| by
Julia Gray
As I sat down to research the topic of rest, the circumstances
in my life became very un-restful. I looked up verses,
studied the concordance and worried. I started to worry
about finances, situations at work, and not spending
enough time with my husband. I thought, I’m obviously
not getting it, because I’m freaking out. I am
normally a laid back person with the attitude that everything
will eventually work out, but the last few weeks I’ve
lived in the reality that a lot of young women live
in. Worry.
Worrying about life, situations, money, relationships
and everything else is one of the main reasons we, as
Christians, do not rest in the Lord. We are anxious
about all sorts of things. One New Year’s Sunday,
my pastor was talking to us about New Year’s resolutions.
Not being a huge fan of those, I tried to listen as
intently as I could. At the end of his sermon, he asked
us to close our eyes and ask the Lord what our resolution
should be for this year. I sat there and my prayer went
something like this: Lord, what do you want to change
in me this year? I should probably go to church more
or at least get more involved. I should also have a
more consistent prayer and devotional life and start
getting up early to do that. After I was done guessing
what would make God happy with me, in the silence of
my spirit, I heard Him say, stop worrying. I will take
care of you. I knew that was to be, not just a New Year’s
resolution, but a change in the way I live my life.
From that time on, minus the last two weeks, every time
a worry would come up I would just pray that God would
take care of it. He always did. He never failed me and
that practice, of praying to Jesus about my worries,
has changed my life.
What do rest and worry really have to do with each other?
When we receive salvation we are reborn. We become new
creatures, never the same. We actually join the family
of God and become His daughter. We receive the gifts
of salvation, which include more than just going to
heaven when we die. Look up salvation in your concordance
and you will see that it means to save thoroughly; to
cure, preserve, rescue; escape, make perfectly whole;
escape safe, bring safe; heal; protect; and deliverance
from danger or suffering.(1) God is not just concerned
with where you will spend eternity, but He wants you
to have victory in your life right now.
With these gifts and a change in identity from our sinful
character to God’s character, we are able, with
His help, to become the women he intended from the beginning.
Once we are born again, we have a new identity. What
is it? Look at the characteristics of God and you will
discover who you really are. Is God stable? Then you
are stable. Does God worry? Then you need not worry.
That doesn’t mean that everything in life will
always be perfect; far from it. It means that we have
an all-powerful God on our side, who will walk with
us, as we work out what it means to be an imitator of
God.(2)
When Jesus came to earth He talked about a whole new
way of life. No longer did people need to strive and
strain and make sure they didn’t break hundreds
of laws. They didn’t need to go to the temple
and cleanse themselves once a week. They did not have
a barrier to the Father anymore. Jesus became the sacrifice,
took down the wall that kept us from God the Father
and gave us the opportunity to have a real relationship
with God. Sometimes I struggle with this concept. It’s
hard to have a relationship with someone you never see
visually, or hear audibly. But the more I learn about
Jesus and talk to Him about life, the more I love Him
and want to be just like him. He said this to the people
in Israel and He’s saying it to us now:
Come to me, all you who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28
NIV)
What does resting in Christ look like? God’s rest
is entered when the believer is confidently assured
within and outwardly lives peaceably in the assurance
of God’s daily provisions.(3)
We live in the assurance of God’s daily provision.
Wow! I love that because I can’t possibly plan
for every instance that can happen in life. Recently,
my husband’s grandmother passed away. She lived
in Arizona so once we found out when the funeral would
be held we started looking up flights. My jaw dropped
when flights were coming up at $1000 each. I did not
know how this would work; I just knew we needed to be
with Barry’s family at that funeral. The next
day at work I remembered about the Benevolence Fund
and submitted a request for help. I spoke with my mom
who told me to look at a website for flights I had forgotten
about. The Benevolence Fund gave us $500 and I ended
up finding tickets for $300 each. The day we came home,
my husband told me his dad had given him some money
for our flights and it was more than enough to cover
everything! I have countless stories like this because,
when you grab a hold of the truth that God is big enough
and nothing is impossible with Him(4), then it doesn’t
matter what happens in life because His provision will
be evident.
One of my very best friends has had a tough couple of
years. Her husband has had an extremely hard time finding
consistent work and walked away from the Lord for a
long time. This has put her in a stressful state both
financially and emotionally. Even though bills have
piled up and her husband has been angry at God, the
Lord has still provided for them. She has prayed for
and received everything from grocery money to rides
to work when her car broke down. She had a new refrigerator
that was so loud she hadn’t had a good night sleep
in two years. It was so bad, it was affecting her health.
After two years of praying, a friend picked her up one
day to go shopping. Not having any money, my friend
said she would go just to look. When she was taken to
Sears and told to pick out any fridge she wanted, she
was overcome with the goodness of God taking care of
such a great need.
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your
life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body,
what you will wear. Is not life more important than
food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look
at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or
store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds
them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (5)
My sisters, life is hard and it’s easy to watch
the news, watch our circumstances and be anxious all
the time, about how this will happen or how that will
happen. Do not let your emotions steal the joy you can
have in knowing your savior Jesus. He is your stability.
Rest in that truth.
My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes
from him. 2 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he
is my fortress, I will never be shaken.(6)
Works Cited:
1.The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance
of the Bible; Strong LL.D., S.T.D, James; Thomas Nelson
Publishers; 2001
2. Ephesians 5:1
3. The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance
of the Bible; Strong LL.D., S.T.D, James; Thomas Nelson
Publishers; 2001 Rest 2663
4. Luke 1:37
5. Matthew 6:25-26
6. Psalm 62:1-2
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