Sunday, September 15, 2013

Living in God's Rest

 

The presence of God in our life is a wondrous gift that trumps any other blessing we could ever receive. God promises to be with us even until the end of this age. This age is called the Time of the Gentiles, or the Church Age. It began when Christ established the church while He lived on this earth. During this age, God calls us to seek His Kingdom more than we seek the distractions of the world, the flesh and the devil (Matthew 6:24). God requires total dedication and surrender (Luke 14:26), and His blessings are out of this world!

This does not negate the fact that we have a family, job, church and hobbies to participate in; but we do it all through the direction of God’s Spirit and for His glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). We follow the leading of God’s Spirit through the static of this world and the hectic pace of our life. He brings peace in the confusion and order from the chaos. He replaces our stress with His rest, if we will only surrender every facet of our life to Him. The first step in entering God’s rest is to spend time with Him (Mark 12:30).

Confusion drowns out the voice of God and causes us to feel frustrated, angry and to experience other negative emotions. However, walking in His presence moment by moment through the duties of our day, brings contentment and peace. God helps us to prioritze our time and activities. Every soul needs “down” time for our soul – our mind, will and emotions - to catch up, to chill out and to recover from the trauma of life. We need time for our spirit to center into Christ’s life within us (Psalm 46:10).

We do not have to be afraid of not measuring up, or of not getting all of our required work done or meeting all of the needs of all of the people who depend on us. If we live one moment at a time, Christ, who is our life and who lives within us (Colossians 3:3-4; Galatians 2:20), directs us to do what pleases Him. Like Mary, we can make the best choice for our day, and sit at Jesus feet within us, no matter where we are or what we are doing (Luke 10:42). As we praise Him and follow His Spirit, He will allow us to excell, to finish what is required of us, and to meet the needs of all the people He wants us to minister to.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, when You see our agitation rising inside, prompt us to discover the source of the negative emotions and to seek Your wisdom on how to deal with it. Nothing and no one can successfully come against us or overpower us, because You live within us. Remind us to be still and acknowledge that You are Lord over our life. Exhort us to rest in You while You work out the issues, which are distracting us from living in Your peace and rest. We trust You with our whole life, because we have faith in Your faithfulness.

Thought for the Day:
We still have hectic activities swirling all around us; however, as we walk in the Spirit, God gives us a quiet refuge, supernatural strength and His constant help in any difficulty we experience.