The Solitude Practice
Distraction is one of the greatest threats to spiritual health in the modern world.
We all feel it — we’re bombarded by noise like never before. Jesus has an invitation for us: Step away from it all to be alone with him, for the sake of our souls and the sake of others.
What to expect
Each Practice comes with four session videos, weekly exercises and readings, and additional resources to help your group create life-changing daily rhythms as you apprentice under Jesus together. The sessions are about 30 minutes long and include time for group discussion at the beginning.
Our Practices are perfect to use with small groups or to run course-style with a larger group, but they can also be modified for a churchwide Sunday teaching series, small cohorts, and many other contexts.
Preview Session 01Week by Week
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Distraction is a threat to our minds, bodies, and souls. But through solitude, we’re invited into Jesus’ pattern of retreating from distractions to be fully present with the Father and returning to serve in community.
Practice: Begin each day with a few minutes of solitude, silence, and stillness before God.
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Solitude can be deeply refreshing, but just as often, it can feel like painful emotional surgery. As we notice and name the pain we’ve been avoiding through distraction, God forms us into the people he’s always desired us to become.
Practice: During solitude, notice and name your emotions and give them to God.
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Jesus and his early followers fought battles in solitude. As we face resistance from three enemies of our soul — the world, the flesh, and the devil — in solitude, we learn to fight lies by listening carefully for God’s voice in Scripture.
Practice: Through solitude, fight lies from your soul’s enemies by slowly and prayerfully reflecting on Scripture.
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Through solitude, we create space for God’s presence, speaking and listening to God and simply loving him and being loved. Solitude allows the Spirit of God to interject his thoughts and desires into our souls.
Practice: In solitude, seek God himself, listening for his voice and enjoying his love.
Recommended Resources
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The Companion Guide
Each session will use the Solitude Companion Guide. We created this guide to help you and your group build new daily rhythms into your lives.
The Guide includes weekly Reach Exercises, assigned readings and podcast episodes, and reflection questions. You can purchase a beautiful printed version, or download the digital guide for free when you sign up to run the Practice.
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Recommended Reading
For the Solitude Practice, we’re reading Invitation to Solitude and Silence by Ruth Haley Barton. Each week, you’ll be assigned readings in the Solitude Companion Guide.
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Invitation to Solitude Guide
Our friend and collaborator at Practicing the Way, Strahan Coleman, has written this guide to help create meaningful moments of solitude, especially for those with less freedom to carve out extended time away from distractions.
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Rule of Life Podcast
In the Sabbath series of the Rule of Life podcast, John Mark Comer, Bethany Allen and Bryan Rouanzoin dive into the countercultural act of Sabbath in today’s world.