The Quiet Pursuit of God: Introduction

The Quiet Pursuit of God Series

This series focuses on calling Christians to seek God in the quiet place!

Jesus instructed his disciples to seek God in the quiet places:

Matthew 6:3–6 (CSB) — But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:5–6 (CSB) — Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:17–18 (CSB) — But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

The three primary disciplines of the Christian faith – prayer, fasting, and giving – are intended to be practiced in quietness. This goes against the grain of our human nature, which is inherently social and enjoys broadcasting our activities so that we can receive the approval of our friends, family, and community.

The reason for this quietness in Christian disciplines is because these disciplines were meant to be one of the means by which we fellowship with God. And this is the key component that I think is often missing from how we most often practice these disciplines, especially the Christian discipline of charity. We do so in such a way that does not draw us nearer to God through Christ because we do so in tangibly public ways.

I find it interesting that many of the today’s contemporary prayer movements establish prayer houses that are inherently public. Perhaps this is why so many of them have to add music and entertainment to these rooms because they’re not approaching God in such a way that can access his fellowship?

Likewise, it is intriguing that most modern Christian “funding campaigns” are broadcast over social media in ways that are meant to market the Church’s giving practices for everyone on social media to see.

I’m well aware of the justifications presented in both of these cases, but regardless of how we justify our practices, the point remains that I think we need to give attention to the lost discipline of Christian quietness so that we can recover our blessed fellowship with God.

The goal this week: survey our spiritual disciplines and see how much quiet time you are spending in pursuit of God vs. how much of your spiritually-focused time is being broadcast via social media and other public means for everyone to see.

Let’s start taking back some of that time and spending it in quiet pursuit of God.