The Quiet Place

Everyone needs a place. A quiet place. A safe place. A spot where tears can flow. Broken hearts can be mended. Burdens unloaded. Do you have "a place"?

My office is a gift from the Father. Some of my colleagues call it a library. One wall is lined with books, about a thousand of them. There are four other bookshelves interspersed throughout my "place".

A comfortable occasional chair sits on an angle in a corner. Guests to my office hesitate to sit there because they become "too comfortable". They might fall asleep.

Background music plays softly from my laptop computer. A box of tissues is always nearby should tears emerge. This is my quiet place!

This morning I needed a gentle touch from the Almighty. A reminder that He cares deeply about the things which trouble me. From time to time I engage in an exercise that I wouldn't usually recommend.

I reached for the wisdom and counsel of others. Taking four devotional books from my shelves I turned to June 26th to see what timely words had been penned by Jill Briscoe, Watchman Nee, John MacArthur and Amy Carmichael. My prayer was that at least one of these writers would speak words of peace to my burdened soul.

Earlier I cautioned my readers that this isn't an exercise I would always recommend. Why? We need to find our ultimate direction from God's inerrant word, the Bible. Books only supplement the truths we find throughout the scriptures. All too often we look for a quick fix in a volume penned by mortals rather than searching the scriptures for God's eternal word to us.

Anyhow, Jill Briscoe had written about humility and how it is grown and cultivated in the desert places of our lives. She wrote of Elijah and John the Baptist and how their character was divinely shaped in the literal and spiritual desert experiences of life. She writes, "If we have humility we know we can tell Jesus when we're weak. Humility helps us to be strong even when we are in a prison of death, doubt or despair. Prideful people won't ask. They try to figure it all out for themselves. But, then, pride doesn't live in the desert...with God."

So, dear friends, where is your quiet place? Today it may seem like a desert place. Does God seem absent? Looking back you will discover that He was there all along, holding you with His everlasting arms.

Today, be still and know...that He is God and He is cultivating humility in you...if you will but let Him.

"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." - Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)

Does His promise seem too good to be true? Is your spirit parched from a prolonged desert experience? Let Him pour the water of life into your life...freely. HE CARES and He's cultivating humility. Rest in Him!