Rest is the greatest ingredient of faith
I love a nap.
Especially on Sunday afternoons.
You may think that is unspiritual, but Jesus did it. He was “in the stern, asleep on a cushion” (Mark 4:38).
He was sleeping in the storm! If Jesus did it, SO SHOULD I.
We have forgotten the importance of God’s rest in the storm. The disciples got frantic and fearful. They asked him, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?”
Jesus just stood up and said, “HUSH!” (the actual Greek word for “Peace, be still.”) The storm immediately became “a great calm.”
Here are some reasons that REST is critical when you are in a terrifying battle of faith:
Rest is the essence of FAITH.
“We who have believed ENTER THAT REST” (Heb. 4:3).
You are either “restless” or “restful.”
You can’t have both. You can’t go back and forth between them.
Faith is literally handing over your problem to God. It is unplugging from the care and worry about it.
As long as you have it, He doesn’t.
Your flesh and your mind try to hold on to it. They want to think about it, worry about it, talk about it, and lose sleep over it.
When you trust God for something, you hand it to Him and “take a nap” over it.
2. God STAYS in rest.
“And God rested on the seventh day from all His works” (Gen. 2:2).
God is a faith God. He created the world and the universe, all the animals, and man himself in six days.
Then, He rested on the Sabbath.
“So then, there remains a SABBATH REST for the people of God” (Heb. 4: 9).
Someone said that “Retirement is like having six Saturdays in the week.” Christianity is like having seven Sundays in the week!
Every day, we walk in rest. Since God is working on our behalf, we don’t “sweat it.” We live our lives in an unfearful, unfretting, rejoicing manner.
Don’t let anything pull you out of your rest.
3. Being in rest does not mean we don’t WORK.
“That’s great! I’m in rest and don’t have to work anymore.”
Wrong. They will come to repossess your house if you do that!
Rest doesn’t mean you don’t work, but that you “labor to enter that rest” (Heb. 4:11).
In the midst of your hard work on this earth, you have a sense of rest, peace, and composure. You don’t “lose it” in the traffic jam on the way home. You don’t explode when you see your utility bill.
Yes, we all have tasks that require us to work and achieve. None of that, however, affects our “rest in Christ.”
4. Rest is being SEATED with Christ.
Most of us have an easy chair. I have one. When I've finished a long day, I love to sit in that chair and rest.
I know it will hold me up. I don’t worry about it collapsing. I put my whole weight on that chair. I’ve never once thought about it not holding me.
Ephesians 2: 6 says, “He has SEATED US WITH HIM in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
“Have a seat.”
It’s not your works, it’s His. It’s not your throne, it’s His. He shares His throne with His body, the church. We are in Him and He is in us.
Every morning in prayer, I see myself seated with Christ in heavenly places. HIS FEET are on the enemy’s head, and SO ARE MINE!
That’s the rest.
That’s the “easy chair.”
REST today. Stay in your rest. Praise Him in rest.
This might be a good time for you to “take a nap!”