Working to Learn to Rest

If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

Matthew 7:14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

Luke 13:24 "Keep on struggling to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you that many people will try to enter, but won't be able to do so. "

God's work, which He has for us to do, is tough. It goes against the grain; it doesn't make sense; He doesn't give us all the information. "Nobody can guarantee all the resources that will be needed; you will have to step out in blind faith!" "I've never done anything like this before -- I don't know what to expect! How can I plan for a situation I can't anticipate?"

These questions, and so many more in the same vein, race through our minds when we receive an assignment from God, whether large or small. He always designs our "training" to be just a little bigger than our reach, to need a bit more strength than we have, to call for more wisdom and understanding than we have on hand at the time.

Our biggest, and sometimes hardest, lesson is to be needy. To need God, not just for salvation, not just one time, but for every day and every hour and every minute. Any time, every time, that we think we can handle the situation we are in, or recognize the "territory" and feel we already know the answer, even if the answer was from God the last time we were here, we are already forgetting the first lesson: Need God.

God has all the answers. He has all the strength that is required for any situation. He can make any circumstance reverse itself. But He waits for us to realize our shortcomings and feel the need to turn to God for the answers. Just as Jesus did nothing except what the Father showed Him, so we must follow His example.

2 Corinthians 13:4 In fact, He was crucified in weakness, but He lives by God's power. For we also are weak in Him, yet toward you we will live with Him by God's power.

God's rest, which He offers to His people, has many open vacancies. We tend to react to a need with action; we may run, like Jonah, or we may jump in, like Peter. But God's rest is for us to cease from our labors, cease from creating solutions, no longer lean to our own understanding but rather recognize the need, turn to God for wisdom and direction, and allow Him to work through us with words and actions that are not our own.

God created, by His living word, from nothing, the entire creation down to the smallest detail; the earth, the sky, the waters, the fish and birds, the plants and animals, and man. He ceased creating, and rested. He still maintains, He care for, He intervenes, but He has not "created" more since then. All things continue as they have since the beginning. When the sabbath rest, which is holy to the Lord, is over on the eighth "day," He has promised He will create a new heaven and earth, and He is preparing a people to walk with Him and work with Him in perfect fellowship and communion and agreement.

We must learn to rest in God, so that we can be trusted to labor in Him and not in ourselves. It is hard. But He doesn't ask anything of us that cannot be done through our obedience and His power. Let God speak to your heart, let Him show you, little by little, step by step, how to lay down your own strength, which is limited and will fade, and to pick up His strength, His yoke, His anointing, with no limits and no changing, steady, reliable, trustworthy, stable, and eternal.

Psalm 33
v.4 For the word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all He does.
v.5 The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love.
v.11 But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.

Father God, we accept that Your path for us leads through rough waters. We understand that smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. We thank You that Your eye is upon us, Your ear is tuned to our hearts' cry, and Your hand is not weak nor Your arm shortened in any way toward us. Strong circumstances are not a sign that things are out of control, but rather that You control all things completely and will not let us come to harm if we turn from our own efforts for rescue and, instead, rest in the boat, even as Jesus slept in the midst of the storm. It is not easy for us, Father, and we have to practice, day by day, trusting in You. Thank You that You do not grow impatient and that Your love for us remains constant. You will see us through the whole way, never leaving us, never forsaking us, never losing track of us. We love You, Lord! We worship and praise You from our hearts. With all that is within us, we exalt You, Lord and Savior!

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