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Rest in Jesus

Life is not complicated  struggle is not without reason.  In some way, shape, or form, everything boils down to living life from a works based mindset or from a revelation of Christ and His grace.  We either try to achieve what we see is lacking, or we look to Jesus, where wholeness has already been given to us. Striving leads to disappointment, condemnation, exhaustion, and ultimately uselessness.  Faith in what has been accomplished on our behalf leads to peace, joy, hope, and a very fruitful life.  We are meant to do good works naturally, since we have been given everything pertaining to life and Godliness.  We actually work harder when we rest in the fact that God has done it all, then if we think that we need to try hard to please God obey Him.  'You cannot please God without faith.' We have faith that He is already pleased with us because of what Jesus has done, we then walk in the Spirit, fulfilling His will naturally.  Faith in the finished work of Jesus brings us to a place of rest and satisfaction, rather than striving.

It is time to rest from our work just as God has (Hebrews 4).  Let us enjoy our intimate relationship with our Father; for as we look upon His glory we are increasingly transformed into His image.  It is then and only then that we shine like lights tot he rest of the world because we are mirrors that reflect His light.  As we gaze at God our faces reflect what we see. Our only 'job', our one true joy, is to become entranced with God, to become overly passionate about Him.  After all, what we are passionate about is what we worship.  God wants our affection, our adoration, not our lip service.  From this place of abject worship we begin bearing fruit, against such things there is no law, no effort.  As long as we stay connected to the vine, we will passively bear the sap that produces that fruit.  We do not use God, we do not seek His face so that we will do His works.  God is not a means to an end but the end Himself.  For God has set us free from dead works.

There is bliss in Jesus, rest, peace, and joy unspeakable. Faith in Jesus changes everything.  Faith changes our perspective, experience, and expectation.  It changes our desires and our motivations.  Faith is a gift and it comes from hearing of the word of Christ.  Hearing that Christ finished the job, that he did what we could not do.  He fulfilled the law, and we were given righteousness because of it. Christ took what we deserved so that we could have what he deserved.  It is humility to receive His full blessing, pride to reject it.  For it is in Him that we live, move, and have our being.  He is the one who works so mightily in and through us, and He will complete the good work He started.  It is His work, His effort, and His victory that we have access too.  We live as 'more than conquerors'.

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