a-deafening-world.

[2]?Dallas Willard,?Hearing God?(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 116.

[3]?Willard, 118-120.