I have been more quiet than usual in sharing the Beauty in Dying devotionals. This is because I am spending more time listening.
Not that I don’t want to share, believe me I do. This year I have spent studying Ephesians, and it is amazing all that my Lord is showing me.
But God has given me a desire to be quiet. And in my quietness to listen.
The Study of Quietness
And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
The context of these verses speak of brotherly love (see verse 9 and 10). Yet as I have had the privilege to saturate in the book of Ephesians, I know our Lord hides treasures in plain sight. Here the Lord got my attention to the words and that ye “study to be quiet.”
Study to be quiet?
“How?” I ask my Lord.
It is interesting that when you are open to ask and learn that God shows you.
The Advantages of a Quiet Life
Not only am I learning to be quiet physically but also mentally too.
How often do we see ourselves as a quiet person because we say nothing out loud? But in our mind there is frustration and we play out a piece of our mind in the safety of our thoughts.
Is that being quiet?
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Psalm 51:6
I often remind myself how God desires truth, not in putting on a “face” but in our innermost being.
The Study of Quiet
To be quiet takes study. And study is work and work can be loathsome especially if you don’t have a reason to be diligent in it.
The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. Proverbs 13:4
It is one thing to desire to be a quiet person. I wanted that but my reasons were selfish. I thought being quiet is what others wanted, and thus I would please others.
Pleasing others should never be your focus. Rather know that being quiet with meekness is a pleasure to your Beloved Lord.
But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Peter 3:4
Being quiet has been work for me because I have fought my pride. But now that I am willingly yielded to our Beloved, God has shown me how to enhance my quietness.
There is a greater reason for being quiet, and that is to see my Lord glorified. For in being quiet, I also learn to be still. And in being still, God exalts Himself.
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10
To GOD be ALL the GLORY
In His hands,
Ann Marie Moore
