Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands.
Interpretation
Impatience disrupts our inner peace, while true peace comes from a trusting heart.
This quote emphasizes that feelings of restlessness and impatience can’t change our circumstances; instead, they only disturb our internal state of peace and joy. True peace is found not in external situations but within ourselves when we trust in a higher power and have the patience to wait for things to unfold in their own time.
In practice
In a speech about stress management where patience is key.
We are not asked to SEE," said Amy. "Why need we when we KNOW?" We know--not the answer to the inevitable Why, but the incontestable fact that it is for the best. "It is an irreparable loss, but is it faith at all if it is 'hard to trust' when things are entirely bewildering?
Prayer lays hold of God's plan and becomes the link between His will and its accomplishment on earth. Amazing things happen, and we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit's prayer.
What sort of world might it have been if Eve had refused the servants offer and had said to him instead, “let me not be like God. Let me be what I was made to be - let me be a woman'?
Worship is not an experience. Worship is an act, and this takes discipline. We are to worship ''in spirit and in truth.'' Never mind about the feelings. We are to worship in spite of them.
If your goal is purity of heart, be prepared to be thought very odd.
Teach me to treat all that comes to me with peace of soul and with firm conviction that Your will governs all.
Be happy when you are blamed and accused wrongly, for then you have the chance to see all the bitter, hostile or self-pitying responses that your sinful soul wants to spew out - as if these puny things could in any way defend you! Watch and see if any of these poisons come out of you when your spirit is pricked by an accusation. Only then can you see yourself as you are, and confess thy sin that is within you and forsake yourself again into the Lord's care.
The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.
One thing we can do is make the choice to view the world in a healthy way. We can choose to see the world as safe with only moments of danger rather than seeing the world as dangerous with only moments of safety.
The worst is that the very hardest thinking will not bring thoughts. They must come like good children of God and cry, "Here we are." You expend effort and energy thinking hard. Then, after you have given up, they come sauntering in with their hands in their pockets. If the effort had not been made to open the door, however, who knows when they could have come.
A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding.
I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain," said he. "Results without causes are much more impressive.
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