Quiet Trust

 

Did you ever avoid a conversation because you didn’t want to hear what someone had to say?

Maybe we can remember avoiding a conversation with our parents when we were young because we knew they were going to point out something we did that wasn’t right.

Maybe we let a friendship grow stale because we didn’t want to hear a friend speak truth into our lives.

Maybe we fill our lives with “noise” so that we can’t hear the convicting words of our very own hearts.

The art of noise in our lives is as simple as the fact that we carry the world in our pocket. In an instant we can scroll our way to distraction and click our way to avoidance.

How often do we stop to be quiet?

Silence can be a scary thing to be alone with. It’s in the quiet that we sometimes realize shortcomings. 

Its in the silence that truth rises above deceiving emotions. 

It’s in the silence that the Spirit speaks to our hearts.

Quietness defies self-reliance. 

Quietness overpowers certainty. 

Quietness can preach truth to our souls like nothing else.

Quietness is humbling.

There’s a vulnerability in the silence that cuts through all pretense.

Isaiah 30:15-16 says

“This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
    in quietness and trust is your strength,
    but you would have none of it.
 You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
    Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
    Therefore your pursuers will be swift!”

 

Assyria was bearing down on Judah, threatening to crush them as it had crushed many before them. God tells them that if only they had postured themselves in quiet trust, they would have had his strength; but they had wanted none of it.

Gods people didn’t want to listen for Gods voice because they wanted to do things in their own strength. 

They avoided Gods voice because they didn’t want to wait for his answer. They didn’t want to hear Gods voice for fear that it might not agree with their own.

We dodge the truth at times because we want to stay comfortable in our own perspective. We hide from convicting realties because the truth we know deep down, is painful.

And so, we fill our lives with noise, jumping from one distraction to the next.

The people’s refusal to be quiet and ask God for help not only cut them off from his strength, but also invited other painful consequences.

In the rhythms of our lives, do we make time to be quiet before God? Do we understand that God can do more for us while we sit in the quiet of prayer, than we can do by trying to push through without him?

“Be still, and know that I am God!” 

- Psalm 46:10

Stop avoiding the silence. Stop running from the quiet. Sit and be still. Put down your protective distractions and be with God.

“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” 

– Luke 5:16

“After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone."

- Matthew 14:23

“In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.”

 -Mark 1:35

When Jesus said “Follow me” it wasn’t simply on a dusty path to a physical destination, it’s in his behaviors and habits that he wants us to follow.

Jesus knows how much our heavenly Father loves the sound of quiet trust, and he wants to lead us to that sacred place.

-Pastor Patti