“When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?” Job 34:29

Our world today is so loud.  Often times in our homes, in our cars, in our stores, there is noise. Music, news, TV programs, commercials, and on and on it goes.  I find myself getting more and more tense within when noise continues to long.  There are times when I have hit the off button on the radio in the car or the remote at home.  And there is an amazing quietness that settles upon me as I take a deep breath and slowly exhale.

One day in 1947, when Elisabeth Elliott was a student at Wheaton College, she was sitting near a friend at the piano in one of the campus buildings. Elisabeth had written a short poem, and her friend composed a melody on the spot. Over time the melody was lost, but years later Elisabeth included the words in her book “Keep a Quiet Heart.”

            Lord, give to me a quiet heart

            That does not ask to understand,

            But confident steps forward in

            The darkness guided by Thy hand.

It is often, and I would tend to say usually, in the stillness of the moment that the Lord speaks to our hearts.  There is a word in the language of Marathi (the language of central India) which describes the noise of stuff going around about us.  It’s the word “gurdburd.”  When there is a lot of “gurdburd” around us, our minds become so occupied that it is hard for us to pick out God’s voice.

He wants to do so much for us…if we’d only listen.  We understand so little, and He want us to grow in the knowledge of Him. God’s thoughts are as far above ours as heaven is above the earth. But He knows the plans He has for us, and they are important. Sometimes we feel as though our life is insignificant, but all of us are part of God’s sovereign design. Your life is important, and you can step confidently forward knowing Your Lord is already there.  Are we listending?

We are created to glorify Him as long as we live on this planet, and to enjoy Him for the rest of eternity. Our task is simply to trust and obey. – Elisabeth Elliott

In Psalm 131 we read:

            Lord, my heart is not haughty,
            Nor my eyes lofty.
            Neither do I concern myself with great matters,
            Nor with things too profound for me.

            Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul,
            Like a weaned child with his mother;
            Like a weaned child is my soul within me.

            O Israel, hope in the Lord
            From this time forth and forever.