Day Four: Quieted By His Love
The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing. –Zephaniah 3:17
I love making my wife laugh. But one of my favorite moments with my wife didn’t involve words, just a peaceful silence. Honestly, it was one of the few moments in my life when internally and externally I felt rest. It began snowing outside—one of those blizzard type of snows. The kids had went to bed and we softly put on some old records. We just sat on the coach together and watched the snow. It was beautiful. We were silent. Quieted by love.
I think of that moment when I read Zephaniah 3:17. The Lord rejoices over us with gladness and exults over us with loud singing—but he also quiets us by His love. His love is so deep for us that we are moved to hushed silence. All of our questions, our complaints, our groans, our unrest, is silenced by the depth of His love. We become like Job putting our hands over our mouth and resting in His goodness towards us. Our marriages need this. Not only that our love for one another would be so deep that we can be silent, but also that we would know and experience God’s love in such a way that we are quieted.
Father, we are amazed by your love. We are astounded that you have chosen to exult over wretched sinners with singing. We do not deserve one bit of your love towards us. But it comes from the depth of your character. You love us not because we are beautiful but because you have decided to love us. There are many things which demand our words, help us to pause today and be quieted by your love. Hush us with your sovereign care.
