Society encourages you to be constantly busy, so the quiet seasons of life can seem more difficult than the busy seasons. But in God’s Kingdom, quiet seasons are often the most productive. A quiet season is a time when you can step away from all the noise around you so you can hear God’s voice more clearly. Enjoying a quiet season allows you to feel God’s love for you simply because you are one of His beloved children, not because of what you accomplish for Him. Let’s look at 7 ways to grow spiritually during quiet seasons.
1. Accept doing too much: In John 15:4-5Jesus encourages you to focus on your connection with Him in a relationship, rather than on what you are doing at any given moment. He says: “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” A branch does not seek to make grapes grow. It doesn’t tire or stress you out in any way. It simply remains attached to the vine. The life of the vine flows into the branch and the fruit occurs naturally. In quiet moments, God teaches you how to “stay” in relationship with Him. He shows you that your worth is not based on what you can do, but on your connection to Him. So when you feel the need to do more to prove your worth to God or others, stop and remember that you are a branch and God is the vine. Remember that your only job today is to stay connected to God through trust and love. If you do nothing but stay close to him, you’ve had a successful day. This growth is the most significant because it changes your identity. Stop trying to earn God’s love and just start enjoying the love of your Heavenly Father, who loves you completely and unconditionally.
2. Relearn the art of rest: During a slow season, you will have more space in your schedule than usual. You might be tempted to fill this space with new tasks. But Jesus invites you to rest. He says in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke that I will give you is easy, and the burden that I will lay on you is light.” Jesus showed the importance of regular rest during his earthly life. In these verses he mentions a “yoke,” which is a tool of labor, but he promises that his yoke is easy. Jesus tells you that even when you work, you can do so from a place of rest and not in panic. You can take advantage of this moment of calm to really rest. Put away your phone, go for a walk or sit in a chair and enjoy communicating with God. Ask God to show you where you have tried to carry burdens that He never intended for you to carry. As you learn to rest in God’s presence, you will find that you begin to recharge spiritually in ways that you never could during busy seasons. You will strengthen your faith and trust in God by learning that God will meet all your needs even when you are not working.
3. Strengthen your prayer and meditation habits: Jesus made communication with His Heavenly Father a top priority during His earthly life, and His example shows that prayer and meditation should be at the heart of every day. Luke 5:16 emphasizes: “But Jesus often withdrew to isolated places and prayed. » This verse shows that prayer was an important part of Jesus’ lifestyle. Prayer is talking to God, while meditation is listening to God. Psalm 19:14 emphasizes the importance of prayer and meditation: “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. » During quiet seasons, you have valuable opportunities to begin prayer and meditation habits that you will enjoy. As you do, you will begin to see that communicating with God is an opportunity, not an obligation. You will enjoy God’s company and will then be able to communicate with God in a more relational way (to build a closer relationship with Him) rather than simply in a transactional way (to ask God for something). Experiment with different ways of praying and meditating until you find the one that works best for you. By strengthening your communication with God now, you are building a strong relationship with God that will sustain you when your life gets busy again.
4. Enjoy reading God’s messages to you in the Bible: When you’re busy, you can simply read the Bible briefly, choose a quick verse for a little encouragement, and then move on. But during quiet times, you have the opportunity to spend more time reading God’s messages to you in the Bible. Psalm 1:1-3 emphasizes: “Blessed is he… whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. This man is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever he does prospers.” When you are at the beginning of your next quiet season, choose a small book of the Bible and commit to staying with it for the entire period when you will enjoy fewer activities in your schedule. Instead of rushing to finish chapters, read just a few verses of the book and ask yourself questions that encourage you to think, such as: “What does this tell me about the character of God?” and “How does this change the way I see myself?” » Pay particular attention to the messages God sends to you through what you read. Consider writing your thoughts in a journal. By slowing down your reading, you allow God’s messages to penetrate your soul. God’s words to you will then be in your mind for you to draw upon whenever you need them later.
5. Seek God through silence and solitude: Quiet seasons can be uncomfortable because they often involve quietly waiting for what you want to happen. Lamentations 3:25-26 reminds you that there is a kind of goodness that can be experienced by quietly waiting: “The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to those who seek him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. » When you stop talking and listening to the noise around you in this fallen world, you create a space where you can actually hear what God is saying to you. So, prioritize seeking God in silence and solitude. Try spending 5-10 minutes each day in complete silence – with no music, no talking, and no notifications from any of your devices. Simply sit in a comfortable place and focus on listening to the messages God is reminding you of. At first, your mind will probably focus on something you need to do, like a chore or an errand. It’s very good. Gently bring your attention back to God. This practice will train you to recognize the “soft whisper” of God’s voice (1 Kings 19:11-13). Over time, you’ll find that you can carry this inner tranquility with you even when life gets noisy again. The more you practice listening to God’s voice in silence and solitude, the easier it will be to recognize God speaking to you in every situation.
6. Discover the wonder of God’s extraordinary work in your ordinary life: Quiet seasons often seem so ordinary that you risk losing your sense of inspiration unless you make the effort to seek the wonders of God’s work in your life every day. Just because you aren’t having particularly dramatic experiences doesn’t mean God isn’t working around you. Psalm 65:8 emphasizes that God’s marvelous work is everywhere when she says to God: “The whole earth is filled with admiration at your marvels; where the morning rises, where the evening sets, you make songs of joy heard. » In a quiet time, you can grow by learning that there is no such thing as a secular experience, because God is always doing something sacred in your life. So, choose boring tasks that you have to do each day and pray while you do them. As you wash the dishes, you can thank God for the food He has provided for you. As you drive to work, you can pray for the people in the cars around you. When you perform ordinary tasks in prayer, you can begin to notice more how God is with you in the mundane details of your life, not just in the dramatic blessings He bestows upon you. You can grow spiritually as you experience God’s extraordinary work, even during ordinary, quiet days.
7. Ask the Holy Spirit to change your heart: The Bible often compares the human heart to gardens. Song of Solomon 4:16 is a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to breathe into someone’s heart to bring about positive change: “Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow upon my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere.” Gardens require constant, quiet maintenance, including watering, weeding, and pruning. If you view your heart as a garden, you can see the importance of using quiet seasons to attend to tasks such as weeding (eliminating sinful and unhealthy attitudes and behaviors with the help of the Holy Spirit) and watering (dedicating more time to practices that renew you spiritually). Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to the specific types of spiritual gardening work that should be done in your heart and to help you do it during your quiet time. Are there any old grudges you’re holding on to? Are there habits that keep you away from God? Work with the Holy Spirit to eliminate them. Would you like to spend more time reading the Bible, praying and meditating, spreading kindness, or doing something else that will renew you spiritually? Spiritually water your heart by devoting time to it.
In conclusion, as you navigate this quiet time, remember that it offers you valuable opportunities to grow spiritually. So, make the most of the time and space you have now to focus more on growing closer to God. God loves you and will help you grow in ways that will last forever!
Photo credit: ©GettyImage/Daniela Jovanovska-Hristovska
