Rest | Post 30

A piece of writing that has changed my life.  One I read often, and only love more.  One makes God desperately attractive to me - I read, and I want to know Him better and sweeter.

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Restlessness is unbelief, skepticism, blasphemy against the capability and character of God. 

Restlessness declares that God is unable or unfaithful to honor His word. 

Restlessness is a direct affront to God. 

Restlessness is hell. It is a splendid angelic warrior, Lucifer, finding his role in the glories of heaven too constraining to his gifts and potential.

Restlessness is providing the Lord of Heaven and Earth reinforcements, emergency resources, and a Plan-B if His efforts go South. 

"Don't worry, Lord, we've got your back!" 

It is Moses hearing the promise of God to make fresh water flow from the rock and saying (in essence) "Here, Lord, I'll help!" as he beats the rock with a stick.

 It is the people of Israel surveying the land that God had promised them, and declaring, "We are not big enough to defeat the giants in this place." 

Neither Moses nor that generation entered the promised land of rest because they did not rest in God and His promises. In the words of Hebrews, "they could not enter His rest because of unbelief."

Rest is thinking deeply about the good of what God has done, keeping in focus the promises He has made for both your present and your future, and letting God be your God, letting God be in control.

Rest at essence is God-entranced, God-magnifying, and God-satisfied. 

Rest is treating God's promises as rock-solid and unquestionable. 

Rest is a conscious relishing of God's gushing generosity and a relinquishment of our own self-sufficiency. 

Rest is the garden, the Sabbath, the feasts, the land, and the worship of God's people in the Old Testament.

Rest is the promise of the Gospel and the only path into its life. 

Rest is a gift.  Everything good starts with rest, grows through rest, and is sweetly tasted in the feast of rest. And then comes Heaven. 

Rest is refusing to try to satisfy ourselves through our work, ability or worthiness and (instead) savoring, embracing and exploring all that the Lord has already done and thereby discovering, "Behold, it is very good!"

There were two lost sons in the story of the Prodigals, one who offered to work his way back into His Father's favor and one who reminded the Father of the favor he deserved for the work that he had already done. Both offered work as a payment for the gift of the Father's fellowship, forgiveness, and feast; and to both He said, "No."

"Come in!" was the only offer of the Father. "Cease from your work and celebrate my lavish extravagance and prodigal generosity and you will have me and everything that is mine."

Peter the apostle sums up the Gospel simply, "Rest your hope fully upon the grace that is brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ."

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[By Don Shorey - Enjoying Grace Ministries]