The Secret to Joyful Living

Would you characterize your life as busy? Rushed? Often in a hurry? If so, you are like millions around you. There has never been a time more frenzied than 2016.

Technology has afforded us advancements to be more efficient, but with it comes an expectation to produce more, do more and be more. The problem with it all, is we can easily miss what God is trying to do in midst of the noise.  Silence is holy.

Silence gives us a new outlook on everything. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say but what God says to us and through us. In that silence, He will listen to us; there He will speak to our soul, and there we will hear His voice. Listen in silence, because if your heart is full of other things you cannot hear the voice of God.

—Mother Teresa

Silence is more than turning the volume down. Silence is intentionally choosing to be still amidst the hard-pressed pace of our lives. It is prioritizing the voice of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and not missing Him in the midst of all the propaganda we are ingesting around us.

The secret to joyful living, to having a deeply fulfilling existence, is found in pulling away. Even Jesus did this! Multiple times throughout the New Testament we see Him retreating from the crowd, making sacrifices early in the morning, and communing in silence with the Father. Are we greater than He? Absolutely not!

If you are in a season where you feel dry, indifferent and unmotivated—the answer is not in increasing the noise and entertainment around you, it’s in the simplistic moments of intentional silence meant only for the purpose of seeking the heart of God. For you, it may mean waking up an extra hour early. Set your coffee pot the night before, and just … well, listen. Lay your concerns before the Lord.

You may go in feeling dry, but when you meet with the Fountain of Living Water, I guarantee you will come out satisfied, full and deeply edified.

Isaiah 44:3-5

For I will pour water on the thirsty land,

    and streams on the dry ground;

I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring,

    and my blessing on your descendants.

They shall spring up among the grass

    like willows by flowing streams.

This one will say, ‘I am the Lord's,’

    another will call on the name of Jacob,

and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord's,’

    and name himself by the name of Israel.”

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