Introductory Note:
These Solitude references come from a selective, topical index in the Renovaré Life with God Spiritual Formation Bible. The index is designed to help readers get a picture of the role of Spiritual Disciplines in fostering a full and flourishing life with God.
We invite you to take some time finding a few of these scriptural references and looking at them in context. What do they show you about the way the discipline of Solitude nurtures our relationship with God and helps us to grow in grace?
Some references for which there are spiritual formation exercises are designated by an asterisk. You may want to experiment with one of the exercises to “taste and see” why Solitude is one of the practices passed down to us by Jesus and the historic Church.
No doubt some passages may have been omitted that might be very useful for understanding spiritual formation. What is given here is intended to provide only a substantial introduction to the presence and importance of Spiritual Disciplines in the Bible. For further study on disciplines and how they are to be practiced, please see Richard Foster’s, Celebration of Discipline, and Dallas Willard’s, The Spirit of the Disciplines.
Renovaré Team
Excerpt from Life with God Spiritual Formation Bible
SOLITUDE: The creation of an open, empty space in our lives by purposefully abstaining from interaction with other human beings, so that, freed from competing loyalties, we can be found by God.
*Genesis 32:24
Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
Numbers 23:9
Here is a people living alone, and not reckoning itself among the nations!
*1 Kings 17:4
I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.
Psalm 62:5
For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.
*Isaiah 35:1
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom.
*Jeremiah 15:16 – 18
Under the weight of your hand I sat alone.
*Matthew 14:23
After he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.
Mark 1:35
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.
Mark 6:31
Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.
Mark 6:47
When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land.
Mark 9:2
Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves.
*Luke 4:42
At daybreak he departed and went into a deserted place.
Luke 5:16
He would withdraw to deserted places and pray.
Luke 6:12
He went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
Luke 9:18
Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him.
*John 8:29
The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone.
*John 16:32
The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when… you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.
*Gal 1:17 – 22
I went away at once into Arabia.
1 Timothy 5:5
The real widow, left alone, has set her hope on God.
Excerpted from the Life with God Bible (New Revised Standard Version), with special thanks to HarperOne and to the late Dallas Willard who compiled the Index.
Photo by Don Fontijn on Unsplash
· Last Featured on Renovare.org July 2023
