Thursday, June 27, 2013

Rest

We are not a very restful people. We are always focusing on self. We are always using guilt or fear to motivate--manipulate--people to make the decisions we want them to make. We somehow believe that the Holy Spirit needs our help to get people to make the right decisions. But can shame be the soil from which love grows? Is the Holy Spirit so inept that He needs human manipulation to touch the hearts of His people? As a teacher I am always challenged by Paul's statement to the church at Corinth: "What I said and preached had none of the attractiveness of the clever mind, but it was a demonstration of the power of the Spirit! Plainly God's purpose was that your faith should rest not upon man's cleverness but upon the power of God."
Paul tells us often that the source of all wisdom and understanding is a deeper understanding of Jesus. If we want people to do what is right, they must see and understand all that He is, all that He has done, all that He has promised to do for His people today and tomorrow. Why do you think that Paul starts almost all of his letters by emphasizing those truths? Before he ever talks about obedience, he gives tremendous insights into Jesus. He has forgiven all our sins, paid the debt for all our sins--past, present, and future--and defeated all our enemies, even death. When we understand those truths and why He has done so, it is love and not shame or guilt that motivates us to love Him back through obedience. We must teach God's people to rest in Him and His finished atoning work on the cross. We must love people where they are and trust the Spirit to use His Word to transform them. We must accept that God has us where He wants us to be for now. And that even now His Spirit is working in our lives to cause us to grow at His pace and in His grace. Those who truly rest, work the work of love. Those who are shamed into obedience, quit as soon as the feelings of guilt dissipate. Those who truly rest, endure, because they know that God will provide everything and everyone they need at the right place and the right time. Those who are manipulated by guilt live in fear because they believe that because of their failures God will not provide anything or anyone they need at the precise time that such is needed. Many of them even become slaves to man-made standards of righteousness, the enemy of genuine spiritual growth. They become followers of men and resist the power of God, the controlling, transforming work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
It is time to become a people of rest--to lean on the One who promised all those who come to Him that He would give them rest by yoking His strength to theirs so that through Him, Who is their strength, they could do all things necessary to godliness. It is time to show people Jesus and to emphasize His great and continuous love for His children. Guilt produces shame. Shame produces fear. Fear produces doubt. Doubt produces despair. Despair produces resignation. Resignation causes one to just give up trying. Apathy becomes the disguise we wear when we are afraid to trust and when we think that our love is incapable of pleasing God. Rest. Love. Obey. Grow. Every act of obedience is an act of love. And Jesus will never, no never, not for a moment, not even once, leave you nor forsake you. And that's an eternal, everlasting promise.

"Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."

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