A Place of Rest for Our Soul

In the Old Testament, Believers worshipped in temples of stone and mortar. Their contact with God was from the first few books of our Bible. It is different today. We have 66 books of God’s Word to encourage and instruct us. God dwells within us in a personal, intimate relationship, not in temples made with human hands (Romans 10:9).

We are God’s “living stones”, and Jesus is the chief cornerstone on which we are centered (1 Peter 2:4-6). As God’s Temple, we have a deepening understanding of the reality of what it means for Christ to abide in us (Colossians 1:27). This truth changes our outlook on life and affects our body, soul and spirit. We enter God’s rest forever (Hebrews 4:9-10).

God rested after He created the universe. Jesus rested after carrying the burden of our sin to the cross. Now, we can rest from serving God from compulsion and serve Him from a place of love instead. The doorway to this rest is through total surrender to God’s will and to Christ in us, which is our hope of living in glory now and in eternity.

Our humanity is dead and we are a new creation with Christ living in and through us (Galatians 2:20). We decrease daily, so that He can increase (John 3:30). We cease from our human striving and follow God’s Spirit through every moment of every day (Galatians 5:16-25). However, our ultimate rest will be when we leave this sin-cursed world behind and live instead in the presence of God in glory (2 Corinthians 5:8).

Until then, we dwell in Christ as Christ abides in us. We die to sin with Christ and He raises us to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). Living by the faith of the Son of God, we enjoy His love and redemption (Ephesians 5:2). He directs our paths, as we seek Him in everything we think, say and do (Proverbs 3:5-6). The peace of God rules in our hearts, dispelling all of our doubt and fears (Colossians 3:15; Philippians 4:7).

Prayer:

Father God, remind us not to strive in life, but to submit our will to Yours each and every day. Help us to accomplish the works, which You prepared for us to do before we were ever born (Ephesians 2:10). Bring people our way to whom we can share Your love and give us the boldness to proclaim Your truth to them.

Thought for the Day:

Yoke up with Jesus and find rest for your soul. – Matthew 11:29

Living in Love

God is love. When we live in the infinite, eternal, holy love of God, then God Himself dwells within us (1 John 4:16). We live in and rely on the love of God as it inundates our soul throughout the day. He fills us with the fruit of His Spirit, which are all fulfilled in love (Galatians 5:22-23). When we abide in this supernatural, spiritual love, our soul finds rest and peace (Hebrews 4:10). We live in harmony with God, and we accomplish His purposes with our life.

Loving others does not mean that we serve them from codependence or compulsion, but only by the leading of God’s Spirit within us. We follow Jesus’ example as He walked through streets full of people needing His healing touch. Jesus only did what our Father directed Him to do. Not moved by human love or compassion, Jesus ministered in Spirit and truth. God’s love, which transcends human thoughts and feelings, sets us free to walk in God’s love.

This enables us to love the unlovable, with as much passion as we do the lovely. This union with divine Love also affords us the divine attributes of joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, self-control and faith. Our soul finds its home in God’s love. Our basic human need to love and be loved is provided for us by our sacred union with God, which enhances marriage, parenthood and our church family.

We find the deepest, most fulfilling union of love in the spirit. We are united in Christ as well as with one another. Union in spirit also leads to a greater, sweeter union in body and soul. Integrated in love, we can truly say that we and our Heavenly Father are one, just as He and Christ are one (John 17:21). United with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3), we walk in the Spirit and relate to the world around us from this center of God’s divine love.

God’s love in us goes beyond keeping the commandments by the morals of law, and is fulfilled in the two greatest commandments: to love God and one another (Matthew 22:37-39). In this way, the unsaved masses in the world will recognize that there is something different about Born Again Believers (John 13:35). We no longer live for our self, but for the good of one another. This is foreign to most people, but they too are actually searching for this Divine union with the God of love.

Prayer:

Father God, sanctify us with Your love until we express Your divine nature to the world around us (2 Peter 1:4). Enable us to bring many to redemption by Your love in us. Make it evident in our life by Your Holy Spirit. In our union with You, we live our life in Your service and seek to walk by Your Spirit, doing the works, which You preordained for us to do (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Thought for the Day:

Those who abide in God’s Love can never live out of harmony with His will.