AMBITION FOR A QUIET LIFE

"And to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you."

I Thessalonians 4:11

In our modern culture, living a simple and quiet life has become obsolete and a forgotten virtue. Living this kind of life used to be accepted as a spiritual discipline, which was wise for one to pursue.  Let us consider that quiet life that the Lord has in mind for us.

We seem to have forgotten that quiet living leads to peace and peace to Christ.  One who lives a quiet life has more time to abide in Christ.  What that means is one would have more time to worship Him while doing the simple daily tasks of life.  It is the quiet heart that can perform the necessary tasks as unto God.  God knows well who is living a quiet life and who has the time to get to know Him well for Him to abide in him and he in Him.


I.  THE QUIET HEART:

We find quiet in our soul, mind, and heart.  There is no other way to find it.  Quiet is found in the heart who finds rest at the feet of God.  It is the heart that finds rest in Him while it is going about the daily work(tasks) of life.

"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve" (Colossians 3:23-24).

The heart learns that when we clutter up life with too many things that are not from God, it will keep the heart from being quiet and still. The heart must acknowledge that whatever is not from God causes anxiety and fatigue.  God asks us to live a quiet life.  God in His wisdom knows that anxiety, fatigue, and chaos are merely the end results and physical symptoms of spiritual sickness, lack of peace, lack of time with God.  God gives us simple tasks to complete in our daily life.  He is a good and kind God who does not fill our plate with unnecessary extras.  All He asks is that we find joy, delight, and peace with the simple tasks He bestows upon us.

As we learn to obey God in our simple and quiet work daily, we start to see and know Him better. We start walking with Him more and He with us.  He starts guiding us and pouring His peace on us. We start bearing more fruit and stop being idle and lazy.  It is then that we begin to do the work that He has given us.

Today most of us are cluttered.  We seem to be drowning with activities, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, all kinds of social media, entertainment, and pop culture.  We want more and more earthly pleasures without reservations.  The bombardment is constant!  There is no time for living a simple and refreshed life in God's peace.  These are all distractions that clutter us and cover us with layer upon layer of carnal things that can not give us satisfaction.  It is a spirit that lives at a fast and frantic pace! 

We forget that God has designed us to find rest in Him only.  This must be the longing of our souls. When we don't live a life that is simple and quiet, we start to feel all sorts of sickness and anxieties. Lest we forget, our real home is heaven.  It is that permanent place of rest in God.  When we do not live a quiet life, we begin to feel unhealthy, depressed, chaotic, and sick because of all the wrong things we seek to fill up our lives.  Why not think how sweet heaven will be when our final journey is ended?  How sweet that final rest will be after all our toils, suffering, and fatigue!


CONCLUSION:

When we live a quiet life, we are going to be the light of the world for Christ, a life of doing the work He has given us to do.  It is a life of taking advantage of all of our abilities as tools to evangelize, bringing the Gospel of Christ to a world of darkness.  It is a life of offering God a sweet aroma.  It is in living a life as His simple, quiet and faithful servants that He will be pleased.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"  (Matthew 5:8).

May our Lord show us His Truth in a quiet life.  May He lead us along His paths of righteousness.  May He show us His ways to peace.  May He guard our heart, soul, and mind against clutter that will seek to lead us astray.  May we have a heart of discernment whose ambitions are His only.

"To obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you"  (I Peter 1:4).

Luci