Solitude

“…there are a few of God’s children who have had enough.  They want to relearn the ways of solitude and simplicity and gain the infinite riches of the interior life…to discover the blessedness of… ‘spiritual aloneness.’  To such I offer a brief paragraph of counsel.

“Retire from the world each day to some private spot, even if only the bedroom (for a while I retreated to the furnace room for want of a better place).  Stay in the secret place till the surrounding noises begin to fade out of your heart and a sense of God’s presence envelopes you.  Deliberately tune out the unpleasant sounds and come out of your closet determined not to hear them.  Listen for the inward Voice till you learn to recognize it.  Stop trying to compete with others.  Give yourself to God and then be what you are without regard  to what others think.  Reduce your interests to a few.  Don’t try to know what will be of no service to you.  Avoid the digest type of mind – short bits of unrelated facts, cute stories and bright sayings.  Learn to pray inwardly every moment.  After a while you can do this even while you work.  Practice candor, childlike honesty, humility.  Pray for a single eye.  Read less but read more of what is important to your inner life.  Never let your mind remain scattered for very long.  Call home your roving thoughts,  Gaze on Christ with the eyes of your soul.  Practice spiritual concentration.

“All of the above is contingent upon a right relation to God through Christ and daily meditation on the Scriptures.  Lacking these nothing will help us; granted these, the discipline recommended will go far to neutralize the evil effects of externalism and to make us acquainted with God and our own souls.”

- A. W. Tozer  Of God and Men

This book is great.  If you haven’t read it I would certainly recommend it or anything else by A. W. Tozer.

I’m currently reading When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert – It’s also fabulous.  :)