I Promise This Will Change Your Life

I believe we are lost. We have completely missed this vital aspect of life with God. And we don’t even know we’re lost. We’re just bumbling along the wrong trail, headed God knows where.

What I want to offer you in this article is an overlooked gem of Scripture, a verse I almost never hear preached on, talked about, or quoted. It’s a quiet verse, a verse which will not tickle your vanity. But it will liberate you. I am not exaggerating. If you will take this bite of God’s word, chew it, and digest it — your life will change for the better…immediately. 

In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul is teaching the Thessalonians how to live a life that is pleasing to God. When you read that, what do you think he is going to say? What is a life pleasing to God? Extraordinary acts of sacrifice? Brave evangelism? He surprises them with simplicity: control your body, love people as God has loved you, and live quietly. This last part is what I want to major on here:

“…and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.” (V11-12; bold mine)

Now I can’t remember the last time I heard someone extol the virtue of quiet living. That’s because we don’t value quiet living. We value loud living. 

We value — and the attention-targeting algorithms lure us with — sensational, violent, graphic, embarrassing, crude, and controversial content on Instagram.

We value having the right thing to say in hard situations, which is why we struggle sitting with a friend in grief without saying something.

We value displaying status objects: houses, cars, and clothes which communicate we are extraordinary.

We value celebrities — including pastors — who walk big stages and have huge followings.

We value visibility — being noticed.

But God’s spiritual economy has a different set of values. In God’s eyes, visibility does not equal value. In fact, His word praises quiet faithfulness over public impressiveness. And herein you will find a secret to a happy life with God. Instead of clambering for followers, acclaim, praise, likes, or the respect of others, just be quiet. Just be deliberately faithful in unremarkable ways. 

Let me offer 5 practical implications of this call to quietness:

1. Say less. Proverbs 10:19 tells us that words are a numbers game. The more of them you say, the more likely you’ll say something sinful. Restrain your words. Choose your words carefully and they will have more value. Pause before you speak and let the Spirit minister to you before you blurt something out. Silence is not to be used as a power move, but it is indeed powerful. Say less.

2. Embrace rhythms of rest. To sabbath is to trust God to be God. To be still is to assume God will remain active for you. We humble brag that we are workaholics because our fragile identities won’t let us be still. Stop your unholy striving and just be diligent. 

3. Look for opportunities to unobtrusive service to God and others. If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound? Yes, the answer is yes. If you give money and no one knows, did you give money? If you clean up a mess secretly, does it get cleaned? If you do something for your wife that she doesn’t notice, did you still serve her? Yes. Stop serving to be seen and serve from the overflow of gratitude that God sees you, loves you, and blesses you.

   
   

4. Work hard at your job, whatever it is. Part of this quiet life Paul espouses is good, honest, hard work. It is diligence for God’s sake. Show up on time (or early), stop wasting company or family time, and be helpful to those around you. Put in an honest day’s work, then go home. And do it again tomorrow.

   
   

5. Live for God’s glory. This is hard for me. I need regular spiritual surgery to remove my desire for glory. I struggle with being ignored, overlooked, or disregarded. It makes me feel small and worthless. But this struggle is motivated by an unholy desire. I need to remember that God doesn’t call me to quietness because I’m less than, but rather because He is more. I want to live that He would be noticed. 

To have a model for what this looks like, we need to look at Jesus. Christ the King is born in a barn, not a palace. Christ the King tells us to take the bad seat at weddings on purpose. Christ the King washes the filth off His friends’ feet. Christ the King associates with grieving widows, functional alcoholics, sex workers, and corrupt government employees. And us. Christ the King doesn’t open His mouth to defend Himself when He is unjustly accused by the cops and religious people. He is…quiet.

Christ the King is the embodiment of 1 Thessalonians 4, living a life that is perfectly pleasing to His Father. He intentionally chose a nowhere home town, a sketchy birth, a blue collar vocation, and questionable friends. The first crown He wore was made of thorns, intended for mockery and pain. 

Jesus chose deliberate quiet holiness as a way of life, reserving glorification until the proper time. The action built with His public execution. And then it got quiet again as He was buried. But then Jesus emerges, glorified! Then He visits a bunch of people to prove He is the Messiah. Then He ascends to heaven, to sit in glory at the right hand of His Father. To Him be the glory and honor and dominion and visibility forever.

While on earth, we followers of Jesus are called to a life of quietness. We are called to stop waving our hands to be noticed, and to instead be diligent and holy that Christ would be noticed.

Your happiness depends on this simple reality. If you’re laboring loudly to be noticed, to be glorified, you’ll be miserable. Why? Because most of us are unimpressive, not platform people, and we’ll never get the glory we desire. Also, if we do get the glory, we’ll realize like Solomon, Jim Carrey, and anyone else who has stood atop the proverbial mountain of fame, we’ll realize it’s a false summit. 

This will change your life. Glory isn’t for you; it’s for Jesus. And the sooner we realize this, pulling out the low seat at the low table on purpose, the sooner we will feel the pleasure of bringing Jesus the honor He deserves. 

So let us aim at quiet faithfulness, a life pleasing to God.