True Confessions

If you have ever felt as if you needed to be invincible or indestructible in order to keep up with life, then this week's posting is for you.  As a believer we often feel driven to accomplish all that we perceive God has placed in front of us, or rather on our "to-do" list.  Historically, I have been known on more than one occasion to take on just a tad more than a "normal" person would tackle.  I smile wistfully as I remember my dad often describing my mom (now with the Lord) as "always trying to put 10 pounds in a 5 pound sack."  I am my mother's daughter in so many ways (as are my sisters :-)).  When it comes to serving others, it comes naturally to us to do whatever is asked of us.  Yet I wonder, is living in an exhaustive state God's best and His desire for us?  

More than one scripture assures us that we can "do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13.  If I allow myself to meditate on that exclusive of other scriptures, I would delude myself into thinking that "all things" means literally "all things".  Yet somehow I did not have the strength to pen this week's posting on Monday...or Tuesday.  It is now Wednesday afternoon and I still find it a struggle to stay focused on this task.  It had been an exhausting extended weekend of doing and the exhaustion lingers.  So where is my strength and what is it I am supposed to be doing after all?

Consider with me this verse from Colossians 1:10   Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and you will continually do good, kind things for others. All the while, you will learn to know God better and better.  Perhaps the continually does not mean every minute of every day.  Perhaps living a life that gives God honor and pleases Him should be the focus with the outcome that we will learn to know Him better and better.  Out of a life lived to honor God, good fruit inevitably flows, but the good fruit/works should not be our focus.  Loving Him and seeking intimacy with Him is the better focus.  


We live in a time when every minute seems to be taken with something.  Even those who have committed their lives to service find little time to breathe.  The concept of a true Sabbath is foreign to so many including many believers.  Now that our society does not even honor the Sabbath (except for rare establishments like Chick-Fil-A) we are tempted to take advantage of a "free afternoon" to get caught up on those errands, or perhaps logging in much needed hours on a project that has been waiting in the corner (or down the street).  We are operating on the fumes of our human gas tanks and not taking the time to be still and rest in the Lord. Yet rest is a consistent theme through scripture from Genesis to Revelation.  



Do you remember what Genesis 2:2 says?  And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.  God was setting the example for us.  He made a decision to demonstrate for all of mankind that was to come, that when you have put in a good week's work, take time to rest.  It suddenly strikes me as very odd that God, our Supreme Creator, El Shaddai, the Holiest of Holy would find it important to rest.  After He is God!  He does not deal with energy depletion.  He created energy!  Yet from the beginning of creation He put into place the most important concept of rest. 


How often have we quoted Matthew 11:28?  Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Did you realize that is the first time in the New Testament that rest is mentioned?  Jesus Himself is reminding us that the desire of God's heart is for us to have rest, to be at rest.  He acknowledged that being human is tough.  Labor is tough.  Life is tough.  But come to Him and He will provide the much needed rest. So how do I reconcile that with the other side of the equation?  Luke 10:1-2 The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them on ahead in pairs to all the towns and villages he planned to visit. These were his instructions to them: "The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. Pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest, and ask him to send out more workers for his fields.  We are called to be laborers in the field for the harvest of the kingdom.

Reconcile it through balance and listening to the voice of God.  The only way that we can walk in the direction God has called us is if we take time to be still and listen.  We are not called to please everyone; we are called to please God.  We are not called to say yes to everyone who has a good idea; we are called to say Yes to God when He calls us and asks.  We are not called to be anyone's savior; only Jesus Christ is the savior of the world.  We are called to live a righteous and holy life that pleases and honors God.  Nothing more and certainly nothing less. Some of us are called to greater things in the eyes of the world than others.  But none of us is more loved by God because of what we are doing.  God first loved us and nothing we do is going to make Him love us more.  He loves us because He created us to be in an intimate loving relationship with Him.  What we do is a result of that love, not the other way around.  Take time to put your priorities in order and love God first, foremost and always.  Take a Sabbath and rest in Him.