Solitude

What is the discipline of solitude?

Going to a quiet place to be alone with God.

Why practice solitude?

Dallas Willard notes, “Locked into interaction with the human beings that make up our fallen world, it is all but impossible to grow in grace as one should.” Just as we would spend one-on-one time with any close friend, we must spend one-on-one time with God if we wish to be in relationship with Him and be more like Him. Going into the desert or the closet to be alone with God allows us to receive the fullness of His strength before once again facing the world. Solitude is therefore necessary for:

• Deepening our intimacy with God
• Separating us from social conformity
• Revealing our deep soul issues
• Increasing our ability to have compassion for others

What does the Bible say?

The Bible is full of people practicing the discipline of solitude. Just to name a few, Jacob (Genesis 32:24–32), Moses (Exodus 33:7, 11), and Elijah (1 Kings 19) all had profound encounters with God while they were in solitude. Perhaps the best exemplar for the practice of solitude, however, is Jesus Christ. The Gospels record Him withdrawing into solitude over and over again. Before beginning His ministry, He spent forty days alone in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11). He withdrew into solitude before selecting the twelve (Luke 6:12), after hearing of John the Baptist’s death (Matthew 14:13), and after feeding the five thousand (Matthew 14:23). Jesus is also recorded going to “a lonely place” in Mark 1:35, Mark 6:31, and Luke 5:16, among other verses. Clearly, solitude is a practice Jesus endorsed.

How do I get started?

1. Find little moments of solitude throughout the day. Take advantage of those first few minutes after you wake up or before you go to bed, those moments when you are walking to and from your car, or the time you spend sitting down for breakfast. Whenever they arise, be intentional about using little moments of solitude to commune with God.

2. Find your sanctuary. You need a place where you can be alone with God. It could be a room in your house, a closet, an empty church, or some place in nature.

3. Set aside a set period of time. Whether it’s five minutes, thirty minutes, or several hours, the key is to follow through with the amount of time you commit to God and to meet with Him regularly and routinely. You can also go on an occasional study retreat to spend a few days alone and in God’s Word. Richard Foster also recommends that four times a year you set aside several hours to pray over your goals for the next year and the next ten years in order to reorient your life.

4. Pair solitude with silence. The point of solitude is to get rid of distractions and hear God’s voice clearly, so pairing solitude with music or a noisy atmosphere generally isn’t ideal.

5. Pair solitude with the disciplines of prayer, meditation, or study. Once again, the point is to commune with God. Be intentional about listening to His voice and enjoying His presence.

Some Precautions

Don’t cut yourself off from community completely. God wants us to interact with the world around us (e.g. service, evangelism) and He wants us to be in relationship with one another. Many of the spiritual disciplines are meant to be practiced communally (e.g. confession, worship). Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community…Let him who is not in community beware of being alone…Each by itself has profound pitfalls and perils. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair.” Time spent in solitude and time spent with others are both vital to the Christian life.