A QUIET LIFE

 

A QUIET LIFE

I Thess. 4:11 This should be your ambition: to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we commanded before. NLT

What is your ambition? What do you really want to see happen in your life? What are you living for? The Apostle Paul tells us what we should really be living for, to live a quiet life, mind our own business, and help ourselves through our work. If we were to do these things, much of the problems that plague us in and outside the church could be avoided.

Most of us do not live quiet lives. We fill our lives with much busyness, so much so that we are often uncomfortable when things quiet down and we don’t have much to do. We need to relearn the value of quiet living. We need to learn how to eliminate a lot of the stress in our lives by not taking on so much and just enjoying life as God intended for us to do.

Do we mind our own business? Most of us struggle with this. For most of us, news travels fast and we are quick to stick our nose into things that really don’t concern us at all. We make other people’s business our business whether it is or not. We are quick to jump on the bandwagon of criticism and judgment which should be none of our concern at all.

Do we work with our own hands? Most of us don’t have as much of a problem with this command as we do the others. We know the importance of work. Most of us know that if we don’t work we don’t eat or pay the bills. We know how much stress a lack of willingness to work places on us and those we love. Paul is reminding the church that it is important for everyone to take care of themselves through work instead of mooching off of the generosity of others. Those who don’t, or won’t, work are usually the troublemakers in the church and beyond.

Let us be part of the solution and not a part of the problem. Let us strive to have healthy ambitions, live quiet lives, mind our own business, carry our own load, and contribute positively to the common good of the body of Christ.