In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. Isa. 30:15.

The Christian has really matured when he no longer needs to defend himself, when he needs not to ask questions or push himself forward for the sake of acceptance and recognition, when his lips are neither opened in complaint nor in the importunity of men.

We are never more secure emotionally and spiritually than in those moments when, in a strength not our own, we are quiet before God and man. We need to resign anxieties about ourselves, the concern for what others think of us. We need to surrender the responsibility we feel for ourselves and let God carry it. The key factor that makes all this possible is God's love for us and His acceptance of us. When we are united to Christ we become one spirit with Him, just as in marriage, husband and wife become one. There follows a real sense of well-being.

We are to keep our hearts open to the free, rich, inspiring, and everlasting love of God. The fearful Christian is concerned with his own problems of life. We cannot hope to secure God's continued love and favor by a self-imposed pattern of staying by the rules. This kind of self-concern is ruled out by the unconditional love of God, for this very anxiety reveals a failure to trust in, and depend on, God. We need to let God love us and set us free.

Much of life makes great demands upon us. 'these are times when Christ must be everything. He is our shield and salvation. Moses said to the children of Israel when they were pursued by the Egyptian army and hemmed in before the Red Sea, "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you today. . . . The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace" (Ex. 14:13, 14).

If we were asked to point out the strong Christians, the successful ones, the impressive ones, we probably would select the self-reliant, the aggressive, the pushers, the hustling activist. In the Bible the great men of God neither strive nor cry. They quietly leave the problems of life to God. Their dependence and deep prayers are largely unspoken, and their service is devoid of display. Their lives are full of simple love and quiet confidence in God.