The Effort of Rest part 4
I really believe the hardest part of rest--the part that requires the most effort--is believing that its available. And not only available, but that it has already been given to us. We don't need to get it. We can't earn it. All we need to do is receive it and release it. And therein lies the key: We receive it BY releasing it. Because rest is not inactivity. Rest is Holy Spirit directed activity. And, like I always say, the Holy Spirit only ever directs us to do one thing. Love. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth. The ultimate truth of the universe that goes like this: God is love and He loves you. And the Holy Spirit leads and guides us into that truth by testifying of our true selves. By testifying of Jesus. Telling us who we really are by telling us who Jesus really is. And who Jesus really is--who we really are--is God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. That's the truth of the matter. God loves you. No matter what. And He is pleased with you. Not because of what you do, but becauses of who you are. Because of who HE is. Which, again, is love. So when we talk about Jesus living inside of us, what we're really talking about is LOVE living inside of us. The very thing we spend so much of our lives, our three T's (time, talent, treasure), trying to get is the very thing that we've always had. We just didn't know we had it. That's why we tried to get it. That's why its so hard sometimes to believe that we have it. It doesn't make sense to the carnal mind that we can be loved for no other reason than that God IS love. It seems like love is something that must be earned. But the truth is, it CAN'T be earned. It is freely given... or it isn't love at all. Because love IS giving. Giving everything you have and everything you are without expecting to get anything at all. Laying your life down for your friends. But you can't do that from a place of lack. You can't do that if you're running around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to get something. Because you can't give what you don't have. You can't give love until you know (and believe) that you ARE loved. The effort it takes to rest is being still and knowing that God is God. That God is love. That God loves you. Knowing it with a knowledge that passes knowledge. Not head knowledge... but heart knowledge. Unshakeable foundation knowledge. Building your life on the simple truth that you ARE loved knowledge. And staying right there no matter what. Standing on the Rock and knowing that you cannot be shaken. Setting your affection on things above, and not on things on the earth. Walking by faith and not by sight. Giving what you've got instead of trying to get something you (think you) haven't got. And, again, that's the key to the whole thing. Because, again, you can't give what you don't have. So when love becomes charity and you act in love it proves that you believe--at least on some level--that you ARE loved. It is the very best (possibly the only) way to receive that gift you've been given. By sharing it. Giving it away. And, in that way, experiencing it. Living Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by letting HIM live it in you, and through you, and as you! Receiving and releasing. Receiving BY releasing!