A Prayer to God Concerning the Noisiness of Life

God is real my friends- I know this to be true. I have experienced His healing and changing grace in my own life time and time again. Occasionally I will write out my prayers to Him... it helps me to focus on what I really want to say with my heart as opposed to what oftentimes comes out of my mouth. I was recently feeling that life was becoming very 'noisy'. I'm not sure how to explain this, other than to say that if you've ever been able to identify the events surrounding your life as 'too loud', I'm sure you understand. I hope that by sharing these personal thoughts, I can be some sort of encouragement to you in your own walk... or, if you do not know the Lord as your saving Father, that this will provide some small insight into why He is the only way to salvation and peace.

Dear Father, it’s so loud right now. The decibels of life seem to be cranking up higher and higher. I confess- I miss the silence. I miss the quiet, still moments of reflection and solitude that I once knew more intimately. Noises, loud noises seem to be clanking and stirring in every direction now: discomfort, complaining, and some noises not so driven by dissatisfaction, but noises nonetheless. They feel so constricting and yet, for all their disruptive and invasive nature, they creep in unnoticed. The noises drown out vision and creativity; those voices that I rely on to speak refreshment to the soul. I can’t hear them as well now- they are indistinct, faint. I feel it almost a farce to be sentimental, sweet, or philosophical. The loud noises are unpredictable and harsh. I try to be vulnerable and speak a quiet word, but the noises glare and smash like waves of needles into the calm I so desperately strive to create. My reaction is to pull back and scream in defiance, but even my own reaction only adds to the noise. I just want it to be quiet, so I stop reacting. I just sit down and shut up.

But oh, what a bad way to approach things! It’s complacency, its indifference, it’s a releasing of oneself to defeat. This is not the way you’ve called me to be my God, this is not what your holy, quiet words have spoken to me in the silence of my mind. Your words are soft, yes, but powerful; gentle answers that can shape worlds and split open the mountains like soft wax. Your quiet words of power call me to rise above the noise, to soar on the wings of your promises and strength and to look defeat in the face and refuse to be mastered by it. God you have given me a voice to loudly proclaim your name. May I never use it to screech in protest when things seem to be shaping in a way not derived from my own sinful desires. God you are my solitude in time of winter. You provide me with a sanctuary of silence amidst the loudest, most abrasive moments of my life. You are love and justice, a great tandem of power, the like of which has no equal in this universe. Great and mighty is your name! When I cry to you, you answer me. You command your creation to be silent and know you. I love you father- may you continue to teach me to place my reliance and faith solely in the palm of your hands. Amen.