Study To Be Quiet
We live in a loud, noisy, busy world. We're surrounded by ringing alarm clocks, buzzing phones, car horns and loud voices. Short of stuffing your fingers in your ears, there's little you can do to shut them all off.
So if we want to have some peace and quiet in our lives, the choice is to make ourselves quiet. This can be difficult for some women because we've been taught to be heard above the noise. "If you want people to pay attention to you, you have to be louder than everyone else." Or so the myth goes.
What would happen if we followed the words of Paul to the Thessalonians instead?
And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you. 1 Thessalonians 4:11
This verse is about an inward change that eventually becomes an outward display. We'd all love to have a calm, peaceful soul, and Paul says all it takes is the ambition to be so. "Study" here means "be ambitious," striving and desiring to be calm and quiet in mind and soul.
Imagine walking through a hurried, scattered world, unaffected by the drama and emotional tornadoes around us. One of my favorite quotes along this thought is "Sometimes God calms the storms and sometimes He calms me." The outside circumstances of life affect us, but they don't have to steal our peace.
And Paul goes on to give two ways we can be focused and maintain our peace: do your own business and work with your own hands.
Sounds simple, doesn't it? But how often do we start listening a little to that conversation over there? Or "help" a little with someone else's project? Before we know it we're too busy, too involved in other things and pulled in every direction. And of course, we did it to ourselves.
This verse of Scripture reminds us that while the devil and the world may try to get us all stirred up, we are ultimately in charge of our own peace. Keeping our eyes in line, our ears in check and our thoughts in submission will keep us from straying too far from where God would have us be. If we're busy serving the Lord in the ways He chooses and not tip-toeing through someone else's tulips, we might be surprised at how much peace He will fill us with.
Spend today centering your life around God's peace. Study to be quiet, strive to present an undisturbed nature and choose words that reflect a calm heart. Show the world that we don't have to conform to the whirlwind they call life.
So if we want to have some peace and quiet in our lives, the choice is to make ourselves quiet. This can be difficult for some women because we've been taught to be heard above the noise. "If you want people to pay attention to you, you have to be louder than everyone else." Or so the myth goes.
What would happen if we followed the words of Paul to the Thessalonians instead?
And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you. 1 Thessalonians 4:11
This verse is about an inward change that eventually becomes an outward display. We'd all love to have a calm, peaceful soul, and Paul says all it takes is the ambition to be so. "Study" here means "be ambitious," striving and desiring to be calm and quiet in mind and soul.
Imagine walking through a hurried, scattered world, unaffected by the drama and emotional tornadoes around us. One of my favorite quotes along this thought is "Sometimes God calms the storms and sometimes He calms me." The outside circumstances of life affect us, but they don't have to steal our peace.
And Paul goes on to give two ways we can be focused and maintain our peace: do your own business and work with your own hands.
Sounds simple, doesn't it? But how often do we start listening a little to that conversation over there? Or "help" a little with someone else's project? Before we know it we're too busy, too involved in other things and pulled in every direction. And of course, we did it to ourselves.
This verse of Scripture reminds us that while the devil and the world may try to get us all stirred up, we are ultimately in charge of our own peace. Keeping our eyes in line, our ears in check and our thoughts in submission will keep us from straying too far from where God would have us be. If we're busy serving the Lord in the ways He chooses and not tip-toeing through someone else's tulips, we might be surprised at how much peace He will fill us with.
Spend today centering your life around God's peace. Study to be quiet, strive to present an undisturbed nature and choose words that reflect a calm heart. Show the world that we don't have to conform to the whirlwind they call life.
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