Holy Aloneness

Here's another from Elisabeth Elliot's. I sometimes tend to do that where I want to talk to people first. But God is available to listen. Not in a creepy way, you're never alone. heh

When God had completed the prodigious labor of the creation of the heavens and the earth, He saw that something was lacking: there was no one to work the ground. So He formed a man. The method is surprising—this creature, made in the image of God, was made out of dust, and into his nostrils God breathed the breath of life. This living being was placed in a beautiful garden with a river to water it, and gold, aromatic resin, and onyx to enrich it. He put the man there to work the garden and take care of it. I wonder, as Adam went about his task, how conscious he was of the presence of God. Did he walk and talk with Him (in what language?), commune silently or aloud, listen to His voice? Was he aware at all that anything was lacking? God was aware. “It is not good for the man to be alone,” said God, “I will make a helper suitable for him.” Eve was created, God’s gift to allay Adam’s loneliness. But when he capitulated to her ungodly counsel sin was born.
The world is full of noise. It is ”too much with us,” as Wordsworth said. “Late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” Might we not learn, perhaps during this Easter season, silence, stillness, solitude? It will not be easy to come by. It must be arranged. The Lord Jesus, available to people much of the time, left them, sometimes a great while before day, to go up to the hills where He could commune in solitude with His Father. Job, enduring his friends’ tiresome lectures and accusations, was very much alone on his ash heap, but it was there that he came to know God as never before. When God called Paul to preach the gospel he did not consult anyone. He went into Arabia. The old apostle John when exiled to Patmos must surely have known a holy aloneness through which he received the book of Revelation.
Someone may complain that he has no one to talk to. Then thank God! Talk to Him. When my husband Jim Elliot died in Ecuador I was blessed to have my ten-month-old baby and many dear Quichua friends, but we lived deep in the jungle and I longed at times for in-depth conversation in my own language. The Quichuas were very solicitous—they had loved Jim as their pastor, teacher, and friend. All of us were bereaved, but it was my job to be cheerful and to try to strengthen and encourage the Indians, who had very little Scripture as yet in their language and were accustomed to heathen howling when someone died.
We can always talk to God, remembering that God has called us into fellowship with Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor. 1:9). Do we consciously arrange time to receive His fellowship? When is the last time we offered Him ours? It is a strong temptation to run to the phone when we need advice or help of any kind, forgetting to seek first the living Word of God, whose ear is always open to our cry. Try the simple reminder of 2 Peter 2:9, “The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials,” or Psalm 57:1, “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.”
Be patient. Is God not fast enough? Are His answers too tough? A quick sympathy from a friend may suggest that you simply drop out, be good to yourself, get away from it all. Someone else will be sure to say, “You need counsel.” Are you sure? One hour at the foot of the Cross may obviate the necessity of professional counseling (no such thing existed until the twentieth century—what did folks do before then?). When Christian, in Pilgrim’s Progress, reached the hill of Calvary, “his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble; and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the Sepulchre where it fell in.” The Bible teaches us that there is a Wonderful Counselor. Let your loneliness be transformed into a holy aloneness. Sit still before the Lord. Remember Naomi’s word to Ruth: “Sit still, my daughter, until you see how the matter will fall.”
Miguel de Molinos (1640-97) wrote, “In time of trouble go not out of yourself to seek for aid; for the whole benefit of trial consists in silence, patience, rest, and resignation. In this condition divine strength is found for the hard warfare, because God Himself fights for the soul.”