Study Series

Five minute study: Silence

Everyone has got a spare five minutes at some point in the day, so why not use them! Forget getting lost on Instagram, check this simple and short study to grab some thoughts on silence, inspired by the story of Misgana from Eritrea. It might only take you a few minutes to read, but hopefully the words and ideas will stick with you the whole day!

Misgana, Eritrea

In Eritrea the choice to follow Jesus isn’t an easy one. It means being excluded, arrested, threatened and attacked. It means the likelihood of losing homes and businesses. It means being silenced.

Misgana is from Eritrea. She knows the consequences of the choice she made to follow Jesus. “In my society, the threat is very clear, if you follow Jesus, you will be persecuted. If you leave Jesus, you will live freely. Your family, isolate you. Your government hunts you… If you are jailed, your salary would be stopped”.

Churches have been closed. Silenced from talking about Jesus in public, Christians are quietly meeting underground. Misgana gathers secretly with other Christians in their homes. “I miss worshiping freely… singing and rejoicing loudly. But now, it’s like whispering. You want to rejoice but you can’t. But he hears our whisper, He is always with us”.

Despite the quiet, she hasn’t given up – her love and passion for God won’t be silenced: “Someday, somehow, we will rejoice in Jesus in our hometown. That is my prayer. We are strong. God’s grace is enough for us. Jesus saves!”

Bible

Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.
Psalm 62:5 (NLT)

Think

Being a Christian and following Jesus was never supposed to be a silent experience. Jesus was loud. He argued, preached, and caused controversy. His message has made a massive noise that has resonated with humanity for 2000 years. It’s a message that still has the power to inspire, equip and change lives – if not the world.

Misgana gets that. Forced to meet in secret, she and the others in her church know about silence. They can’t shout their praises or speak their prayers. They’ve been forced to keep quiet fearing arrest and torture if they speak up.

But silence isn’t just a negative thing. Staying quiet can help us turn down all the daily noise, so we can take a proper look at ourselves and ask God to reveal the bits of our lives that we need to work on. Often it’s in silence, when nothing else is getting in the way, when we can draw closer to God and focus purely on him.

In the quiet, Misgana experiences just that; she knows the cost of choosing Jesus and the enforced silence that comes with it. But she also grasps more and more of God’s unending love for her and his world. So, the challenge is to be like Misgana. Embrace the silence and ask God to draw you closer to him.

Pray

• Pray for Misgana and other believers in Eritrea.
• Ask that believers would be able to share God’s love with amazing acts of kindness and to have wisdom and boldness to know when they should speak to others about Jesus.
• Ask for God to speak to you in times of silence this week.
• Ask him to challenge and inspire you to live your faith out loud.

Other quick studies in this series

Silence…
Courage…
Thankfulness…
Passion…
Perseverance…