A Quiet Soul

“Lord, my heart is not proud; 

my eyes are not haughty.

I do not get involved with things

too great or too difficult for me. 

Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself

like a weaned child with its mother; 

I am like a weaned child.” 

Psalm 131:1-2

We need rest. We all agree. But as much as we want it, we don’t seem to be successful in achieving it. I can say from experience that before children, rest was easily attainable. At the time of this writing, we have joyfully endured the “toddler stage” twice and are presently entering the third with our youngest child. Whew!  Anyone with small kids can testify, right?!

In particular stages of your life, if you want rest, you’ve got to go find it. It doesn’t happen accidentally. You must pursue rest.

The kind of rest we need is spiritual rest. Of course, we need physical and mental rest as well. But if our souls are not a rest, our bodies and minds can’t rest. 

So, as believers who have entered into rest (Hebrews 4) we must maintain a pattern of rest in our daily lives. I am realizing that rest is not an escape from reality but a means of connecting with a deeper reality. In God’s presence, there is rest. 

The key to finding rest is living in God’s presence. 

I’m also learning how to maintain daily rest by quieting my soul. If David, the king of Israel with all his responsibilities and stresses could rest like a baby, so can I! 

There are two secrets I’ve discovered that help cultivate peace and find rest.  

Guard the intake. Watch what you’re feeding your mind. What you watch and listen to has a great influence on your soul. Much of what comes on t.v. these days, especially news, incites fear and discontentment. I’ve found that if I want to quiet my soul, I can’t really do it if I’m watching t.v., listening to negative people, or being on most forms of social media. If you can, go right ahead. But for me, it’s worth it to deny myself these things to cultivate peace. 

Guard the internal. You may limit your intake of distractions, but that doesn’t mean           your mind magically cooperates. You must keep a watch on what you’re thinking. Your patterns of thought have a direct correlation to your emotions. In fact, negative emotions are nothing more than signposts that point out our negative thinking. Fear is not just an emotion. It is rooted in believing something that isn’t true. 

Philippians 4:8 tells us to think about things that are “true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable.” We must filter our thinking if we want a quiet soul. 

I hope you can get some rest today.