Cultivate a Quiet Heart
“I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.” – Psalms 131:2 MSG
Lately, I’ve been desiring one thing, and that is to cultivate a quiet heart. Coming across Psalm 131:2 about a week ago truly changed things within me, and I thought, what better way to talk about it than here, on Takae Talks Blog?
According to Dictionary.com, the word cultivate means “to promote or improve the growth of (a plant, crop, etc.) by labor and attention” and “to develop or improve by education or training; train; refine.”
Simply put, cultivation requires work. You cannot cultivate something that you refuse to give attention to. The verse above makes one thing apparent, and it’s that your heart is a great, intentional, and valuable work.
Quiet, throughout the Bible, often indicates peace. In this context, I also believe that to be true. Work on having a peaceful heart.
As simple as it is to understand what the context of this scripture is, and what it means, it can often feel impossible to put into action. How do I remain peaceful in the midst of chaos? How do I cultivate a quiet heart when I feel deeply troubled, hurt, confused, or in distress?
Let’s talk about it!
Five Ways to Cultivate a Quiet Heart
Come Clean
God already knows what’s in your heart. It’s not a surprise to Him. He knows the intricate details and workings of your soul. So, come clean! Talk to God about what you feel within. Are you feeling angry? Tell Him. Are you harboring unforgiveness? Confess. Are you confused? Invite Him in.
God is interested in the workings of your heart. He wants to not only know how you are doing, but help you to understand how you are as well. Coming clean really takes place through prayers and surrender. It may look like whispers of confession, flowing tears, or scribbles in your prayer journal – but it's best to come clean.
Confess to God the things that have made your heart resonate with worries, instead of quiet peace. He already knows, and even better, He greatly cares.
“But if we freely admit our sins when his light uncovers them , he will be faithful to forgive us every time. God is just to forgive us our sins because of Christ , and he will continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9 TPT
Remain Repentant
Whenever you find fault in yourself, return to God, confess, and ask for Him to transform you. This is a heart posture, versus a one-time exchange. Repentance is a posture of the heart and a continual necessity for every Christian to do.
We fall short often, and sin whether knowingly or unknowingly. So you have to repent of your actions, repent of the secret things that take place in your heart, and any way that you may have grieved the Lord. Remaining repentant is a requirement and nonnegotiable.
It’s important to know that this is also a sign of humility and intentional submission to the Lord.
There’s no better trait than a Christian who is willing to be weak before our strong God. God has a way to shape you, even while your inadequacies are still present. He can expose you to yourself while covering you from them – whoever your them may be. Be intentional in remembering that no matter how bad your struggles or sin may be, God still loves you, and His conviction and counsel are a means of raising you as His disciple rather than cursing you for your human faults.
“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” – Hebrews 4:16 NLT
Guard Your Gates
A quiet heart starts with a quiet mind. Guarding your gates is essential, and interestingly enough, the heart has four gates. As it is in the physical, four gates can lead to the demise or prosperity of your heart, and they are the following:
Sight
Hearing
Taste
Touch
Of course, another sense that we are familiar with is smell. For the sake of this topic, I don’t believe that what you smell will lead to your demise, as many others do.
What you see becomes what your heart meditates on.
What you hear leads to what you believe.
What you taste can eventually become your greatest craving.
What you touch reveals what you are comfortable inviting into your space.
Be very intentional about guarding your gates!
When was the last time you turned off a show because what you saw didn’t align with what you believe? Are you quick to cut off conversations that veer into negativity, gossip, or crudeness? Do you regularly feed into your every craving, even when you understand the personal detriment? How often do you get your hands on something you have no business tending to?
It is so important to reflect on these questions and really determine whether you know how to guard your gates. Whatever you let in your gates, the gates of your eyes, ears, mouth, and hands, will be what your heart ruminates on. And if with all that you do, your heart is deeply disturbed, it’s most likely because there's a breach in the guardrails.
Be strict with your boundaries, and active in preserving them. Never allow your heart to become a free play where anything and everything goes. You must be intentional to remain on guard at all times, even when it looks like all is well!
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” – Proverbs 4:23
Define Your Peace
Peace looks different for everyone. But a person at peace will always prevail. Peace that surpasses all understanding is only a peace that God can give. But the way you receive God’s peace can flow through different avenues. For one person, it may practically look like going on long prayer walks, while for another, it may look like enjoying a wholesome hobby.
Personally, I’ve found that peace is most present in the mundane. Peace is experienced on drives to work, while watching a show on the couch, during early morning devotion, and in Sunday service worship. Peace can look different for the same person, depending on the day. Peace isn’t even always spiritual. Peace doesn’t need to be pursued; it has to be welcomed.
Peace is experienced when you slow down. Peace is revealed through quiet. Could it be that the way you can cultivate a quiet heart is simply by slowing down and giving God the freedom to invade your soul’s turmoil with His peace?
Find the avenue of peace that will work for you today, and remain in it. I can give you one intentional option – every morning, when you wake up, pray this simple prayer: God, today, I invite your peace to invade my soul. In the ebbs and flows of my day, through the mundane and the busy, may I experience your peace through every possible avenue, and never miss an opportunity to recognize it when it happens.
Define places of peace in your days, and recreate them often! So much of what we do in our days has a way of draining our peace and joy, but if you can continually watch and welcome God’s peace, it’ll soon become your soul’s default.
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:7 ESV
Watch for Disruptors
There are things and people sent on assignment by the devil every single day of our lives to disrupt our peace and unsettle our hearts. One of the greatest earmarks of a Believer is an unshakable, peaceful, and quiet heart. When your soul is at rest, it disrupts the devil’s peace. So his task every day is to make sure that doesn’t happen!
Who are some people, and what are some things, that when they are in your vicinity, you simply cannot function properly? Those are the things to watch for! Disruptors are often subtle. It’s just one small statement someone said. It’s just one small action that’s become a part of your everyday routine. Unlike the popular saying, sweat the small stuff! Those small things will become big disruptions to your heart. Now, after all the work you’ve attempted to do with confession, repentance, transformation, and guarding your gates, these steps become meaningless if a disruption can easily impact you.
Whatever is disrupting you isn’t as important as what you are being interrupted from. When you are distracted by these other things, you cannot focus on your destiny. Cultivating a quiet heart is directly tied to your destiny, because a quiet heart is one that God can easily speak to, and a person who is always ready to listen. Settle your heart in God’s truth, and watch for the disruptors.
“Set your gaze on the path before you. With fixed purpose, looking straight ahead, ignore life’s distractions.” Proverbs 4:25 TPT
It’s not impossible to cultivate a quiet heart, but it is intentional. It will not happen without your diligence and patience. But God desires to do a transformative work in your heart, and He’s ready the moment you allow Him to. Cultivate a quiet heart by deciding not to live in the loud. And greatest of all, come to understand that not everything surrounding you needs to reside within you! It’s time to cultivate…
Comments