The Power of Solitude - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, October twenty-fifth. People often try to avoid being alone, but purposeful separation can bring believers in Jesus into clarity and focus. Here's a lesson on the power of solitude. Tension and stress is something we always have to deal with in life, no matter who we are and where we are, because that's just the way life is. And about time you think you have it all under control, something else comes along and sort of gets your attention. So, how do you deal with stress in your life? People deal with it in different ways. Now, this message is not about stress, but it certainly has a great deal to do with how to deal with it. And so, when you think about what stresses you the most, what would you say? Say, well, it's a person I'm living with, or it's my kids, or it's my parents, or my this, my that. In other words, people have all kind of stress for all kind of reasons and whatever the reason is. The issue is, how do you deal with it? God did not intend for us to live such stressful lives.

He intended for us to have a sense of peace, no matter what the circumstances are, a sense of confidence and assurance and security, no matter what the circumstances are. And yet, that's not the way most people are living. And so many times, they'll talk about that job and how stressed out they are. Well, at some point, there has to be some way to relieve that. And the mistake people make is this. They figure out, well, you know what?

I can't change my circumstances and I can't change my job and I can't change this and I don't know how to do that. So, if that doesn't work, they get on alcohol or whatever it might be, or some kind of an affair, anything to get their mind off what's happening. And so, what people don't realize is this. When you take something to cover it up, and you don't realize what's going on, you have cut it off as far as the feeling, but it's still going on inside. You've just subdued it. And the worst kind of tension and stress that you could possibly have is the kind you don't know about.

And all of a sudden, it shows itself in a heart attack or high blood pressure or whatever it might be. What is God's way of dealing with this? And I want to talk about the power of solitude. The power of solitude. And I want you to turn to just a couple of verses in the fifth Psalm. And there are many verses we could turn to, but in the fifth Psalm, and David certainly was one who was familiar with solitude. And here's what the verse says. Verse one, Give ear to my words, O Lord, and consider my groanings. Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God. For to You I pray. And then listen to this next verse. In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice. In the morning, I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.

In the morning, I'm going to start out talking to You, and then I'm going to watch what You do all day long. Well, let's think about it for a moment. And oftentimes people confuse, they confuse being lonely with solitude. Now, loneliness is certainly not from God. For example, loneliness speaks of being isolated or detached in some fashion from someone you love or people you like being with. It's sort of like being out there on an island.

It's an attitude that's not, it's a spirit. It's a feeling that's not comfortable. No one likes the feeling of being lonely. No one wants to feel loneliness. And yet, probably all of us have in some fashion or another for some reason or the other. And the Bible says it's not good for a man to be alone.

That's a man or a woman. And so, if it's not, if loneliness is not good, then there has to be a divine answer to it. And so, the question is, would you consider yourself a lonely person? Or would you consider yourself one who is very content with your friends?

You've got lots of relationships and so forth and friends. Or do you feel lonely? You see, you can live in a crowd and feel very lonely. You can live in a big family and be very lonely.

Because you see, it's not so much what's around you as what's on the inside of you. And God never intended for you to live a lonely life. You may have to live alone, but there's a difference in living alone and being lonely. And many people somehow don't seem to be able to handle that loneliness, and that's what gets them in trouble.

Okay? So, if that's what loneliness is, what is solitude? Because it sounds like the same thing. Here's the difference.

It's real simple. Loneliness we want to avoid, detached, separated. Solitude is aloneness we choose.

I choose solitude, a quiet place. And when you read the Scripture, for example, and you look at the lives of God's servants, for example, you see them practicing solitude. And if you'll remember that, for example, Moses, the Bible says, for forty years it was on the backside of the desert, a shepherding sheep. Then one day, he was walking along, alone, and all of a sudden he saw something he couldn't explain, and God said to him, take your shoes off.

This is holy ground. God spoke to him. How many times and how many years did he spend in solitude, waiting, listening, not knowing really what was going on in his life, but God did. I think about Second Samuel in the seventh chapter, if you want to turn there for a moment. And here is David now, ahead of time in his life. And the prophet Nathan had been listening to God and talking to Him about David. And then, if you'll notice, verse eighteen of Second Samuel, look at this, chapter seven. Then David the king went in and sat before the Lord. And he said, Who am I, O Lord God? What is my house that You've brought me this far? And yet this was insignificant in Your eyes, O Lord God, for You have spoken also of the house of Your servant, concerning the distant future.

And this is the custom of man, O Lord God. Again, what more can David say to You, for You know Your servant, O Lord God. For the sake of Your word and according to Your own greatness, You've done all this greatness to let Your servant know.

For this reason You are great, O Lord God, for there's none like You, and there's no God beside You, according to all that we've heard from our ears." So what is he doing? He's sitting in silence, alone, and he's beginning to express what he's feeling.

He's just talking to the Father. And so, when you think of in terms of solitude, remember, it is a choice you make to be alone. It's a choice you make to be by yourself.

It's a choice you make to shut everything out for a season of time. Now, look at the life of Jesus. Now, I want to give you a number of verses here, because this was the habit. This was the way Jesus lived. And I want to read you a few verses to show you what kind of atmosphere He had to live in once He began His ministry.

For thirty years, He lived in a very quiet life. Being a carpenter, I'm sure He had times, many times of solitude, listening to the Father speak to Him. But look, if you will, in this first chapter, and look in verse thirty-three. The Scripture says, And the whole city had gathered at the door, and they healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And He was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who He was. Watch this. In the early morning, following all that, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.

Time of solitude. Think about this. Because Jesus healed the sick, because He fed them, because He had these doctrines, these ideas, it was strange to many of them. They were, they surrounded Him, asking Him questions, wanting to be healed, cast this demon out. In other words, when you look at the kind of life He lived, it was a very, very strenuous life. And we think about activity today. Think about the activity that He lived in day after day after day, because everywhere He went, people wanted to follow Him, oftentimes because they wanted to be fed, they wanted to see a miracle, they wanted to hear about Him.

And think about this. What created a lot of tension was that He was always seemingly surrounded by people who didn't like Him, who hated Him, who despised Him, who wanted to persecute Him, who wanted to kill Him. It was a very short time when His ministry began. They wanted to stone Him or push Him off the cliff. And so, He always had the antagonist there.

And that's always a drain. Remember, while He's God, He's still human. And so, He's feeling these things. So, how does He begin His day? Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, went away to a secluded place and was praying there. Well, the disciples couldn't find Him, so they finally found Him. Simon and his companions searched for Him, and they found Him and said to Him, Everyone's looking for you. Can you imagine Peter saying, What are you doing out here by yourself?

In other words, everybody's over here looking for you. And so, He put that as a priority in his life. If you will look at the, look in Luke, the fifth chapter for a moment, notice what's happening here again. And in the fifteenth verse, But the news about Him was spreading even further, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him, and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray, out there far enough away that nobody could find Him.

At least He hoped they couldn't. Then if you will look in the sixth chapter and look what He's facing in the eleventh verse of the sixth chapter, But they themselves were filled with rage and disgust together of what they might do to Jesus. Verse twelve, It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God, being alone, listening to His heavenly Father, speaking to His heavenly Father. If Jesus Christ the Son of God, who is God in human flesh, felt the things that we feel, somehow He felt an absolute essential need in His life to spend time in solitude alone, listening, speaking, hearing from the Father. And the things that happen to Him physically are the same things that happen to us. The things that happen to Him spiritually are the same things that happen to us if we allow it to happen. And so what I want you to see here is simply this, that if you look at the life of Jesus, He felt the need to be alone and to fellowship with His heavenly Father. Then, for example, if you look in the first chapter of Galatians, and here's what you'll find. The apostle Paul's given a little brief background on his own life. And he talks about what happened after he got saved. And remember now who he is and what's going on. He's a Pharisee of the Pharisee. I mean, he's an absolute awesome leader.

And you remember what his goal is? To eradicate Christianity, to eliminate this whole idea of the followers of Jesus. And that's what he's been doing. He told Timothy, he said, he aggressively persecuted the church.

He was giving his all to get rid of these folks. So he's riding along one day on his way to Damascus to persecute the people and suddenly falls to the earth, blinded, can't see anything, but he hears this voice. And he answers, Lord, what would You have me to do?

And for a few days he's blinded. And then here's what he says. Look, if you will, in this first chapter. And beginning in verse eleven, For I would have you to know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. And then you move on down, he talks about his Judaism.

Well, let's read what he says. You've heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond the measure and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me, so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately go to consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and returned once more to Damascus. Then three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas at Peter and stayed with him fifteen days and so forth.

What did he do? The apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus at that time, was wise enough to realize he had been taught, he had been baptized, so to speak, in Judaism, in everything they believed. And now he was looked to as a great leader. All of a sudden, this Jesus whom he persecuted was the most important person in his life. He couldn't quite, he had to be a little confused.

He had to be frustrated over this. First of all, now what are they going to think? Who's going to believe me? Who's going to believe what happened to me? What am I going to do now? All this that I've been taught and have tried to teach others, all of a sudden, I'm walking a different way.

This is totally opposite. What's happening? He was wise enough to go away, he says, to Arabia. To do what? To get himself in solitude to begin to understand what happened to him. How would he explain it? Now he's been trying to kill them off. Now he's become one of them. What is he going to do now?

He needed some very definite, clear answers. This God, Jehovah, whom he believed in. This Jesus, whom he wanted to persecute. Now he's beginning to understand this Jesus is the Son of this Jehovah God that he had been trying to persecute. This Jesus, get rid of him in some fashion. Now he's got to deal with this.

Lots of questions, lots of anxieties. All these things had to hit him quickly when he was saved on the Damascus Road. So, he went away to listen and to allow God to straighten out his theology. He spent time meditating, listening, and when he sort of got it all cleared in his mind and he and God had straightened it all out, he went up to talk to the apostles. But before then, here's the reason he didn't. He had to hear it from God. He had to hear it from the one, as he said, who chose him from his mother's womb.

And so, he spent time listening and no doubt crying out, asking him to give him understanding and all the rest. Now, we said solitude is time that you and I choose to be alone. Now, what's the purpose of that? Why can't you just get it all doing what you normally do in a given day, which most people think they can? What is, now watch this carefully, what is the basic purpose of solitude? It is not to study the Bible. It is not to have a big prayer meeting. It is not to get at your prayer list and go through that.

It's not to read the Bible through in a given year. Here's the purpose of solitude. The purpose of solitude is to spend time, take time alone, listen to fellowship with God and let God fellowship with you. When is the last time you got alone, just you and God, and you told Him, I just want to listen to You. I want You to speak to my heart.

Clear up this confusion I have. Open my eyes and give me understanding. So, Lord, I'm not going to talk.

I just want to listen to You. When is the last time you ever truly, genuinely got away by yourself because you just want to listen to God? Now, think about this. When God created this world, He did a fantastic job.

We all agree, amen? He did a fantastic job creating this planet, hanging it out here in space, stars and sun and moon, beautiful sandy beaches and palm trees, snow-capped mountains, flowers, insects, fish, I mean everything. Think of all the things God's created. But God didn't create anything that He personally could fellowship with until He created man. He created you and me in order to reveal to us that He's God and that He loves you and that He loves me. And all this awesome creation, which we agree, we've messed a lot of it up, but He created all this awesome creation. Why? Because He loved us.

And then when He got it all done, He placed mankind right in the midst of it and said, help yourself, be my guest. I just love you. There's one tree over there, don't mess with that one.

Avoid it at all costs. Look what you have. Look who you are. Look who you are. Created by me and everything you'll ever want. Because there'll be no needs.

They're all here. Do you think that you and I would have acted like Adam and Eve? Why do you and I disobey Him?

When we know it's not the right thing, when we know we're going to pay the consequences, we probably would have done the same thing. But here's the wonderful thing about God. God created you for the purpose of fellowshipping with you, loving you, and being loved by you.

God allowed you to be born because God chose to fellowship with you and to express His love towards you and to demonstrate to you how much He loves you. Thank you for listening to The Power of Solitude. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.