timeless living

Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. 

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (ESV)

Stand in line at the checkout, and the intimate details of people’s lives are exposed for all to see. In this know-all world, it is refreshing to read today’s verse where God is calling us to live the opposite of what we see about us.

When I first read this scripture, I thought it was referring that we should keep to ourselves, like a hermit or a lone wolf. Upon rereading it, I spotted through His eyes that it is a reminder on how we are to be of the world and yet not in it.  

We are to be His hands and feet to those in need, yet we don’t need to know all about one another, like the tabloid at the checkout stand would suggest.  

We are to instead follow His lead to live quietly but with purpose.

We are to be dependent upon Him alone as His children, not the world and its systems.

We are to use our hands to further His call in our lives, to bless one another as we depend upon Him for everything. This dependence will attract those who don’t yet know Him, who are seeking their true Home, and looking for rest. His ways have stood the test of time and will continue to do so forever!

Pause and Apply: Evaluate where we are getting our directions. Are we first sitting at His feet and listening for His voice? He has wisdom for your life and direction for your decisions.

PrayerHelp me quiet myself to hear You over those clamouring for my attention. I desire to see Your timeless plans instead of the world’s limiting standards.

This post first appeared yesterday over at remadecommunity.org 🙂

image

after the noise

image

Noise comes in many voices.

When we don’t turn down the voices we are not needing to prioritize, we can miss out on hearing His voice.

The One voice we are most needing to hear.

Pain may be using a megaphone, your kids may be clambering for your attention, or you can’t take the wait so you keep the TV or radio on to drown out the silence.
Or it could be the list of everything you have to do, or what ifs which are speaking loudest in your mind.

Through it all, God waits.

He waits for our attention, after doing all He can to capture ours.

Today has been a weird day for me.  I have been trying not to multi task, and have been able to hear the difference voices competing for my attention.

I want my attention to always be for Him.  Not in the way a child may learn to do something wrong in order to get any attention. I  want to give Him my all.

All my attention, all my affection.

May we all learn to tune out all the loud voices so we can hear His precious whispers when He speaks to us.