Surrender to grace

Over at Idle Musings today, the title of James' post, "Be a Loser," reminded me of the old Steve Taylor song, "Jesus is for Losers." :) But that's not the point of this post.

James quotes from a Christianity Today article (incidentally written by a Canadian singer/songwriter who I haven't heard about in a long time, Carolyn Arends) that has to do with Jacob wrestling with God, and God dislocating Jacob's hip, and Jacob getting a blessing out of the ordeal. The article uses this story to talk about our need to stop "living in our own resources" and instead rest "in the middle of God's goodness, power and provision." For the full gist, see the article that is linked to in James' post.

What I personally wanted to highlight was James' "idle musing" about all of this:

Of course, my question is always, "Why are you depending on your own strength in the first place?" One of the basic tenets of Christianity is we can't do it, we need God to do it for us, so why do we continue to struggle and strive and generally exhaust ourselves for nothing? Why not just surrender and let God have his way with us from the start?

As I read this I began thinking about how quickly Christians turn from grace, and God's strength, to their own strength and resources. Take these two hypothetical, pretend spiritual journal entries, that may just be more based in reality that we might think:

Day 1: I'm saved by the precious grace of God! I'm free! I was weak, and a sinner, but now in the Lord, and in Him alone, I find my strength, righteousness and peace! Woo hoo!

...

Day 366: I'm tired. I feel so much guilt. What a heavy burden. I don't know how much longer I can do this.

The amount of days between those two entries will of course vary from person to person (perhaps for some it will be weeks, months or years), but the point is that somewhere between the first entry above, and the last one, some very important things changed. Grace seems to have disappeared from the picture. Dependence upon God's strength is gone. It's been replaced by self-dependence. It's been replaced by a fleshly struggle to try to maintain the Christian life.

Whereas in Christ we were supposed to have our heavy burdens lifted, and replaced with an easy yoke and a light burden, the experience of many is just the opposite. It seems that in their Christian experience they put on even heavier burdens than they had in the first place, and instead of relaxing in the yoke with Jesus, they're trying to pull the heavy load themselves.

We seem to leave Grace behind... thinking it was only for Day 1, when we were born again. My, how we've promoted a cheap and weak gospel! We've led people to God through grace, but after that it's seemingly all up to us!

Grace is the essence of the Christian life. Jesus is grace personified. You can't separate grace from Jesus. You can't have a "Christian life" in any way, shape or form apart from Jesus or apart from grace. When you were saved on Day 1 through nothing less than God's grace, that grace remained with you, and remains with you forever! His strength, His righteousness, His peace, His joy, His... everything... is yours by grace, and grace alone. Surrender to it.

He ain't heavy, he's my brother

Rest Easy

Late last year I posted about a song from the early 90's that I really love called "Rest Easy" from Audio Adrenaline. At the time I posted the lyrics and a link to a short snippet of the song because I couldn't find a video for the song.

But yesterday Matthew posted a video for the song (no visuals, just audio) that was added to YouTube this past March, and it's well worth the listen! Check it out here on Matthew's blog or here on my post from 12/13/07, which I updated today with the video. Thanks MD!

While I'm at it... Let me link to this really great post of his called Believing the Invisible. It's about not putting faith in ourselves, or even putting faith in our own faith, but about putting our faith in its true object, Jesus.

Rest Easy

Post updated 6/3/08 (see update at end of post)

This song by Audio Adrenaline has helped me through many times of fear, uncertainty, restlessness, anxiety... you name it... in my walk with Christ, and I would guess it has done the same for many others. Why? Because I think the verses of this song, as well as the bridge, state many of the thoughts, fears and negative emotions that many Christians deal with... and the chorus addresses the simple, biblical, truthful answer to all of it: Rest Easy.

And here's the thing... We can't deny that each of us, in different ways, deal with these thoughts, fears and negative emotions at times while we're growing in grace. Raise your hand if you rest in the fullness of the perfect truth all the time. I didn't think so. :) These things seem very real to us while we're going through them. However, since they're not based upon the truth of who we are in Christ, we don't want to stay in them. Rather, we want to displace them with the truth of our identity in Christ and with the truth of who God really is. This takes time and patience, but all the while we know that we can rest easy.

Audio Adrenaline - Rest Easy

One more mile 'til I lay rest
I have put myself through this rigid test
But the mile has never ended
No distance has been gained
I do not see greatness I wanted to obtain

Where is my embrace from the race that I have run?
I have kept a steady pace, but still I have not won

Chorus
Rest easy
Have no fear
I love you perfectly
Love drives out fear
I'll take your burden
You take my grace
Rest easy
In my embrace.

I am such a sinner
I fear my evil ways
I fear my imperfection
I fear my final days.
I just want to take control
And snap this rusty chain
Drop my heavy burden
It seems to be in vain

Chorus
Rest easy
Have no fear
I love you perfectly
Love drives out fear
I'll take your burden
You take my grace
Rest easy
In my embrace

Bridge
I am not a bold man even though I want to be
I am just a dreamer with a tender history
Scared of confrontations
I fume all through the night
The world has its hold on me and I just want to fly

The sky... the sky... is open wide
But I cant fly...

'Til I step aside

Chorus
Rest easy
Have no fear
I love you perfectly
And perfect love drives out fear
I'll take your burden
You take my grace
Rest easy
In my embrace
Rest easy, rest easy
Rest easy, in my embrace
Rest easy

There's no video for this song (that I know of) and I couldn't find a full audio version of the song online but here's a 30 second Windows Media or Real Player snippet of the song. If those links don't work, or if you want to sample other Audio A tunes, here's their website. (Make sure your speaker volume is low... a song starts playing immediately). Highlight "MEDIA" and click on "DISCOGRAPHY."

-----

6/3/08 update: Matthew posted a YouTube video for this yesterday. It's simply a blank screen but it includes the full audio. So here it is:

Cast your cares on Him

1 Peter 5:7

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

In the past I've shared how I overcame panic attacks almost 16 years ago through the truth of these words of Peter. This was truly an amazing time in my life.

But of course these words of Peter don't just apply to those dealing with panic/anxiety attacks. They are great words of encouragement to anyone dealing with any sort of worry, care, anxiety, depression, burden, weakness... you name it. In my testimony that can be found by clicking the above link, I shared how I mentally pictured myself laying my anxiety at the feet of Jesus, handing it over to Him. At the time that is truly what changed everything for me. It really did "jump-start" a life of trust in Him that I had never lived with before.

Since that time, I've definitely dealt with various other cares and worries, and I've found that casting our cares on the Lord is not always quite as simple as picturing it in this way. I still do this at times, and I've even been led by the Lord to lead others in small group settings in an "exercise" in which we close our eyes and picture ourselves handing our burdens and cares over to the Lord. What a release of burdens, guilt, worries, etc, that I've seen come out of these times!

But yet I am interested to hear from others, the ways in which you've been able to cast your cares upon Him. I often tell people that I pretty much live a stress-free life these days. It's not because I don't have problems or because all my circumstances in life are exactly the way I want them to be. Rather, I attribute much of this simply to the fact that there is an ongoing conversation between me and my Father. There's nothing that He doesn't know about me and there's nothing I can say that will ever surprise Him, so I'm just honest with Him! In this way, my burdens and cares seem to be 'released' to Him through simple conversation. Through that "jump-start" 16 years ago, a life of trust began, and I guess it's simply evolved into what it is today through a growing process.

I've come to understand that my life is always in Him, 100% of the time! There are never two sets of footprints in the sand and there never will be. He is carrying me all the time.

Another cool thing is that from time to time the Lord plans a much larger giving over of my burdens to Him when I'm not even expecting it! He knows me better than I know myself, that's for certain! I'll read something or I'll hear something and it will seem just as if a cork pops open or a pressure valve is released that I didn't even know was stopping the flow of the abundant life! He's so very faithful.

What experiences have you had, what words of wisdom do you have, what Bible verses would you like to share... that speak to the giving over of our cares, burdens, worries, etc, to the Lord?