Keep a Quiet Heart

For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. ISAIAH 30:15

In 1995 Elisabeth Elliot gathered a selection of the short pieces she had written for her newsletter into a book called Keep a Quiet Heart. It is not a treatise. It is a collection of brief readings, many only a page or two long, on a wide range of subjects, from prayer and grief to the small duties and irritations of ordinary days. But a single concern holds it together, and the title names it. The Christian is called to a quiet heart — not an empty heart, nor an untroubled life, but an inner stillness that rests in God while the world outside goes on changing. Chapter four of this companion has drawn from the same book her counsel to do the next thing. This chapter takes up its teaching on anxiety, trust and peace.

The noise inside

Most of what disturbs us, she observed, comes not from what is happening but from what we fear may happen. The heart runs ahead into tomorrow, rehearses conversations that have not taken place, imagines losses that have not come, and tries to carry burdens that God has not yet laid on it. That restless running ahead is what Scripture calls anxiety, or in the old English of the King James Bible, being careful. The Lord forbids it, not because the future does not matter, but because it is not ours to carry.

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? MATTHEW 6:25

Her remedy was not a technique of relaxation but a turning of attention. The anxious heart is a heart fixed on itself and its circumstances. The quiet heart is a heart fixed on God. Isaiah promised perfect peace to the one whose mind is stayed on the Lord, and she took the promise at its word. Peace is not found by solving every problem; it is found by trusting the One who is in charge of them.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. ISAIAH 26:3

Prayer with thanksgiving

A passage she returned to often on this subject was Paul’s word to the Philippians. Be anxious for nothing; in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God; and the peace of God will guard your heart and mind. She noticed that the promise is not that God will grant every request. It is that His peace will keep the heart. And she noticed the little phrase in the middle: with thanksgiving. The anxious person asks with clenched hands. The trusting person asks with open ones, already thanking God for who He is, whatever He decides.

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. PHILIPPIANS 4:6–7

In practice this meant, for her, that every worry should be turned into a prayer as soon as it is noticed, and then left with God. If the worry returns, it should be given back again. She did not pretend that this was easy, or that a person who has once handed over a care will never pick it up again. But she held that the habit can be learned, and that it grows stronger with use.

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 1 PETER 5:7

Quiet amid change

The quiet heart is not the heart of someone whose life is quiet. Her own life was full of change: continents, languages, marriages, bereavements, moves, the demands of travel and speaking, and in the end the slow loss of her own mind. She did not teach a peace that depends on circumstances staying the same. She taught a peace that depends on God staying the same, which He always does.

For I am the LORD, I change not. MALACHI 3:6

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. HEBREWS 13:8

This is why her teaching on the quiet heart cannot be separated from her teaching on God’s sovereignty, which chapter three of this companion set out. If God is not in charge, anxiety is reasonable. If He is in charge and He loves us, anxiety is a kind of forgetfulness. The work of the quiet heart is largely the work of remembering — remembering who God is, what He has promised, and what He has already done.

The old hymn Be Still, My Soul, translated from the German in the nineteenth century, gave its title to a late collection of her devotional readings. Its first line holds the whole matter: “Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.”

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. PSALM 46:10

Meek and quiet

There is one more aspect of this teaching that readers sometimes overlook. A quiet heart is not only a peaceful heart. It is also a humble one. Peter commends the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, and the psalmist speaks of a soul stilled like a weaned child, no longer clamouring for what it wants. In her teaching the restless heart is often the proud heart: insisting on its own way, resenting interruption, demanding explanations, unable to rest until things are arranged to suit it. Quietness, in that sense, is the fruit of surrender.

Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. PSALM 131:2

But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 PETER 3:4

Weighing it

Her counsel here is plainly scriptural, and it has steadied many readers. One distinction is worth keeping. Some anxiety is a matter of the will and of faith, and it yields to prayer and remembering. Some has roots in the body or in long distress, and may need medical care as well as spiritual counsel. Nothing in her teaching forbids such care, and the anxious believer should not conclude that persistent fear is simply a failure of trust. The command not to be anxious is also a promise, and the God who gives it is patient with those who are learning to obey it.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. JOHN 14:27

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Write down the three things you are most anxious about today. Beside each, write whether it belongs to today or to tomorrow.

2. Turn each worry into a short prayer, and add one line of thanksgiving to each.

3. Memorise Isaiah 26:3 or Philippians 4:6–7 this week, and say it whenever a worry returns.

4. Ask whether any of your restlessness comes from pride — from insisting on your own way. Confess it, and be still.

5. If your anxiety is heavy and long-standing, speak to a wise Christian friend and, if needed, a doctor. Do not carry it alone.

A PRAYER

Lord, You do not change. Yesterday, today and for ever, You are the same.

My heart runs ahead into tomorrow and carries burdens You have not given me. I give them back to You.

Keep my mind stayed on You, and guard my heart with the peace that passes understanding.

Make my spirit meek and quiet, like a weaned child with its mother. Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side. Amen.