Our lives are filled with demands for more. We are told that we need to eat better, exercise more, find better balance, invest more effectively, and the list goes on and on. Everything in our lives is expected to be more efficient, more attractive, more productive, healthier, and more environmentally friendly. Oh, and by the way, you’re also being told that you’re failing at all of these things. Fun, right?

 

The television tells me how I should get with the times, the news tells me why I should be more afraid, and social media tells me what I should be outraged about. Honestly, I find it exhausting, and I’m guessing maybe you do too.

 

While I live in a world of constant noise, I am privileged to live in a part of the world where I can actually find silence – at home, at work, and in nature. The stereo in my car has never worked and I prefer it that way – one less voice in my ears. I take the last Thursday of every month to just listen to the Lord – out of the office and in the quiet. I come to work early each day – before anyone arrives – to enjoy the silence. I even have a pair of noise-cancelling headphones on my desk for when I need them. There are nature trails near my house where I can go without seeing another person, and the only sound is birds chirping.

 

It’s not surprising why so many battle anxiety daily and feel stress like a tennis ball caught in a vise grip. The noise all around us says what you own is not enough, what you do isn’t good enough, and what you are is not acceptable. There’s so much noise – it can be overwhelming. But here’s what God says:

 

“Be still, and know that I am God!” – Psalm 46:10.

 

“I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him.” – Psalm 62:1.

 

“Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.” – Psalm 37:7.

 

“It is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.” – Lamentations 3:26.

 

“The LORD is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.” – Habakkuk 2:20

 

Job wanted more silence and complained that his friends talked too much and that they should just be quiet (Job 13:5). When the Hebrews walked around Jericho with the ark, they were told to not utter a sound (Joshua 6:10). When the seventh seal is opened in Revelation, all of heaven fell silent for a half hour (Revelation 8:1). Silence can be powerful.

 

We often think of prayer as talking and that is certainly part of it, but it is also listening – being silent before God, waiting on Him. I believe it is vital to a maturing believer to find regular times of silence – to unplug the noise and recover our stability in the Lord. In the silence we hear His voice most clearly.

 

When we are quiet, God can speak to us words of encouragement and words of caution, words of affirmation and words of correction. In the silence we can hear God remind us who we are in Christ and how deeply loved we are. I need these things, so I am trying to exercise this beautiful gift of prayer more in my life now and I’m even finding times where I have “nothing to do” to be an invitation to be quiet before God.

 

If anxiety ever makes your heart race (as it does for me), I have found the presence of God in an environment of silence to be water to my thirsty soul. At the start of 2025, what do I think we all need? Nothing. Absolutely more of nothing.