Today is October 15.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you.

Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence. And say, “Come Holy Spirit.”

Today’s reading is from the book of Revelation, chapter 8.


1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.


This passage from Revelation describes the kind of worship that is happening in heaven. I love how it begins… there was a silence in heaven for about half an hour. In our noise filled world, we usually think of worship as something full of sounds—voices and choirs, instruments and melodies, building into a crescendo. But here worship is silence … for 30 minutes. Let’s take just 30 seconds right now and be silent.

What do you notice when you are silent? Maybe you notice the noise around you. Maybe you notice the noise within you. The distractions. The pull to today’s to dos. It takes practice to learn how to worship God through silence. Because we are first learning to quiet the noise within our own soul. After you hear the passage again, I want to again pause for thirty seconds, and this time I want you to pay attention to the noise within your soul, and try to put a name on what that noise is.

What did you notice? Could you put a name to it? A lot of times it feels frustrating that there is so much noise in our soul. But instead of being frustrated by it, just quietly bring that noise to God and ask God to quiet that noise with his peace. As you continue through your day, could you take one or two more moments of silence: bring noise of your soul to God, and to ask him to meet you there.

Music: All For You Jesus - Vineyard Worship - (YouTube)