The Effort of Rest part 2
I think the hardest part (the part that takes the most effort) of rest... is getting over yourself. Getting to the point where you actually believe the good news of the gospel. Believing that you are who the Word of the Lord (which is Jesus, which is love) says you are. Because you have to believe it despite what things look like. You literally have to walk by faith and not by sight. But that's ok, because faith comes from hearing, and hearing from that spoken Word of God. Hearing that still, small voice inside that says, "I love you, I love you, I love you" with every beat of God's heart in your chest is what allows you to see past what things look like. Its the unseen things that we look at, the unseen things that are eternal, right? And listen to this: Truth is higher than fact. The fact of the matter may be that you've made some mistakes in your life. But the truth of the matter is that God's grace is sufficient for thee! Look at Hebrews 6:15 (NLT), "Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised." Now think about that for a minute. Did Abraham, in fact, wait patiently for the child God had promised him and his wife Sarah? Or did he slide over to his servant's tent in order to try to take a shortcut? But when we get to the New Testament, the New Covenant, we see that grace rewrote Abraham's story. He is the father of faith. Because dispite his shortcomings, he DID believe God. He just thought he had to help out a little bit. He just thought he had some work to do. He didn't realize that work was finished. He tried to make something happen. He tried to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. He tired works and labor. And works and labor don't work. Unless you're laboring to get into that rest. Which, again, means to make haste. Hurry up and knock it off, if I can say it that way. Stop trying to finish a work that IS finished. And don't worry about all the blood, sweat, and tears you've poured into it. Even if by trying to help you've actually (probably) made things worse. Don't worry about what's come before. What comes next is what's really exciting. Because when you do get into that rest--again, when you hurry up and stop working--that's when things start to flow. That's when you can stop trying to be someone you're not and just be who you are. That's when you can stop trying to get something you (think you) haven't got and just enjoy the gift of God that you've already been given. And don't get me wrong, rest is NOT inactivtiy. Rest is NOT sitting down and crossing your arms and saying, "I'm not doing anything else." (But, real quick, there are times when you SHOULD cross your arms and not do anything else. But I'll addresss that later.) Rest is Holy Spirit directed activity. And since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth--the truth that God is love and He loves you--the Holy Spirit will only ever direct you to love. Pretty simple, right? The effort of rest is the maximum effort of love. Not trying to get anything, but receiving and releasing the love that you have been given. And, as I've mentioned, and touched on here, the hardest part (the most effort) comes in the receiving. Because the key to receiving... is releasing!