Weight of the World part 3
The weight of the world pressing down on us. So much STUFF trying to bury us. Distract us. Control us. And listen, I'm not saying you don't have to take care of business. You do. Bills aren't going to pay themselves. The Apostle Paul said it like this, "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). So I'm not saying do nothing. That's not what rest is. Rest is NOT inactivity. Rest is Holy Spirit directed, Holy Spirit POWERED activity. And when you're in a posture of rest, that's when things can get easy. That's when you can shrug the weight of the world OFF of your shoulders, because you are not being conformed to the world, but you are being transformed by the renewing of you mind. That's when you can stop SERVING mammon, if I can say it that way, and instead serve God by offering your body as a living sacrifice. Not trying to figure out things that YOU can do for God--Jesus didn't come to be ministered to, He came to minister to us--but simply surrendering yourself to Him so that He can do whatever He wants to do in you and as you and through you. I think one of the reasons we get so caught up in the world is because we're focused on ourselves. Self-centered instead of Christ-centered. Selfish instead of selfless. Jesus came to serve. So when He does whatever He wants to do in and though and as you... when you're operating from a posture of rest... guess what that looks like: It looks like YOU serving others! It looks like--instead of trying to change your world--you helping someone else with the weight of THEIR world. This revelation came a long time ago: If I take care of you and you take care of me then neither one of us has to worry about ourselves. But we've lost this idea of community somewhere along the way. We've started looking at needing help as weakness instead of wisdom. Only if you can "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" are you a strong, functioning member of society. Well, according to Genesis 2:18, "...It is not good that man should be alone..." God created a helper for man. He knew that we are stronger together. And that's what love does. It holds things together. It makes an unbreakable bond. And since that bond is the Kingdom, and since the Kingdom is within you... the weight of the world cannot prevail. It cannot crush us when we are ALL holding each other up. Galatians 6:2 says it like this, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." The perfect law of liberty. Free FROM the unbelief that is sin. Free FROM thinking we have to do in order to be, and we have to do it ourselves. Free TO love one another. Free TO esteem each other higher than ourselves. When we all work together, the weight of the world isn't very heavy at all. When we're helping someone else we don't have the time, treasure, or talent to worry about ourselves. We don't NEED to worry about ourselves. What's outside might try to force it's way in, but what's inside comes out naturally. Works and labor don't work. But rest knows and believes that the work is already finished. Knows and believes that all we have to do is receive and release the love of God. The love that we are full of. The love that we ARE!