If you've had too much noise...
Psalm 131 is show-and-tell for how to become peaceful inside... This quiet psalm can make you highly sensitive to 'noise.' It is an instrument with which to detect gusts, tremors, or thrashing in the soul... The noise tips us off to what's going on.- David Powlison, from Seeing With New Eyes
The static of anxiety, irritation, despondency, or ambition makes sense from within the logic of a proud heart. If you are not proud, then quietness and composure make sense... Even self-belittling tendencies--low self-esteem, self-pity, self-hatred, timidity, fears of failure and rejection--fundamentally express pride failing, pride intimidated, and pride despairing. Such pride, even when much battered, still finds someone else to look down on...
Most of the noise in our souls is generated by our attempts to control the uncontrollable. We grasp after the wind. We rage, fear, and finally despair...
Be still, my soul. All that is hard now will be forgotten amid love's purest joys. This slight, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Cor. 4:17). Psalm 131 lives with eyes open.
God has not promised to rescue us according to our time schedule. If it appears that your prayers are unanswered, do not dishonor the Lord with unbelief. Waiting in faith is a high form of worship. In some respects, it excels the adoration of the shining ones above.- Charles Spurgeon, from Beside Still Waters
God delivers His servants in ways that exercise their faith. He would not have them lacking in faith, for faith is the wealth of the heavenly life. He desires that the trial of faith continues until faith grows strong and comes to full assurance. The sycamore fig never ripens into sweetness unless it is bruised; the same is true of faith. Tested believer, God will bring you through, but do not expect Him to bring you through in the way that human reason suggests, for that would not develop your faith.
posted by Lorie @ 11:03 AM
5 Comments:
I have to love Charles Spurgeon! Very well said and a beautiful reminder that quiet *is* indeed a good thing.
These are very apt reading selections.
Pride is so insidious that we seldom recognize it for what it is.
I have found this works, in fact am getting close to again, is shutting self off form fthe world for a day, lock the doors, light up the candles and ponder, meditate, pray and try to listen through the noise for what is truely on my heart.
Its sad that we have so much freedoms and cool thigns, yet in this superficial happiness we have so much noise that we can't seem to hear truth or our own hearts.
Now n then we need the quiet.
i like the quote from spurgeon, and it makes me think of times where i sought human advice instead of just being quiet, isolating myself, and letting God handle and work me through whatever the situation may be.
I love how Powlison just lays it out there: it is our PRIDE and our subsequent grasping for recognition, acknowledgement, worth that keeps us from having a quiet heart---not our circumstances, not God, not whatever other excuse we want to come up with.
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