The Power of Quiet: Finding Strength in Stillness

As I sit down to write about quietness, in a comical twist of irony, my house is anything but quiet. Sounds of bath time shenanigans echo down the stairs to my desk, shattering the calm that I so long for at the end of a busy day. For some of us, quiet moments are hard to come by. Kids get up early and stay up late, filling almost every moment with noise. Or maybe the noise in your life comes at work as you talk with customers or you hear the consistent whir and growl of machinery all day long. 

Most of us fill even our quiet moments with sound, popping in earbuds to catch up on the latest podcast, chill to a favorite playlist, or get lost in an audiobook. As a society, we have become averse to quiet, and I must admit that I am the chief of sinners. 

It caught my attention, then, when I came across this verse in my study of Isaiah: 

For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling.(Isaiah 30:15 ESV)

Strength? Quietness? Seriously? While the immediate context of this verse is not talking about taking out our earbuds, it still got me thinking. How does quietness give strength?

The Strength of Dependence 

If the context of Isaiah 30 isn’t earbuds or AirPods, then what is it? It’s a story that may at first seem distant from our lives. However, as we dig into it, the relevance becomes apparent. 

Assyria was breathing down the necks of Judah (the Southern Kingdom of Israel). Maybe you remember Assyria from some of their other appearances in Scripture. They’re the kingdom that Jonah reluctantly preached to. No doubt his reluctance was due to Assyria’s reputation for sadism and bloodthirstiness. They also show up in the book of Nahum, where their bloodlust takes center stage. Finally, we know them as the conquerors of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. 

In short, Assyria was not a world power to be trifled with. So, as they were pressing in on the Southern Kingdom, Judah started to panic. And rather than trust in the God of their fathers who had rescued them on countless occasions, they decided to turn to Egypt in hopes of a little help from a nation with more muscle. In Isaiah 30, the prophet rebuked Judah for her faithlessness and lack of trust in God. In verse 15, God extended the promise, “In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” 

This passage teaches that strength comes from a quiet dependence on God. Rather than struggling against the providence of God in our lives, searching for a way out, fighting and clawing against our circumstances, we can stop and rest. Psalm 46 puts it this way:

“Stop fighting, and know that I am God,
exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.” (v. 10)

Are you expending energy fighting against the providence of God? What “Egypt” are you tempted to turn to? In our day of Google, Siri, and AI-everything, we have “Egypts” staring us in the face everywhere we turn. And while we enjoy modern medicine as a marvelous gift of God’s common grace, we can easily be tempted to depend on it to such a degree that we will go to the ends of the earth and beyond to find a cure for an ailment that God may not intend to heal in this life. Making an alliance with Egypt seems like the logical, reasonable thing to do. Instead, our loving heavenly Father wants us to find strength in resting in His gentle, omnipotent hands.

The Strength of Meditation

Let’s shift gears from the metaphorical quietness of trusting God’s gracious providence to embracing literal quietness. Instead of putting in earbuds or turning on speakers and running from a moment of stillness, embrace that moment and find strength. 

Find strength, first of all, in meditation. By this I mean the biblical practice of turning a thought over and over in your head, examining it from every angle. As a cow chews its cud, slowly digesting it through its multiple stomachs, so we should slowly internalize the Word of God. 

As a person who typically processes quickly and eagerly moves to the next thing, meditation is difficult for me. I must purposefully return to a phrase or verse from that morning’s quiet time. In the midst of the chaos and kerfuffle of parenting, meditation is hard. It’s harder still with an audiobook playing at 1.75 or 2x speed. 

However, when I take the few minutes of quiet that comes my way and intentionally ruminate on scriptural truth, I find myself abiding in the Word much more effectively. As a result, I will have the “sword of the Spirit” drawn and ready for battle.

The Strength of Prayer

Not only can I redeem quiet moments for meditation, but I can also redeem them for prayer. While I would advocate for a designated and uninterrupted prayer time each day, I also think that having moments for prayer throughout the day helps move us closer to the idea of praying “without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17 ESV). 

We negate this privilege, however, when we refuse to withstand any kind of silence for more than a couple of seconds. The author of Hebrews implores his readers to come boldly before the throne of God in order to “receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need” (4:16). This is a strength that cannot be found even in an uplifting, Bible-saturated podcast. Instead it comes when we say no to headphones or speakers and turn our eyes upward.

Get Practical 

To be clear, I’m not advocating a vow of silence or the destruction of all earbuds, headphones, or whatever you use to listen to your playlist. Music, books, podcasts, sermons, and TED Talks all have their place. I believe each of those things is a gift to us in the twenty-first century. But maybe there’s one time in your day when you can forgo the headphones and embrace the quiet. 

Here are a few practical suggestions to get the ball rolling: 

• Pick one direction of your commute to dedicate to silence. Take the time on your way to or from work to sit in silence and spend time meditating or casting your cares on the Lord. 

• Take a walk without headphones. I love to walk and listen to books or podcasts, but maybe you could go for a walk without the extra paraphernalia. Instead, just marvel at who God is and worship Him as you see His glory on display. 

• Do chores in the quiet. Redeem the time as you fold laundry, vacuum the floors, clean the bathroom, or mop away dirty paw prints and spend it reviewing memory passages, meditating on a line of Scripture, or interceding for others in prayer. 

• Garden in quietness. Pulling weeds can be a great time to make progress on your latest listen on Audible or Libby, but it can also be an opportunity to rehearse God’s good gifts in your life and praise Him for His faithfulness to you. 

• Enjoy a sunrise/sunset or stargaze in quietness. The heavens declare the glory of God, but if we’re always listening to some other voice, we may miss out on a golden opportunity to declare it ourselves. 

Take one of these ideas, or come up with your own. But don’t fear quietness. Embrace it and find strength.