Invitation to Rest

 

Feeding the multitude of people, who followed Jesus to hear His wisdom, and collecting the 12 baskets full of leftovers was an exhausting chore for His disciples. Jesus saw the weariness in His disciples’ countenance and felt compassion for them. He invited them to come with Him to a quiet place of rest (Mark 13:1).

 

We have a standing invitation from Jesus to come away with Him to a tranquil place (Matthew 11:28). The first step of entering this utopian state of existence is to silence the “to do” list in our head, to say “no” to more busyness knocking at our door, and to fixing something simple for dinner rather than a big, involved meal.

 

Storms often have a way of clearing the air, removing debris from our yard, tearing down limbs and branches that are broken or rotting, blowing away dead leaves that are smothering new growth, etc. God is the God of the valley, the storms, and the sunny patches that ultimately return.

 

We can always trust God in our trials. We may be exposed to the elements and suffering in unimaginable ways, but He is always right with us, in us, and all around us. Through every issue we learn to see Him in a new light, and to expect Him to provide for us in the midst of the concerns (Isaiah 43:2).

 

Storms force us to change our focus from what is seen to what is not seen. We stop relying on our human resources and trust in our benevolent, competent, and trustworthy Father God. God uses trials to increase our endurance, and to make future matters less scary due to our increased faith in Him (Romans 5:3).

 

Taking time to refuel in God’s presence is the best gift we can ever give to our self. We have to give our soul time to rest, to catch up with our hectic schedule. In fact, if we make simpler choices in the future, we can learn to continually abide in His rest. We start by listening to God’s Spirit and committing our life to doing His will instead of our own. 

 

Prayer: 

Father God, remind us to focus on these truths that we all have in common, rather than on the insignificant details, which we choose to allow to separate us from one another. Help us to realize that the multitude of protestant religions and the treatment that many visitors and even members of any particular church family receive from one another is a poor example to the unbelieving world all around us (Psalm 133:1).

 

At times, we are burdened by all the cares of this world, our responsibility in it, and the expectations that other people place on us. We forget that You, our Heavenly Father, care for us implicitly and that You invite us to take Your yoke on us, which is easy and light (Matthew 11:28-30). This way, the weight of our load is no longer only on our shoulders, because we partner with You, and You share it with us.

 

Thought for the Day:

As adopted children of God, we enter into His rest and find our joy and delight in doing His will for us; we make a list of all of our responsibilities and prayerfully find out which of them is actually part of His perfect plan designed specifically for our gifts and talents; then we separate our self from the clutter all around us. 

- Ephesians 2:10

 

 

 

Thanking God

 

 

Gratitude is a lost art in today’s society. We are impatient, self-centered, rude and critical instead. We over-look the good that people do to bless us, demand perfection from them, and criticize their efforts rather than to show gratitude, patience and appreciation for them.

 

We are not so perfect our self, and we often frustrate others, even with our best efforts. Their ingratitude hurts our feelings, and often makes us bitter or angry toward those who criticize us and fail to show us appreciation for our efforts; yet we perpetuate this rudeness by our own attitude and behavior toward others.

 

We do this with God too. We fail to see His constant stream of love pouring over us all day long, because we are looking for grand gestures and specific results to our prayers. Yet, He is preparing a place in heaven for us (John 14:2-3), and He also took away the sting of death for Believers that unbelievers experience (John 3:18). If we allow Him to do so, He daily floods our soul with His love, joy and peace.

 

Gratitude allows us to treat our self and others with more compassion. The more gratitude we express to God, the more that He supplies our needs with His glorious riches (Philippians 4:19). He provides for us from birth to death and beyond into eternity. He is totally worthy of every bit of praise for Him that wells up in our heart.

 

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for providing for all of our needs with the abundant supply that You have in Heaven. We praise Your name for considering our needs even before You ever formed us in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139). You even know what we need before we do, and You are ready with an abundant supply. Your peace, joy and assurance are ours now and forever more.

 

We appreciate all that You did and do and will do for us: Salvation for our spirit through the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary’s cross; Your sanctification of the negative thoughts, words, emotions and choices of our soul – our feelings, choices and ruminations of our mind; and Your ultimate salvation for our body when You give us a glorified body like Jesus had after His resurrection.

 

Thought for the Day:

We never face a minute in life or death alone, because the presence of the Trinity of God abides within us from the moment of our salvation; we yoke up with Jesus and He gives us His burden to carry, which is easy and light compared to what we usually encumber our self with during our lifetime.

- Matthew 11:28-30

 

We are Always on God’s Mind

 

 

The Lord examines our heart and knows everything there is to know about each one of us. He knows our thoughts, even when we are not thinking about Him, as well as everything that we say and do at all times. God places His hand of blessings on us as we follow His perfect plans for our life (Ephesians 2:10). 

 

He is also aware of every time that we sit down or stand up, when we go on a trip or what we do at home, because He goes before us preparing the way and He follows after us. His detailed attention to every human being on earth, throughout every generation of time, is too amazing for us to comprehend.

 

These facts make our heart sing with joy. Since He loves us this much, it is easy for us to love Him with our whole spirit, soul and body. God is light without any darkness at all. Therefore, if we say that we are united with Christ, but continue to live a disobedient life, we are actually lying (John 14:15-21; 1 John 1:4-6).

 

We fool our self if we consider our self free from the guilt of sin; yet, when we recognize our pride and rebellion, and our sin that crucified Jesus on Calvary’s cross in God’s great mercy and unfailing love for each one of us, He has compassion on us, blots out and purifies us of our sins, and washes us free of our guilt (Psalm 51:1-6). 

 

We give Him all the glory for His redemption and faithfulness to forgive us and to cleanse us from our sins, as His mighty power works in us. When we live in His light, then the blood of Jesus cleanses us from disobedience, and brings us into an intimate union with God, which brings us into the fellowship of other Born Again Believers (1 John 1:7-9). 

 

He accomplishes so much more in us than we can every ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). He also blesses us abundantly, so that we have all that we need at all times in order to abound in the works that He anoints us to perform during our lifetime (2 Corinthians 9:8; Ephesians 2:10). 

 

Prayer:

Father God, You oppose the proud, but pour out Your grace on the humble; therefore, give us Your grace and mighty power to humble our self and to come to You for salvation. We give You all of our worries and concerns, because we know that You care for us (1 Peter 5:5-7). We look forward to You lifting us up as Your adopted children when You cause Jesus to return to earth. 

 

This will occur in Your own time, and He will be our righteous King, Lord and Ruler over every leader and nation of the world. You alone are immortal, and right now we cannot see You or approach You physically; yet at Jesus appearing, we will serve You with Him as co-heirs of Your Kingdom (Romans 8:16-18). We give You all the glory, honor and power now and forever (1 Timothy 6:15-16).

 

Thought for the Day:

Jesus grew up on this earth in God’s presence, and there was nothing attractive about Him that would make anyone be drawn to Him; in fact, He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and grief for our sake; sadly, so many through the ages of time feel this same way about Him and turn their back on His free gift of salvation, even though He was punished for our sins, pierced in the side for our rebellion, beaten so that we can be whole, and whipped so we can be healed.

- Isaiah 53:1-8

 

Not by Our Works of Righteousness

 

 

Satan loves to play with our mind. If he can get us confused, doubtful, or convince us that his way is best for us, he has won a battle in our life. He often uses false guilt, undeserved condemnation, or shame that he bases on erroneous standards of the world. 

 

When God deals with us, He uses conviction, and always gives us way to overcome our failings and shortcomings. God’s Spirit renews our mind (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23), and teaches us alternative ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that lead to life everlasting. 

 

He strengthens our inner being, so that we can overcome our pride and rebellion, and confess our errant ways as sin. His sanctification process makes us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). If we rely on our shear will power to overcome our human tendencies, we will ultimately hit a roadblock. 

 

However, over time in union with God, the mind of Christ replaces our way of thinking, and the attitude of our heart (1 Corinthians 2:16). We give God the glory for all our successes in life, as well as our strides into a deeper sense of spiritual maturity (1 Corinthians 3:5; 2 Corinthians 4:7). 

 

God is never angry with us, disapproves of us, or rejects us. We can grieve His Spirit (Ephesians 4:30), but He loves us even while we are still sinners (Romans 5:6-11). Legalistic regulations are not what God’s commandments are all about. Instead, they are actually safety boundaries that God established to keep us from the results of destructive behavior.

 

God’s grace in our life forgives our failings and cleanses us from their filthy stain on our life (Colossians 2:13; Psalm 51:7; Isaiah 1:18). We do not have to strive to deserve God’s grace, it is a free gift afforded to us by Jesus’ death on Calvary’s cross (Romans 5:8). We have no condemnation, when we repent and depend on Him (Romans 8:1).

 

The key in healthy living is to forgive our self as God forgives us – freely and completely. We can enjoy the fruit of His Spirit as He replaces our shortcomings with each one of them (Galatians 5:22-23). We are no longer stuck in the hamster’s wheel of temptation and an addiction to our sinful desires (Romans 7:19), because the reality is that Jesus already set us free from our fleshly humanity (Romans 7:24-25).

 

Prayer:

Father God, we rejoice that Jesus did an eternal work in the influence that sin and Satan have over us. We are no longer slaves to sin, but to righteousness (Romans 6:15-23). It is not by works of righteous which we do, but Your mercy that saves us and washes and regenerates us (Titus 3:5), as well as the work of the Holy Spirit in renewing our mind with the mind of Jesus.

 

Teach us that when we strive to be perfect, we end up facing our inability to walk the straight and narrow road, our impossible expectations for our self, the inevitability of us falling back into a sinful lifestyle, and a redundance of failures. However, Your Spirit gives us both the desire and the power to work out our own salvation (Philippians 2:12-13). We finally come to a place of realizing our power rests in our union with Your Trinity within us.

 

Thought for the Day:

As we give up the notion of our ability to perform for God and to harness our moral behavior in order to make Him love us more, we experience a cleansed conscience granted to us by the work of God’s Spirit in us through sanctification; we come to enjoy Christ’s presence in us, which gives us a hope of glory and spiritual maturity with which to face the challenges of life.

- Hebrews 9:14, 13:18; 1 Timothy 1:5, 3:19; Colossians 1:27, 2:2; 3 John 11

 

God’s Eternal Love for Us

 

God loves us with His everlasting Agape love; and He draws us to Himself by His unfailing love and kindness (Jeremiah 31:3). God is love (1 John 4:7-10). It is part of His character (1 John 4:8; 2 Corinthians 13:11). God’s love is a free, sovereign, absolute gift that knows no bounds (Jeremiah 31:3; Deuteronomy 7:8, 10:15).

 

His love abides in us (Zephaniah 3:17), and is great, unfailing, unconditional, everlasting, steadfast and so much more. He gives us His love so that we can love Him and the people whom He brings into our life. Regardless of our differences in upbringing, philosophy of life, goals and ambitions, world view and pursuits, we can unconditionally love everyone He brings into our life.

 

We do not meet any strangers, just new friends. These people will all add to our life, challenge our beliefs, share new experiences with us, support us and at times tear us down; but God has a reason for them to cross our path, and sometimes only He knows this purpose.

 

God loves Jesus as His first born, and His only begotten Son (John 15:9, 17:26). God’s Spirit conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb, which makes Jesus both God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus abides in God’s love (John 15:10). God’s desire is for His Trinity to abide in us, as His representatives in this world. 

 

God’s love may feel restrictive at first, until we come to realize it is actually protective and freeing. He constrains us by His great and unfailing love to keep us on the straight and narrow road of life, in order to shield us from the devastation of the wide road of destruction (Ephesians 2:4; Isaiah 49:15-16; Hosea 11:4). 

 

He has a special love for the impoverished and downtrodden (Deuteronomy 10:18). We do not earn God’s love, and we cannot be good enough for Him to love us any more than He already does. He showers us with all of His love even while we are still sinners (Job 7:17; John 3:16-17; Romans 5:8; Titus 3:4). 

 

Prayer: 

Father God, You love us as Your adopted Children (1 John 3:1) with a special love of a Father and friend (John 16:27, 17:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:16; 1 John 4:16). You especially feel proud of us when we are a cheerful giver to the poor, to Your ministries, and to the broken lives all around us (2 Corinthians 9:7). Thank You for sending Christ to earth, and for giving us Jesus to pay our sin debt in our place (1 John 4:9-10; Titus 3:4-7; John 3:16).

 

Your love and grace are manifested by Your forgiveness of our sins, and in Your redemption of our spirit, soul and eventually our body (Ephesians 2:4-5; Isaiah 38:17; 43:3-4, 63:9). Thank You for continuing to draw us ever closer to Your presence within us (Hosea 11:4), and for Your continual blessings for us both on this earth and for all eternity (Deuteronomy 7:13).

 

Thought for the Day:

God liberally broadcasts His love in our heart by His Holy Spirit, and He defeats Satan’s attempt to thwart His purposes in our life by using discipline with us, and spiritual authority over the devil

- Romans 5:5; Hebrews 12:6; Deuteronomy 23:5

 

The Sculpture of Our Life

 

Our Daddy God thoroughly enjoys hanging out with us. This time of prayer never needs to cease (1 Thessalonians 5:17). During our day, we do not have to do all of the talking to God, or kneel in His presence. We can listen, worship, and rest in companionable silence with our amazing Father as we go about fulfilling His plans for us all day long. 

 

God loves for us to list His victories in our life, to thank Him for all of His benefits, and to bless His holy name (Psalm 103:1-2). In fact, God gave the Israelites special names for the times He intervened in their history. 

 

He wanted them to celebrate His deliverance every year at the same time that the seed for His miracle bore fruit in each situation. We can do the same thing by keeping a diary or a calendar specifically dedicated to God’s milestones in our life. We focus on God’s provision, His character, His generosity and the fact that He cherishes His place in our life.

 

Remember Enoch? He and God were so close and intimate that one day God just took Enoch home with Him – body, soul and spirit. He never went through death into eternity. As Born Again Believers, we can look forward to this eternal home as well. Our last breath on earth is followed by our next breath in our celestial home.

 

God wants us to pass along His milestones in our life to our children. As my children were growing up, I used to keep a yearly calendar of all the times that God came through for our family. I do not know if they even remember my attempts to build all of us into faithful children of God, but I planted a seed there if nothing else.

 

One thing that the Israeli festivals had in common is that they were celebrations with food, friends, family, sharing the facts of God’s intervention for them, and a time of rest from their labors in order to celebrate and worship our Heavenly Father with their whole heart (Revelation 14:13; Matthew 22:37). 

 

Eliminating time-consuming “busy work” from our life will give us more occasions to celebrate God’s involvement and intervention for us. We focus on intentionally spending more time with God’s Trinity within us – increasing both our intimacy with Him and our knowledge of His ways and will for us.

 

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for all the ways that You intervene in our life in order to improve our peace and joy and union with You. Help us to incorporate more times into our daily schedule to sit in Your presence, to praise Your holy name, and to bring our concerns to You rather than worrying about them needlessly (Matthew 6:27). Teach us to be still and to honor You as our God (Psalm 46:10). 

 

Help us to find Your divine rest for our spirit, our soul and our body. Strengthen our inner being (Ephesians 3:16) to be able to resist the urge to win the approval of others by taking on too many ministries and opportunities to advance in our human pursuits. We want to focus on our spiritual maturity instead, and to enjoy intimate times in Your presence within us.

 

Thought for the Day:

As we sculpt time out in our day to enter God’s rest, we start to recognize the beautiful figure that God is carving out of our life; we begin to see the anointed tapestry that He is weaving from His point of view, rather than from the back side, that is filled with knots and changing colors; this spiritual view fills us with joy as it also drains away all of our stress and striving. 

 

 

His Heart is Our Home

 

 

In this world, which often frightens us, we have a hard time feeling safe, secure, peaceful and free from worries on all sorts of topics. We try to remain positive, but Satan fills our mind with negative anxieties, in hopes of debilitating us and ending our fruitfulness for God’s Kingdom.

 

Fear is a potent emotional response to an imagined or very real threat. It intensely effects our spirit, soul and body. God intended fear to protect us by motivating us to use caution, and to accelerate our adrenalin for a jolt of energy during emergency situations.

 

A problem arises with fear when it sidetracks our thoughts and controls our life. This may cause a lack of appetite, or sleep, or concentration, or vocation or social life, or educational opportunities, or our enjoyment of life. It may also affect our health and mental wellbeing.

 

We may fear natural disasters, health pandemics, hidden tumors in our body, failure of the function of some bodily function, etc. There are other issues that cause fear to rise up within us, such as public speaking, taking a test, asking someone out on a date, our child’s participation in some potentially dangerous activity, etc.

 

Fear, anxiety, worry and other negative emotions cause us to take shallow breaths, our heart rate to increase, acid to sour our stomach, perspiration to break out on our body, our muscles to tense or to weaken, our imagination to run wild, our mood to darken, sleep to escape us, etc.

 

The remedy for fear is multifaceted. We start by identifying our fear and what is causing it, as well as sorting out the problems contributing to this emotion. We dissect these issues and look for a resolution for them. If we cannot resolve the problems, we can make a commitment to go ahead with what God’s Spirit is leading us to do, in spite of feeling afraid.

 

God will strengthen us to do His will, and He will hold us up with His strong hand of righteousness (Isaiah 41:10). He will come to us in our plight to see us through every trial; therefore, we can be strong and reject fear (Isaiah 35:4, 43:1; Joshua 1:9; Psalm 34:4). Jesus gives us His peace within us that surpasses anything this world has to offer to us (John 14:27; Matthew 6:34).

 

Prayer:

Father God, we live in a mixed up and chaotic culture right now, with threats all around us; yet, we have no need to be afraid, to worry, or to allow anxiety to overwhelm us, because You are with us wherever we go (Joshua 1:9; Isaiah 41:10). Thank You for giving us Your power, love, and stable mind to strengthen us during frightful circumstances. We want to enter Your rest now and to abide there always.

 

We give You our individual struggles and challenges, and we seek Your wisdom on how to navigate them successfully. You calm our emotions, give us clarity in our thoughts, lead us by Your Spirit, and comfort us with Your Word. Thank You for showering us with love, joy, peace, patience, comfort and wisdom during our troubling times.  

 

Thought for the Day:

The Lord is our light, salvation, and stronghold, and we can put all of our anxieties into His faithful care; therefore, neither life, death, angels, demons, supernatural powers, current or future trials, or any other created presence can separate us from God’s love in Christ; so we have no need to fear anything that mankind can do to us.

-      1 Peter 5:6-7; Romans 8:38-39; Psalm 27:1