Looking at Mark's blog Wed, Aug 18, 2010 - It so resonated with me. I've been walking out a season in my life where I'm learning to work from rest. God's been yanking all of the things out from under me that I thought I needed in order to be - a good person, a good wife, a good worker, a good parent, a good friend, a good anything you can think of. All of my working is just so much "stuff and nonsense". Not that others haven't felt some benefit and I myself have not felt some benefit at times from it. That's been part of the deeply wicked deception. Thinking that because some good may come of it that it must be good. Ultimately, good is never the same thing as the best. Good is the enemy of best (recurring theme in my blog - see April 2010). God does not need my working away for anything at all. There is nothing I could ever do for God that He needs in any way or that would make me more lovable or worthy or valuable to Him. God needs me to be who He made me. He made me for Himself. I can't use me for myself and my goals and ever really be my best. It is hard to come to terms with giving up yourself and your wishes and the things you think will bring you most satisfaction in life. But, I'm finding that when I do (I'm always envisioning a gentle tugging of those things by Jesus and I'm holding on to them for dear life, but let them slowly slip out of my hands) Jesus has something else that He gives me that is so much better than the pathetic self things I thought I needed. At that point I'm always amazed that I had to hang on so tenaciously when what I received was so much better. I seem to learn this every time and yet can't get to the point with each new thing where I want to throw those things into Jesus' hands and not wait or hold on to them. Jesus knows and He's so patient in working with me. Grace - learning more about grace in this.
So, resting - wow, what a concept. Resting in my Lord and doing everything from that place of deep rest. I'm still learning what that looks like, but I'm seeing I need to release things. Release knowing. Release having answers. Release catching every falling thing. Release into His hands all things: tension, anxiety, fear, self preservation, need to be heard, need to be right, need to work. I love that when I do release, God is always there so big and so reliable. He's bringing me along and growing me up in this.
Resting in Jesus' finished work on the cross - trusting that His death canceled the curse of the Fall ("Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."). Living into the new life that Jesus' accomplished work has obtained for us. I love what Mark says:
Soaking in this - looking forward to living it more.
Toiling for a living and resting from work are the toxic results of the Fall. They were not the Father’s original plan for human beings.
How then are we to get back to a place of rest? The answer is through Jesus. Thanks to what Jesus did on the Cross, the effects of the Fall have been reversed. The need to earn love through performance has been nailed to the Cross. Now we don’t have to strive to earn the Father’s love through works. We simply have to put our trust in the finished work of the Cross and rest and soak in the Father’s love and amazing grace. By the Spirit of God we can experience times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord and enjoy the precious gift of rest. We can dial down every day and work from rest, knowing that he loves us, he likes us and is especially fond of us because of who we are not because of what we do. We can renounce the performance mindset and rest in our position in Christ. We can, in short, live as sons and daughters rather than orphans and slaves.
As many of us begin to embark on a summer break during the month of August we can learn once again to embrace the Sabbath spirituality of the sons and daughters of God. We can learn to enjoy the rest that comes from the perfect Father’s love. We can realign our priorities once again.
Holidays are a great opportunity to unlearn some bad habits (resting from work) and to relearn some good habits (working from rest). We were not created to wrestle but to nestle. May our Father give us the great gift of rest this summer. So let all striving cease and let the spirit of slavery leave our lives and the Spirit of sonship take its place.
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