Let me tell you a secret - The Christian life is not only hard, but is impossible to live. So quit trying to live it. There is only one person who can live it and that is none other than Christ!
He wants to live His life through you. Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” If you have been struggling to live your Christian life, Jesus is asking you to STOP all your religious acrobatics and self-efforts and simply be joined to Him and rest in Him. Let Him live His life through you. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. (I Thess 5:24). For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Phil 2:14). He is the author and finisher of your faith; He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. Many people think that He is the author but they have to be the finisher, He is the alpha and they are the omega. NO! He began a good work in you and He will perform it until the day of Christ (Phil 1: 6). If we are unfaithful, He still remains faithful (2 Tim 2:13). Verse after verse, do you see that you are not the one supposed to be doing the work, rather it is He who is working in you. Do you see that the Christian life is no longer “I”, but Christ who lives in me? (Gal 2:20)
Gal 2:20 should go deep down in our hearts. It is worth quoting that verse. ‘I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.’
Dear friends, 2000 years ago, when Christ hung on that cross, you were also crucified with Him. You are dead! It is no longer you that is living, but Christ is alive and well and living in you. Christianity is not a behavior modification program or trying to live a holy life. Rather, God took your life and nailed it to the cross with Christ and in exchange He gave His life freely to you! He couldn’t do anything with your life. It had to be put to death on the cross. Yet many people are rededicating their lives to God and trying to do something with their lives for God. Young brother, dear sister, you cannot do it, which is why Christ laid down His life for us, so that He could give His life to us, so that He could live His life through us! As long as we are trying and trying and trying, He cannot live His life through you. When you rest from your works that is when you will see His life manifest through you. This is the secret of victorious Christian living. It is no longer I but Christ who lives in me! You step back and trust Him to live His life through you moment by moment.
Quit trying to please Him with your works, quit trying to score brownie points with Him. The one thing that pleases Him is faith, for without faith it is impossible to please Him – Faith in what Jesus has done and has given us freely, independent of our works! He is already pleased with you! He Loves You! Enter into His Rest!
Showing posts with label rest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rest. Show all posts
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Resting in Christ - Steve McVey
It is amazing how the default setting in contemporary Christian culture tends to oppose the concept of spiritual rest when that is exactly what Jesus promised to give those who follow Him. (See Matthew 11:28-30) This concept requires a new mind set for most people, especially in western culture. We live in a society where people go on vacation with their Blackberrys and laptops. To rest in Christ, trusting Him to express His life through us sounds lazy and negligent after having lived in the wilderness of rigorous religion for such a long time. Many mistakenly think of rest as some sort of passivity, which it is not. Resting simply means to trust Jesus Christ as our Life-Source, depending upon Him to empower our actions with His strength and direction.
For many years the concept of rest was so foreign to me that I couldn’t comprehend it. I didn’t know rest was a gift from God. I thought it was a sin. I sincerely believed that the only time we would find complete rest was when we died and went to heaven. There was a verse I used to read at funeral services to give comfort to bereaved families. I would share Hebrews 4:10 with them: “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”
When I shared this verse, I would tenderly point out that our beloved friend who had died “has now entered into God’s rest and ceased from his own labors.” I talked about how heaven is a place where there are no more struggles. It is a place where we simply rest in Christ and enjoy Him forever.
Entering into His rest and ceasing from our own works. It sounded like dying and going to heaven to me. Then one day I read the next verse in the passage — Hebrews 4:11 says, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall down through following the example of disobedience.” What? Be diligent to enter that rest? Now I was in trouble. I had always taught that rest means dying. Now here I was being confronted with the verse that says to be diligent to enter that rest or else I would be disobedient to God. I knew I had better go back and reexamine that verse again and hope that my interpretation had been wrong or else I was in serious trouble! I didn’t know at the time that I had already died with Christ and was able to cease from my own works.
“I understand that salvation is a gift, but when we become a Christian we do have certain responsibilities in living the Christian life, don’t we?” somebody asked me. “We don’t just sit back and coast to heaven with no obligations in the meantime.” Her concern is common. Her statements reflect a belief that if we don’t take ownership of certain things that we must do for God, we may become passive and lazy.
What is the responsibility of the believer toward God? The disciples once asked Jesus about the works they were to do for God. “They said therefore to Him, ‘What shall we do that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:28-29). When asked what we are supposed to do in order to do the work of God, Jesus gave one work. Believe.
If we are to take the words of Jesus at face value, faith is the sole work of the Christian (and even that is a gift from Him — see Ephesians 2:8). That fact doesn’t mean that nothing else will be done, but that nothing else can be done unless it flows from the abiding relationship of faith in Him as our constant Life-Source (See John 15:5). The activity of our lifestyle comes from the overflow of our intimate union with Him. As we trust Him, we will discover the reality of the truth that “Faithful is He that calleth you who will also do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24, KJV)
http://gracewalkministries.blogspot.com/2009/11/resting-in-christ.html
For many years the concept of rest was so foreign to me that I couldn’t comprehend it. I didn’t know rest was a gift from God. I thought it was a sin. I sincerely believed that the only time we would find complete rest was when we died and went to heaven. There was a verse I used to read at funeral services to give comfort to bereaved families. I would share Hebrews 4:10 with them: “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”
When I shared this verse, I would tenderly point out that our beloved friend who had died “has now entered into God’s rest and ceased from his own labors.” I talked about how heaven is a place where there are no more struggles. It is a place where we simply rest in Christ and enjoy Him forever.
Entering into His rest and ceasing from our own works. It sounded like dying and going to heaven to me. Then one day I read the next verse in the passage — Hebrews 4:11 says, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall down through following the example of disobedience.” What? Be diligent to enter that rest? Now I was in trouble. I had always taught that rest means dying. Now here I was being confronted with the verse that says to be diligent to enter that rest or else I would be disobedient to God. I knew I had better go back and reexamine that verse again and hope that my interpretation had been wrong or else I was in serious trouble! I didn’t know at the time that I had already died with Christ and was able to cease from my own works.
“I understand that salvation is a gift, but when we become a Christian we do have certain responsibilities in living the Christian life, don’t we?” somebody asked me. “We don’t just sit back and coast to heaven with no obligations in the meantime.” Her concern is common. Her statements reflect a belief that if we don’t take ownership of certain things that we must do for God, we may become passive and lazy.
What is the responsibility of the believer toward God? The disciples once asked Jesus about the works they were to do for God. “They said therefore to Him, ‘What shall we do that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:28-29). When asked what we are supposed to do in order to do the work of God, Jesus gave one work. Believe.
If we are to take the words of Jesus at face value, faith is the sole work of the Christian (and even that is a gift from Him — see Ephesians 2:8). That fact doesn’t mean that nothing else will be done, but that nothing else can be done unless it flows from the abiding relationship of faith in Him as our constant Life-Source (See John 15:5). The activity of our lifestyle comes from the overflow of our intimate union with Him. As we trust Him, we will discover the reality of the truth that “Faithful is He that calleth you who will also do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24, KJV)
http://gracewalkministries.blogspot.com/2009/11/resting-in-christ.html
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