It’s been a fairly busy week, and sometimes the best stress relief is to just step back and enjoy something simple. This park is surrounded by farmland with mountains in the distance, and all that made a nice peaceful and relaxing backdrop for our games. Pickleball is a little bit noisy, but there is often some of the best peace and quiet in simple moments like that.
Isaiah 30:15 says, “For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.”
Isaiah 32:17 says, “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.”
The word quietness really jumped out to me as I read those verses. Yes there will be wonderful peace in heaven, but there is a real internal peace and quiet that God offers even now.
Even with a lot of stress around us and a long to do list, quietness is possible; but it involves a choice: Focus on our stress or focus on God? It’s not that we ignore the challenges facing us as we focus on God. It’s that we look at those challenges based on what God says about them, about us, and about Himself.