I thought it would be good to plan some goals for the New Year.  I am not so much into New Year’s Resolutions; but I do think that the end of the year is a good time for reflection.  God wants for us to be life-long learners.  We must be looking and listening to know what He is teaching us.  He has been pretty clear with me lately, which is wonderful, but also humbling!  For the next few posts I will share some scriptures that He has put on my heart and the lessons He is teaching me.  He may be teaching you something very different and I would love to hear you share about your own journey.  I think it is very important to turn these teachings into goals.  The Word tells us: let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son”  (Hebrews 12:1b-6).

So here is one of the teachings, and the bible verse that accompanies it: make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you,  so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. (1 Thess 4:11-12).  I have made mention before that God has been asking me to learn to be quiet.  Of course sometimes this feels like asking the sun not to shine, but if anyone can keep the sun from shining, or can teach me to be quiet, it is God Almighty – El Shaddai.  Kay Arthur says of the attribute described by the name El Shaddai:

This is “El Shaddai”, the “Pourer-forth”, who pours Himself out for His creatures; who gives them His lifeblood; who “sheds forth His Spirit,” and says, “Come unto Me and drink:” and “Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it:” and who thus, by the sacrifice of Himself, gives Himself and His very nature to those who will receive Him, that thus His perfect will may be accomplished in them…Only so, in virtue of His indwelling, can He fulfill His purpose and be Almighty in us.  And yet this giving of Himself involves judgement: self-judgement if we are obedient: if we are disobedient, the judgement of the Lord.  (Lord I Want to Know You: A Devotional Study on the Names of God, Pg. 38).

“Being quiet” means literally being quiet, allowing God to speak for you and to you in difficult situations.  But, more specifically, “being quiet” means a quietness of spirit, resting in His ability to manage: (1) conflicts in your relationships with others, (2) the day to day crises which arise, and, in general, (3) the path that your life takes.  Last week, God gave me an opportunity to exercise this quiet spirit and I failed.  I went to visit my Mom the day before she started chemo.  I went with high hopes and expectations for a wonderful time of fellowship and holiday fun.  I planned to bring a great movie to watch with the kids and a gingerbread house to assemble, which would act as centerpiece for our family Christmas dinner.  Instead, I ran a good 45 minutes late, forgot the movie, spent 15 minutes at the Wendy’s drive-thru failing to communicate my order to the voice inside the little box (got so flustered I forgot my Frosty’s!), ran out of time to do the gingerbread house, and found myself with a dead car battery when I tried to bring Mom to get a supplement she needed to begin the next day.  That car battery was the last straw!  I really lost it and wanted to burst into tears.  I was over 100 miles from home; and I had gone to be a help to Momma but found myself to be in need of help instead.  I got so upset that I forgot I had AAA – Mom had to remind me.  Then God came through for me big time: sending a AAA battery truck with a helpful man who happened to have a seminary degree (talk about a Godsend!).  By the end of it all, I had been ministered to, my car was fixed and my mom had yet another circle of people who would be praying for her during her first chemo treatment the next day.  So rather than making the warm and fuzzy memory I wanted to make, Mom and I agreed that God provided us both the opportunity to see His hand at work and to remind us that He would take care of us, in the way He saw fit, and that His way would always be better than ours.  Looking back, I was fighting Him the whole time.  My expectations were the enemy of my peace.

So, the rest of this year and all of next, I will try to exercise my quiet muscles which are sorely in need of strengthening.  With God’s help I will make it [my] ambition to lead a quiet life: [to] mind [my] own business and work with [my] hands…so that [my] daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that [I] will not be dependent on anybody [other than God] (1 Thess 4:11-12).  How about you?  Are you in need of some quiet in your life?

JustaGirl…just like you