The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him.
This past weekend, we went to Shipshewana for our annual leadership retreat. It was a time of conversation, r&r and quality time focusing on God and His church. While we were there Jay led us to a beautiful park with trails, picnic tables, a small river and even a waterfall. We were instructed to spend about 3 hours in absolute silence praying, thinking and hearing from the Lord. We all walked to different locations all over the park and found nice little peaceful locations to spend some quality time alone with God. It started out as quite a challenge for me to calm my mind and solely focus on the Lord. But as I did this, I was able to rest my mind and give more and more of my focus to God. Being silent isn’t exactly my gift, but I found myself feeling so refreshed and at peace after such a long time alone with our Lord. He had many things to show me and my eyes were opened to some things I never thought of before. It made me realize the value that can come from taking time from our busy schedules and spending some serious time alone with God. God has so many things to share with us about the future and about major decisions that are going on in our lives. The world tends to drown out God and if we're not careful we can easily miss the things He wants to share with us. My challenge to you this week is to find a quiet place and spend some quality time with the Lord. See what He has to share with you and I guarantee, it will be worth every minute.
By: Pastor Kevin Troyer
