Ecclesiastes 3:7 says there is a time to speak and a time to be silent. How can we know that?
We can know that in holy silence. I call it holy silence because this form of silence does not forbid you to speak, but encourages you to speak, but only when necessary.
Christianity is also a call to contemplation. Contemplation is a point where you silence every other thing in your life and listen to God, acknowledge the presence and existence of God.
Habakkuk 2:20; “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”
Recommended Posts
You can see many instances in the bible were Jesus left the crowd to a quiet place to pray. It’s a simple analogy, if prayer is communication. Communication entails listening and speaking. Then, to listen perfectly, you need every other thing to be silent.
Going back to holy silence, if we learn to observe holy silence, it would better help us to discern the voice of God from the voice of the world. Remember, we say God speaks in everything but because we too are talking we cannot hear Him.
It’s just like when you have a discussion with a friend, and both of you are speaking and none of you keeps quiet to listen to the other, both of you will not only be deaf to each other, you will also misunderstand yourselves.
Written by Onyinye Ojukwu (Dominican University, Ibadan Oyo State.)
