Message:
Last week before I headed out to Sunday morning service I caught a bit of Dr. Charles Stanley’s message on Solitude and I thought what a great subject. So this morning I’m going to give you my take on the same subject but I thank Dr. Stanley for the inspiration.
God created a perfect setting for us called the Garden of Eden. God did not put us in a cave or on top of some mountain top or on an isolated island.
God put us in His garden to tend it and to enjoy it. That was our original purpose on planet earth to care for God’s garden.
This week I had an opportunity to do some gardening and it got me to thinking about what it takes to tend a garden.
Just keeping up with the weeds requires a huge effort. That is where my helpmate came in. God provided me with someone to help pull the weeds out of our garden. My job was a little different, I had to turn the soil and trim the edges of the garden and transplant some flowers.
Together with God’s help we managed to tend the garden so that it clearly displayed its beauty.
Saints that is what Jesus wants to do in your life. Jesus wants to pull out the weeds that cover up the beauty that is your life. Jesus wants to remove the things that choke out the light that should be causing you to grow.
Jesus wants your life on display like a beautiful flower, colorful and fragrant.
Jesus wants to meet you in the garden with Him.
In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus spent time with His disciples. You are those disciples today and Jesus wants to spend some quality time with you – in prayer and solitude.
Think of it God the Son invites us to be in prayer with Him. God the Son wants us to join with Him paying about the things that matter to Him. What a wonderful invitation it truly is to be in prayer with Jesus.
Jesus also demonstrated something else about gardens concerning prayer. Jesus took time to step away from His disciples to seek solitude. Praying with your friends and loved ones is a real blessing but praying in solitude is also necessary. It gives us that special time to be alone with God to be intimate with God to share those deep personal thoughts and feelings.
For that reason I hope you will spend some time this summer in a garden. Even if you do not tend it I hope you stop long enough to smell the roses so to speak.
By taking time to seek the solitude of your spirit you will find a connection with God’s Holy Spirit.
Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit would be the Counselor of Truth who would lead us into all truth.
Nowadays it is getting harder and harder to discern the truth as more and more people are set on re-defining it for us. This twisting of the truth can be all straightened out when we seek the Holy Spirit in our lives and spend time alone with Him.
Prayer is a great way to accomplish this but reading God’s word is another way to know and discover the truth of God.
Getting alone with God’s word free of distraction and concerns allows us to open up like a dry parched ground and drink in the refreshing words of life that restore our souls.
God’s truth speaks for itself. God’s truth is not ambiguous or cloudy. It is clear and crystal.
The Holy Spirit wants to lead us in our daily living all we need do is to submit to His leading and our conduct and actions will be more and more like those of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is the transforming power of God to change us day by day into a true child of God. This summer take time to be holy and spend time alone with the Holy Spirit.
You will find that you will be changed and you will be refreshed and reborn as God’s Spirit lives in you.
Solitude for you this summer may involve a family trip to the cottage or a quiet evening in your backyard or front porch but you need not go out of town. Close the door to your sacred place of solitude and commune with God.
The Bible tells us a great deal about the benefits of finding solitude in God’s word and through God’s spirit.
Psalm 19
They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
The relief we seek for our troubles and cares can be found by spending time alone in prayer.
To be truly blessed by prayer we have to be seeking God to move in our lives in whatever way He wants to move us.
Our Heavenly Father wants us to be open and ready to be engaged by His love. To be engaged is to be betrothed to be in a relationship of promise and commitment. Are we ready and willing to be moved by God to take on a promise or commitment that He lays upon our hearts?
Only by being in that quiet place of the garden or by feeling the reflective solitude of His word can we be moved to that openness of heart, mind and spirit where God can fully engage us as we become promised to Him.
This summer take time to enjoy the sweetness of solitude with your Creator, with your Redeemer and with your Spiritual Counselor.
Flee the hurried days of work and responsibility and instead rest in Him the One who gives you eternal rest. Remember our God rested on the seventh day.
We are made in His image and like Him we too need a little rest now and then. Let God speak to your heart, hear your thoughts and prayers and let God touch you as the potter touches the clay and be molded by His gentle hand into the person He intends you to be.
Isaiah 30:15
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength,
The Good Shepherd wants to lead you beside the still waters and to see you lying down in the green pastures.
There He will refresh your soul.
This summer make sure that you taste the sweetness of solitude that comes from spending time alone with God. – Amen.
