Living in God's Rest

 

As afflicted and needy people, we are generously offered rest for our weary soul by the Lord of Hosts. His mercy and grace provide us with His eternal rest at the moment we admit that we are a sinner and surrender our all to God in prayer (Hebrews 4:16). At the same time that we enter the early stages of our Christ-centered life, Christ moves into our spirit (Matthew 11:29). So often, however, we do not take advantage of God’s abiding peace (Isaiah 28:12; 29:19). We fail to completely trust in, rely on and believe in His Word of Truth (Jeremiah 6:16).

We struggle in our meager existence. Our soul – our mind, will and emotions - is tormented with stress, anxiety, temptations, negative emotions, complicated choices and fleshly desires. We are not living from a place of rest in Christ. We are trusting in our self rather than in God. However, as we put our faith in Him, He sanctifies our thoughts, choices and emotions. He bountifully provides us with His rest (Psalm 116:7). He fills us with the fruit of His Spirit, which is the divine nature of God operating in our life (Galatians 5:22-23).

We only escape the rat race of life when we realize that we are dead to sin and alive in Christ (Romans 6:11; Colossians 3:3; Galatians 2:20). Our human understanding is minimal at best; however, our union with Christ gives us His wisdom and spiritual insight (1 Corinthians 2:14-15). Once we learn to live from a place of rest, we can return to His rest instantly, whenever life shakes us from His presence. When we view our trials through the eyes of Christ in us, they are no longer a trial, but a spiritual awakening and a blessing in disguise.

Rest for our soul includes ceasing from our own self-effort to please God or to earn His pleasure. We allow Christ to live through us instead of trying to work for Him (Ephesians 2:8-10; Hebrews 4:1-11). As we progressively enter our rest in the Lord, our thoughts, choices and emotions rest as well. We listen to the Spirit’s prompting and step aside so that the living Lord Jesus can function through us to rescue those still living in this lost and dying world without Him.

Prayer:

Father God, we want to enter Your eternal rest and to live our life from the perspective of Your wisdom and strength. We submit our thoughts, choices and emotions to You on a daily basis and live by Your Spirit’s direction each moment of the day. We want to relinquish our desires and goals to You, so that we will be in the right place at the right time to do Your will. We feed upon Your Word and our sustenance comes from living in Your will.

Thought for the Day:

We cease from our efforts of performing religious activities for God and rest in the sufficiency of His grace, as Jesus Christ within us lives His life through us.

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.