A few more thoughts today about quiet living, from 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 11, where God through the Apostle Paul tells us to "...study to to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands."
Study to be quiet. There are many things that I study and want to study. Being quiet should be one of them. I'm to make it my ambition, to strive earnestly, to make it my aim...to live quietly. Having this ambition is a desirable quality. A quiet life? Hardly a characteristic of our culture. Hardly a characteristic of today's women who are bombarded from all sides to be aggressive and brash, and to be loud about it. In contrast, we're told that a meek and quiet spirit is of value to God (1 Peter 3:4). There is no higher standard of value than God's, but quietness is disallowed in our current culture. Today's feminism is clamorous, boisterous, and demanding. Proverbs 9:13 tells us this is foolish and naive.
Do your own business. In other words, tend to my own business and don't be a busybody. Women who want to meddle in other people's lives are disquieted in their own. They think they have a good word to pass along, but often it's evident that they are consumed with expressing their own opinion and knowing everyone else's business... and wanting everyone to know that they know everyone's business. This doesn't mean that I don't help others, but that I don't meddle when I do, and that I don't tell everyone that I did.
To work with their own hands. When I'm doing my own work, I don't have much time to put my oar in other people's affairs. God has given us women the responsibilities of being a helper to our husbands and of caring for our home and family. It's been my observation that women who are not quiet and who are busy about other people's affairs are those who are not tending to their own home fires. There is much to keep my hands busy here at home.
To work with their own hands. When I'm doing my own work, I don't have much time to put my oar in other people's affairs. God has given us women the responsibilities of being a helper to our husbands and of caring for our home and family. It's been my observation that women who are not quiet and who are busy about other people's affairs are those who are not tending to their own home fires. There is much to keep my hands busy here at home.
We're also given the reason why we are to study to be quiet, to do our own business, and to work with our own hands--that you may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing" (verses 11 and 12).
There's always a reason why God wants us to do something or to avoid something. He created us and knows the whys and wherefores. Here it's twofold: (1) so unbelievers will see the outworking of the gospel in our lives--Christ living in us. It's a testimony of His grace and mercy toward us. (2) It's also so that we will lack nothing; in other words, so we'll have all we need. Being foolish and naive and clamoring and disquieted is lacking in wisdom and purity and peacefulness and gentleness. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated (James 3:17).
So I ask myself--Do I desire quietness? Do I make it my aim and ambition? Do I order my days accordingly? Do I entreat others in love and compassion and seek to bear their burdens with them, or do I simply have a desire to know? When I do offer a helping hand, do I broadcast my good deeds so others will know my involvement? Do I busy myself with primary responsibilities of home and family? Do I seek wisdom from above?
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want [that I may have lack of nothing]. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still [quiet] waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness [living quietly, minding my own business, working with my own hands] for His name's sake [so that I make the gospel believable to those who don't yet believe] (Psalm 23:1-2, with my own quiet pondering comments).
