All tagged rest
I was reading Charles H. Spurgeon this morning and he was writing about our being called away from our homes and comfort, but that God still gives us rest... and how He continued to do this, even in our uncertainty. He used God's Word to Moses to make this point:
“And he said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."”
Exodus 33:14 ESV
How do we speak of Jesus and avoid speaking of prayer? With just a cursory glimpse into the life of Christ we understand the importance of prayer to Him. And how it fit into His relationship with God. One thing that impresses me about the prayers of Jesus is that they aren't prayers of inactivity. The relationship that He has with the Father isn't one in which He prays and then does nothing. In something as simple as feeding the hungry crowd with fishes and loaves, He prayed, but then He actively trusted in God, broke bread, and gave the food to the hungry...
Removing Doubt and Fear from our prayer lives as an impediment to the fullness of our faith and prayer is the subject of today’s message. The importance of prayer, and specifically a prayer in which we are confidently asking God to increase us in faith, can't be overstated. Haven’t we all prayed with a spirit of fear and doubt at some point in our lives? And, when we did this didn’t we find that the ground was shaking beneath us, and a fire burned within us? Yes, we had lost the Peace of God that we had felt when we prayed as we should? Taking the time to still our hearts before beginning to pray is a good way to steady our faith, and find courage in the low whisper of God. Taking a deep breath and then slowly letting it out is a wonderful way for our spirit to call Him.
I found great value in the devotional message I read this morning. It contained a prescription for healing the doubt and fear in my life. Of course, the solution came from scripture and was simply expounded upon further by E.M. Bounds. The scripture reference I am referring to came from Philippians where Paul wrote of the power in praying in everything... Prayer is the medicine that heals all our woes, sorrows, and illnesses. Prayer give us the peace of God and will keep our minds fixed on Him through Jesus.
Here are a couple of questions for us today... do we hear Jesus calling to us, and if so, are we prepared to come to Him when He beckons? If we listen to His voice, and go to Him... he promises to give us rest.
Today let's ask ourselves a couple of very important questions... Do we have the serenity in our lives that Jesus had in His? Is our life spent settled into constant comfort and peace, and if not... why isn't it? Perhaps we are not truly abiding in Christ. These thoughts were raised in me today as I read my morning devotional written by Oswald Chambers.
Coming to Jesus; this is my contemplation this morning. Is this the physical act of circumcision, baptism, and communion, or something far deeper and more spiritual? What does Jesus mean by these three simple words... "Come unto me."
As Christian believers we are told not to carry our own burdens, but to give them to God, and to Jesus, and yet, many of us are reluctant to release them. Does this sound familiar? When I make this statement are we convicted by it? Are we carrying around heavy loads, and feeling the strain of everyday life that grows into worry, fear, and doubt, when we should be comforted by God’s promise of aid, and Jesus’s assurance that His burden is light?
How simple and trusting is our faith? My devotional reading this morning was focused on the simplicity of faith, and as I studied the truth of this concept I uncovered the depth of my similar belief. Yet, I began to see how I often followed the mantra I hear in commercials on television as they sing... "I want it now!" (NFL), or "It's mine!" (Diet Coke), or perhaps "I want it all!" (Dr. Pepper). I could see that I was applying this urgency to my relationship with the Lord, and wanted every truth in a scripture, every revelation of God, instantly... now!
In our service to the Lord do we ever find ourselves reaching the physical limit of our strength? Do we find ourselves exhausted and our desire to continue on waning? Well, this is not uncommon because there is a natural limit to what our earthly body, including our minds, can sustain before they must rest. When we approach this limit it is no surprise to God, and although He tells us to eat, drink, and rest, our minds often push us on towards our breaking point. Feeling guilty when we rest, or thinking that we have somehow been given superhuman ability by God, pushes us on and we ignore Him. Listen to the angels He sends, and hear Him in our dreams and visions. You are not unlike Elijah, and need to have your strength replenished… the journey is not over yet.
Do we rest on the Sabbath? On the seventh day do we lay down our instruments of labor, close our businesses, and rest as our God rested, or do we look for excuses to disobey? On the Sabbath we aren’t meant to rest from life, but from our works. We don’t cease worship or abandon those things we have built or created, no, we simply do as God did… we rest following the completion of our labor. We don’t gather herds, build homes, or prepare the dead, but we still tend to them.
Are we at rest today? Do we feel a sense of peace in our lives? I was reading on the subject of being at peace this morning, and contemplating the answer to these two questions as they pertained to my life. I realized that as we look about us and see a world that knows very little if any peace, that it is certainly precious when we encounter such moments in our lives. When we think back on the times when we felt at peace, and were able to rest without the slightest anxious thought to disturb us, we find that one of two things were at play; either we were blissfully ignorant of the world, and our lives, or we were experiencing the true peace of Christ.
When we are deeply troubled our mind is consumed by it, and it seems that all else is put away to make room for those dreadful thoughts. Haven’t we all tossed and turned in our beds at some point? Where was our faith on those nights, and why did we tremble and worry to such s degree that it brought us sleeplessness? Let’s consider Psalm 77 today, and the plea of the psalmist as he asked for God to hold his eyelids open, not so that he could consider the source of his troubles, but so that he could pray, praise, and meditate, even to search diligently for a deeper understanding of God who solves our problems… the one who comforts us, and gives us pleasant and peaceful sleep.
What happens to us when we stray from God, and we place all manner of gods above Him? What happens when money becomes our god and the focus of our lives, or our sexual desires desecrate our bodies which are the temple of God, and what happens when any number of things turn us away from obeying God’s Word? Well, we are made to see how vile, and ruthless, these carnal gods truly are, and how much our souls suffer under them, until at last we return to prayer, and call out in the name of Jesus for God to place His hand back on us, and deliver us.
What is the peace we get from God? Sometimes we think it is a calm and uneventful day, or the absence of war and strife, but the peace we receive from the Lord is far deeper than this. The peace of God is to stand in the midst of the worst terrors and turmoil that the world can throw at us, and fear not… it is to trust in Christ, and know beyond all else, that even in death, especially in death, we have victory… and that His joy awaits us for all eternity.