I have often heard a frazzled woman say some variation of, “Can I please just get a little peace and quiet for a minute?” Peace and quiet. Both can be rare commodities, especially in today’s constant stream of media, social and otherwise. The Lord has been teaching me this week a few things about peace and quiet—most importantly that first you must be quiet to have peace.
My life has been altered in recent weeks so that I have found it difficult to get adequate amounts of quiet time. For an extremely introverted person such as myself, this is a very trying thing emotionally, physically, and I’ve connected now…even spiritually.
I had a meeting tonight in a shopping complex that had a lovely outdoor seating area. After we dismissed, I found a table away from everyone, and sat for a time simply enjoying the breeze and the quiet. As I was leaving, I noticed the bright and very lovely moon and was awed by its beauty. A few minutes later I found myself back home, sitting in my car, and thinking about that moon. Suddenly, this thought came to me:
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.
This, of course, caused me to begin a conversation with myself.
Hmm. Is that a song? No, that’s a scripture. I need to look that up.
Thanks to modern technology I found myself reading Isaiah 30 on my phone just a few taps later. The passage is one that I’ve read before, but it struck me in a fresh way tonight.
The chapter begins with the Lord lamenting over the stubbornness of the Isrealites. They had come up with a plan, but didn’t seek God about it. They decided to look to Egypt for protection instead of the Lord. He had sent prophets to warn them, but they refused to listen and turn away from their plans. As a result, He warns them that they will be destroyed, comparing them to a piece of pottery that is shattered so that there isn’t even a fragment large enough to use for a sip of water. And then comes the verse that the Lord brought to my mind tonight:
For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
It seems so bold to read on paper. “…and ye would not.” An absolute refusal to turn to God. But I realized that when I busy myself to the point of having no space or time to rest, be quiet and place my confidence in the Lord to handle all of the things on my to-do list, I’m acting in the very same way as the “stubborn” and “rebellious” people of Israel. This is a frightening thought, but thankfully, the chapter doesn’t end there! Three verses down it says:
And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
The Lord waits for us.
In our crazy, busy lives, we get distracted and pulled in a thousand directions—and the Lord waits for us. We try everything we can think of to relax, organize for maximum efficiency, and plan for every possibility—and the Lord waits for us. He waits for us to settle, to slow down, to be quiet long enough that he can be gracious and merciful to us. He wants to give us the peace that we long for, but He needs for us to quit spinning our wheels first.
So I encourage you to do what I am now making time to do. Instead of continuing to make your own plans, filling your calendar to full and overflowing, and looking to health and wellness magazines for what to do about stress, why don’t you make an appointment for some quiet time with Jesus today? Let Him show you what His plan for you is instead of you trying to drag Him along on yours. I feel confident that in doing so, we will both find out that “blessed are all they that wait for him.”
Photo credit: paul+photos=moody / Foter / CC BY-NC