Psalms 116:6 The LORD preserves the SIMPLE; I was brought low, and He saved me. 116:7 Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

1 Thessalonians 4:11 "…make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands…"

 

INTRODUCTION

Recently I saw part of a video titled something like, "How AI is going to revolutionize your life."

I read a few comments, and there was one comment there which surprised me. Someone said:

"They overestimate the impact AI will have for me. I'm a simple man."

And I imagined this man getting up early and having coffee and reading a book or something. Not eager to go on his phone or computer. He goes throughout the day living quietly, working hard, but not interested in all the new things and caught up in what’s going on. As far as he's concerned - the world could still be in 1930 and he wouldn't notice!

I don't know if this man was a Christian or not, but what he said about AI - I want to be able to have that attitude toward all things outside of Christ.

To be able to say - "I'm a simple man. I could go with or without all these things. Take it or leave it." (Paul said a similar thing in Philippians 4:12).

It's not that I want to be naive about everything, or live in the stone age.

It's that all the captivating things of this world that tempt would be such a low priority, that I would be so 'free' from them that whether they're around or not, I'll be able to get by just fine without them; because I have much higher priorities in Christ which I'm focusing on. What a beautiful goal to aim for!

There's an immense beauty of a simple life which is focused on Jesus alone.

I read an A.W. Tozer quote that said, "We Christians must simplify our lives or lose untold treasures on earth and in eternity"

I think a similar exhortation the Bible gives for this is to 'lead a quiet life' (1 Thess 4:11). It says, “attend to your own business and work with your hands.” A quiet life is one which is not caught up in all that’s going on in the world and other people, but “attends to its own business.” “Working with your hands” I believe means: focus on what I need to do for the day - live for God and diligently fulfill my plain and simple responsibilities. This is God’s will for us.  Staying busy with the simple things God has called me to do every day will keep me from temptation, and bring glory to God.

And in the midst of all the responsibilities can lie a heart which is focused on Jesus. A worker can be 'working' on the outside, but inside has an ambition which is focused altogether on something else. The burden is that we could live in the presence of God every day, with a zeal and passion that stays no matter what we're doing on the outside.

 

AN ILLUSTRATION

When we have a burden for something, we find that so much hunger for other things goes away, because something else is filling our heart. Can you imagine forgetting to eat food? There’s one case I can think of where this happens! Consider this: A mom with a child in critical condition in the ICU will often forget to eat. Why? It's because she's got such a burden! Her burden took her hunger for 'other things' (even pressing things) away. Do you see how powerful it is to have a real burden?

We hunger so much for the world because our burden for Jesus is so little.

As we're filled with the Holy Spirit - we can have such a burden for the Lord that makes other things fade away from our focus. What a precious work the Lord does in our heart! What this random YouTube commenter said of AI, the wholehearted disciple can say of everything outside of Christ - “they overestimate the impact it has for me.”

Psalm 27:4 "One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple."

 

SOMETHING ABOUT SIMPLE AND PURE DEVOTION - THE MIND

2 Corinthians 11:3 has been important for us as a church, to emphasize SIMPLE and pure devotion to Jesus. But I noticed something new recently about this verse.

2 Corinthians 11:3 "But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ."

Question: What is it that strays away from simple and pure devotion to Christ? The verse here says that it is our MIND that will go astray!

It's our MIND that becomes cluttered and loses Jesus in the mix of everything unnecessary.

Junk food ruins our taste buds for healthy food, and too much clutter in our mind ruins our hunger for God.

I've noticed that usually when I encounter a time of 'spiritual dryness', many times the cause has been too much 'clutter' leading up to it, especially the clutter of sin in my mind. We give into temptation first in our thought life before it comes outward (James 1:14-15, Mark 7:21-22). Losing devotion to Jesus starts in our thought life. We were running well before, but today we have hardly thought of the Lord… and the worst part is we didn't notice!

The first step starts with a willingness to die to anything which gets between Jesus and myself, especially sin first but even of other things.

 

A PERSONAL EXAMPLE - HOBBIES

I remember one time having some hobby which was taking up so much of my attention, I'd be thinking about it throughout the day, "how can I improve", "should I study this or devote more time to that?" And I realized after a while: "I'm a SLAVE to this!"

So I gave it up and - wow - it was like dropping a weight. I actually had tangible joy that I was free from it. I praised the Lord in my heart, it was so satisfying. Hot air balloons can rise in two ways: lighting the fire hotter, or dropping weight. This is just one example in my life of dropping weight, to go higher in Jesus. Dropping a hobby isn't the point of what I'm saying. But in my case when I was younger this was just one thing that distracted me, and I'm glad the Lord led me to resign this and some other things which were distractions. Today I have other hobbies like playing piano that I feel I can have without being obsessed with.

The world says you gain by adding to your life. But God says the opposite (lose your life for Jesus' sake to find it - Matthew 16:25).

 

OTHER MEANING - QUIETNESS = NO COMPLAINT

Quietness and simplicity doesn't only mean putting off distractions, but even more importantly, total surrender of the will, which also means it's a heart free from complaint and demands/expectations.

Quietness is a life free from complaint and covetousness. Quietness is content, but the complaining and the covetous are loud. They constantly scream. Their scream is: “More, more, more! I want this I want that! I don't want this! Why did this trial come?, Why did this person do this?, I'm not happy with that!”

 

AN EXAMPLE

I remember one time I was blessed by hearing of a brother who was tempted by someone else to prod into some drama and gossip, "You want to hear about it?" And he said “No, I don’t want to know.” He had a humble view of himself, that he didn’t want the temptation for bad things to stay in his heart. He didn’t want to be distracted from running the race. The Lord preserves the simple (Psalm 116:6). His simple humility was a protection for him. He wanted to 'keep a quiet heart.'  The humble/simple like this can run very freely, because it’s easier for them to be single minded. I was so blessed by this brother’s example.

God is infinite, but we are finite. That means we only have a limited capacity in ourselves - a limited amount of brain power, time, memory, a limited amount of space in our heart, a limited amount of desire. If I clutter my mind and heart with many unnecessary (and sinful) things, it takes away from the necessary.

"We are ignorant of things necessary, because we learn things superfluous and unnecessary." - Richard Baxter

 

GOD SUMS UP EVERYTHING

If we look over the verses in the Bible where God aims to sum up everything He's called us to simply in a short word, here are some of the main ones I can think of… and they pretty much all say the same thing:

  • Seek first kingdom and righteousness and the rest will be added to you (Matt 6:33)
  • Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mark 12:30)
  • Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8)
  • This is the conclusion of everything - fear God and keep His commandments (Eccl 12:13)
  • Seek the Lord with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13)
  • "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15)
  • "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God” (1 Chronicles 22:19)

These are all very focused and simple verses: seek the Lord, love Him, fear Him, and do His will with our whole heart.

Our generation is totally bombarded with distraction, in large part because we are obsessed with obtaining a satisfaction which can never be had outside of Jesus. The heart is always wandering somewhere else looking for something, but God gave the real answer in His Word so clearly.

 

Learn to be content with what the world would call "boring", for the sake of being 'all in' with Christ.

Spend time alone in quiet with God. If you're in a season where you can't do it as much, that's ok. But at least desire it, and gather up the “little fragments” of time where you can, like talking to Him in bed first and last thing of the day.

Be diligent at your secular job, and work hard in the home serving your family and doing chores. God is honored by this.

We don’t always need some audio playing in our ear, quiet is okay.

Perhaps sometimes we need to take a break from reading the news and the stock market and the latest exciting thing in tech, the latest posts from friends. The world won't end if you miss something, or if sometimes we don't text back right away - we are not that indispensable :)  Nobody is. "The graveyards are filled with indispensable people."

Value people more and value things and entertainment less. Disciples live for God, not dopamine hits!

 

CONCLUSION

I hope nobody takes this blog to be a 'method', or a number of steps, or a 'how to'. I just want to share that what I've noticed has helped me to walk with Jesus,  and that's to take the decision more seriously, that He really is the only thing that matters, and to covet to have a 'burden' to live for God so wholeheartedly that to everything else I can say, "Take it or leave it" (Psalm 73:25). And it really is a decision! But we have to do it by God's grace and with the power of His Spirit, not in our own strength. So we have to do what we can, but ultimately lean on God to do the work in us to help us persevere in this way. And I believe God sees our 'trying' (even if we fail and have to keep getting up) as an act of faith, along with our prayers.

Tell the Lord honestly, “Lord, I’m tired of being taken up with so many things outside of you. I want to desire you! Fill my heart with a zeal for you. Fill me with your Spirit afresh so I can desire you alone! There’s nothing else worth living for! Forgive me and give me a passion for you and a fire for you that never dies out!”

May the Lord help us persevere in this. As He does, I believe we'll start to find a satisfaction that far, far exceeds anything we ever got from earthly pursuits. And God can get glory from our one life here which we have as a gift to 'give it back' to Him.