A Quiet Spirit

And (the servant of Abraham) said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham.
Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water:
And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.
And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.
And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.
And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.
And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.
And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.
And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.
And the man wondering at her held his peace, to wit whether the LORD had made his journey prosperous or not. "

This man held his peace, to wit (in order to know) WHETHER the Lord had made his journey prosperous...or not.

He simply held his tongue. He waited. I am positively stunned and struck by the patient wisdom that Abraham's servant displayed here. Is it because he was a man? Sorry, girls, but most women (myself included, I guess) would have never held their peace by this point! They would be so anxious for the world to know "the favor of God" in answering their prayer so specifically and spectacularly, they would be blabbing on and on...telling Rebekah the whole back story.

Such a turn off. Really. Think about it.

Abraham's servant waits until precisely the right moment to tell the whole story, and even then, he tells it very carefully. He is almost sparing in his description of events, and you get no impression that he attempted to manipulate others' perceptions in the telling.

Ah, we would do so well to follow his example. We speak far too soon, we are far too anxious to parade our blessings and convince ourselves that God is up to "big things" with us and ours. A son or daughter who has spent months making life difficult for the parents, makes one seemingly wise choice, and mom declares him or her a totally changed individual.

Only...time proves that there has actually been no real change. It would have been better that nothing at all was said, than to speak too soon.

Do you know someone, who every turn of events is accompanied by their declaration of God's intrinsic blessing and involvement, and the entire back story is told? Told too soon? Way too soon. Know anyone like this?

Far from being true faith, what I just described is actually a manifestation of deep insecurity. The more you and I truly trust God, the quieter our spirits become.

There is simply no need to prattle or explain or manipulate. There is great wisdom in not counting (or killing) chickens before they hatch. Let God be God, and let the results speak for themselves, not our version of the results, before those results are actually in.