Silence has a way of revealing things that noise hides, and solitude has a way of drawing us closer to the God who has been there all along

“We can only survive solitude if we cling to Christ there.” – Dallas Willard

Mark 6:7-8
“Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits. These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.”

Mark 6:12-13
They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Mark 6:30
The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.

Mark 6:31a
Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat…

“Our souls were not were not created for the kind of speed to which we have grown accustomed. Thus, we are a people who are out of rhythm, a people with too much to do and not enough time to do it. Our lives can easily take us to the brink of burnout. The pace we live at is often destructive. The lack of margin is debilitating. We are worn out. In all of this, the problem before us is not just the frenetic pace we live at but what gets pushed out from our lives as a result; that is life with God.” – Rich Villados, The Deeply Formed Life

Mark 6:31b
…he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

ἔρημος erēmos – deserted, remote, solitary; desert, uninhabited wilderness, or grasslands, implying in some contexts to be a forsaken, desolate place:

Matthew 6:32
So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place

Luke 5:16
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

When did Jesus seek solitude?

• To prepare for a major task: Luke 4:1-2
• To recharge after hard work: Mark 6:30-32
• To work through grief: Matthew 14:1-13
• Before making an important decision: Luke 6:12-13
• In a time of distress: Luke 22:39-44
• To focus on prayer: Luke 5:16

Luke 5:16
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Blessed be God for the day of rest and religious occupation wherein earthly things assume their true size and ambition is stunted.
– William Wilberforce, from his journal

With peaceful Sundays, the strings would never have snapped as they did from over-tension.
– William Wilberforce

Silence has a way of revealing things that noise hides, and solitude has a way of drawing us closer to the God who has been there all along

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