# Quieting Day 3 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Uncrowd my heart, O God, until silence speaks in your still small voice; turn me from the hearing of words, and the making of words, and the confusion of much speaking, to listening, waiting, stillness, silence. ~Thomas Merton* ### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 23 ### A Psalm of David. *23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.* *He leads me beside still waters.[a] 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness[b] for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,[c]I will fear no evil,for you are with me; your rod and your staff,they comfort me.* *5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely[d] goodness and mercy[e] shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell[f] in the house of the Lord forever.[g]* ### Scripture for the Day: Habakkuk 2:18-20 *18 “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! 19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. 20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”* ### Reading for Reflection: *Retire from the world each day to some private spot, even if it be only the bedroom (for a while I retreated to the furnace room for want of a better place). Stay in the secret place till the surrounding noises begin to fade out of your heart and a sense of God’s presence envelopes you…Listen for the inward Voice till you learn to recognize it. Stop trying to compete with others. Give yourself to God and then be what and who you are without regard to what others think…Learn to pray inwardly every moment. After a while you can do this even while you work….Read less, but more of what is important to your inner life. Never let your mind remain scattered for very long. Call home your roving thoughts. Gaze on Christ with the eyes of your soul. Practice spiritual concentration. All of the above is contingent upon a right relation to God through Christ and daily meditation on the Scriptures. Lacking these, nothing will help us; granted these, the discipline recommended will go far to neutralize the evil effects of externalism and to make us acquainted with God and our own souls. (The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer)* ### Reflection and Listening: silent and written ### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself ### Song for the Week: Be Still My Soul *Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.* *Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.* *Leave to thy God to order and provide;* *In every change, He faithful will remain.* *Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend* *Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.* *Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake* *To guide the future, as He has the past.* *Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;* *All now mysterious shall be bright at last.* *Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know* *His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below* #### Closing Prayer: *O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)*