Psalm 131
Quieting ones soul is perhaps the most difficult thing to do in this life. In this life we are bombarded. Bombarded by stimuli. Bombarded by others. Bombarded by the media. Bombarded by politics. Bombarded by ourselves. Bombarded by entertainment. Bombarded by consumerism. Bombarded by the culture. Bombarded by the church. It is easy in every moment to have an unquiet soul, but to have one that is still is difficult. Luckily for us this Psalm lays out a few guidelines for how to go about quieting ours.
Step 1: Don't live with overly raised hopes - keep your emotions in check, if they climb higher than they should with every rise, they will inevitably fall further down with every drop
Step 2: Don't look upon things that are outside of your grasp - we need to keep correct perspective, on ourselves and on the things around us, the less we try to hold onto the less we HAVE to hold onto
Step 3: Don't spend time on thoughts beyond yourself - work on understanding God, but remember that God is God and you are not so there is no potential that you will ever be able to fully grasp God
Step 4: Do the work that it requires to quiet your soul - weaning a child from the breast, or from the bottle, or from the diaper, or from anything else is not especially easy, it takes time and effort and force of will, quieting the soul takes the same
Step 5: Keep your hope, trust, faith in God - if you have been able to quiet your soul keep trusting in God, if you have not been able to keep trusting in God, if you have been able to on occasion keep trusting in God, in essence always keep trusting in God.
+ What bombardment works on you the most? How can you fight against it?
+ If you have been able to quiet your soul from time to time, reflect on how it happened, when it happened, what you can do to make it happen again.
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