Resting in the Lord
Sunday Message – Jinja Pentecostal Church
(attended by 307 people)
TEXTS: Psalms 131:2 “Surely I have composed and quieted my soul, like a weaned a weaned child within me.”
Psalms 37:7 “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. . . .“
Mathew: 11: 28 ““Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest, . . . . .Take my Yoke upon you and learn from me. . . . You will find rest for your souls.”
THEME: Resting in the Lord
INTRODUCTION:
To rest in the Lord, or to be rested in the Him, implies a total surrender, trust and faith in God to solve a given challenge. It means that the problem, not only exists, but it is beyond your capacity to handle it. It also implies that you do nothing of your own to try to resolve it, but wait upon the Lord to show you the way forward.
There is a true story I came across many years ago that illustrates the principle of relaxing your efforts and completely depending upon God.
There was sports man who never believed in the existence God. He was a staunch Atheist who never believed in miracles or the existence of a supernatural power. One day, as he was mountaineering (climbing mountains was his area of specialty), he stepped on a loose rock and tumbled from a very great height.
Fortunately, he caught a firm protruding cliff and remained hanging on it. Down below him, probably a couple thousand feet, were a cluster of sharp rocks waiting to crush him.
There seemed be no way of survival: He could not stay in a hanging position forever. This man remembered what they used to tell about a miraculous God, in whom he never believed. Now he prayed, saying, “God if you are there, please save me, and I will serve you the rest of my life.”
A voice, replied saying, “I am God; I can save you, on one condition – that you release that rock cliff you are hanging on.”
He replied saying, “God, if I release this cliff, I will crush on the rocks below and die.”
God repeated, “The only condition is for you to remove your hands from that rock first.”
Finally, he said, “At your word am I am leaving this cliff.” He released the cliff, and the fall was so gentle as if the was using a parachute: he landed gently on the rocks below him without any harm or pain.
Our human solutions, worry, and the backlog of other human efforts inhibit God’s activity and obscure God’s miracle. God is delighted in taking full charge of everything that we cannot do, so that He magnifies Himself, as God, the El-Shaddai. God’s profound interest is that, His children get to know him intimately and deeply. Difficult situations He allows in our lives are better opportunities for us to know Him.He prefers to work out things as we patiently and restfully wait for Him (Isaiah 64:4).
Many times, I have been misled by a demonic version of this principle of waiting and resting on God. The demonic version says, “Pray while running,” implying that when you are struck by great difficulty, rely not on God alone, but use your effort to help God solve the problem.”
I see this quite contrary to the Scriptures, which clearly states that God helps the helpless. (Isaiah 40:29, Proverbs 3: 5-6).
God is known to bring us to our wits end first. Have you ever been to your wits end? The Bible tells us, “They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.” (Psalm 107:27). I love this Hebrew phrase. Biblical scholarship says “at their wits’ end” literally means: “all their wisdom and skill are swallowed up.” This makes sense because
the passage is referring doing business in great waters, God’s wonders in the deep, the raising of the stormy wind and waves, their soul suffering emotional “melt down,” until finally coming to their wits’ end. (Psalm 107:23-27). The Psalmist is saying, all my wisdom and innovative ideas for escape are being swallowed up like a water spout sucking everything into its black, watery hole along with my ship!
BODY:
There are two basic truths leading to a rested life in Christ. Living a rested life in Christ does not imply absence of physical activity, but emotional tranquil, that arises from absolute confidence in the Lord’s word amidst great turmoil.
1. Understanding our relationship as “sons” and “daughters” and not “slaves” in the kingdom (John 1:12)
In Christ, we belong to a family of God, and heirs together with Christ (Romans 8:16-17). We are described as members of the Kingdom of Priests, and a royal Priesthood (1Peter 2:9). We come from backgrounds where we are accepted on behalf of our works. So we work hard in order to be accepted by our parents. This is not the case with God. He loves and has accepted us on the basis of our faith in His son Jesus Christ. What we do, we do alongside Him, as part of a family assignment, but not to earn acceptance.
God has assigned the earth to Mankind (Psalms 115:16). Our first ministry is to the Lord. From the overflow of that worship and obedience and acknowledgment of our dependence on Him (Christ, who is our life) comes our ministry to others. To reverse the order is to rob ourselves of freshness, vitality and effectiveness – regardless of how well-intentioned we may be. We are a kingdom of priests. Not independently, but in unity, though we all have different gifting, callings and expressions of the life of Christ through us.
One of the Names for the Lord Jesus Christ is “King of kings.” Notice that He is not just the King of subjects. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. This doesn’t merely mean that He is the King that is better than all the other kings (though of course that is true). He is the King Who reigns over all the “little k” kings. Who are these “little k” kings?
I am! You are, if you are a born-again believer in Jesus! We are given the opportunity (and responsibility) of ruling and reigning “on the earth” with Him! Everywhere we go, we are ambassadors of the heavenly Kingdom. We carry heaven with us and fulfill the original mandate given to Adam and Eve to “…be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” In other words, we are to advance the agenda, the Kingdom of our Father God! We are a Priesthood of Kings! From our attitude and posture of humility, worship and delight in caring about those people and things that are on the Heart of God, we have been privileged by grace to partner with the Almighty!
Again, in Romans 8:22: “The entire creation groans and travails together in pain until now waiting for the unveiling of the sons of God.” God’s greatest goal is not to get us to heaven, but to get heaven into us and through us to His world, to conform us to the image of Christ! Arise and shine kings and priests of our God for your Light has come, and the glory of the Lord has arisen upon you.
2. The scoop of God’s love: God’s love is infinite in greatness, and therefore can meet all our needs (Romans 8:32)
Jesus says, “look at the birds, look at the grass: God takes care of them. Aren’t you more important than a bird? God is going to provide.” Now, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to work. Obviously we do. The birds have to gather all their seeds, and make their nests, and do other bird chores, whatever those are, but they don’t worry about it. When was the last time you saw a worried bird, wringing its little wings in worry? You never see that.
Again, many times; we view God and rate Him according to the experiences from our totally limited and imperfect human parents. But God also deals with us as a father or mother deals with their children. He prunes us (John 15:2. The word, “prune” is an agricultural term meaning removal of unnecessary leaves and branches from a plant with the intention of obtaining maximum fruits. A lot of plant sap can be wasted on branches and leaves that could have been converted to more and better fruits. In the similar way, a Christian’s vital life could be used on less profitable ways if some things are not cut off. God removes outgrowth in a person’s life in order to make them more suitable and available for his service. This process is likely to be hurtful and detestable, but finally beneficial. This does not reflect God’s hatred or incapability. At the end of the divine course, we are able to appreciate it.
Another area often misunderstood is God’s training: Training is God’s responsibility to ensure that His children and servants understand and know Him. Knowing and understanding God is more important than the service rendered unto Him (Jeremiah 9: 23-24). It is important to study the Bible and acquire knowledge of the Bible, Leadership and Theology from seminaries, but that does not guarantee the quality that God desires to achieve in the life of a person He intends to make use of. Real divine training is in the furnace of affliction, as prophet Isaiah puts it (Isaiah 48:10). We learn practical lessons of love, endurance, forgiveness, trust etc., through hard and painful times. A miracle would not be valid unless God has brought one to the end of himself (the wits end).
King David seems to imply the same scenario of intense challenges as a means of understanding God’s statutes (Psalms 119: 71). Another area is Discipline (Hebrews 12:3-11). In God’s kingdom, there is order, purity and spotlessness. As we strive to walk with God, human nature is constantly in opposition, and occasionally infiltrates, making us susceptible to error. We grow progressively into Christ-likeness, and along the way, both accidental and deliberate errors are made. Obviously as any loving father does, He makes a correction. In human terms spanking a child in a mistake becomes inevitable. A firm hand of discipline is a parental responsibility, which a wise child would appreciate.
SUMMARY:
God delights in our rested life. Rest comes as a result of understanding our relationship with God as sons and daughters. A miracle happens through our faith, sometimes after taking an action based on the rhema. He always acts in His perfect timing, not my own. He will fulfill His promise, giving glory to His name. He makes sure that all my human input is rendered futile first so that I am not eligible to receive any credit and tamper with His glory.
As long as I try to make it happen, my effort becomes rather a hindrance and the vision remains unfulfilled for as long as I still keep trying. Only when all my different alternatives and efforts are exhausted and all natural hope is gone (reach the wits end) can God supernaturally move, fulfill His promise and bring glory to Himself.
I should not worry about the possibility of hearing from Satan in the same way that I hear from Him. It is easy to distinguish the voice of Satan from His, because Satan’s thoughts are consistent with his name and nature. He is the “Accuser”, “A liar”, “Angel of Light”, “A Thief”, “Adversary” and “Enemy”. Therefore, judging of my journeying should be based on the above and the Word.
In a similar way, the thoughts from the Holy Spirit are consistent with His nature, names and characteristics. His names are diametrically opposite to the one of Satan. The Holy Spirit is, “Comforter,” “Spirit of Truth,” “Edifier”, “Exhorter”, and “Teacher”. His words are always calming, soothing and consoling. The words will always come to me with gentleness and solace and full of grace, compassion and hope. They will lift my heart and bring a breath of life to my entire being.
