Strive to rest

Matt 11:25-30
At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Hebrews 4:10-11
10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

Walking with Jesus (or as it really is, "in" Jesus) was never meant to be hard for us. But man, I've seen some people make it very hard! Now, I don't mean it's meant to be a life without problems. I just mean that being in Christ is a matter of walking in His footsteps, not side by side with Him or trying to keep up with Him. We dig into our Bibles and find all kinds of things that we're "supposed to be doing," thinking life with Christ is a matter of trying to fulfill all the things God has told us to do. But what we miss is His life in us.

We are His workmanship. The workmanship of our lives is not our own. It is God who works in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure. All this is done, not through an analytical look at the "do's and don'ts" of the Christian life, but through something the church today seems to know very little about: REST!

If there's a struggle in the genuine Christian life, it's not a struggle between doing good and doing bad. It's not a struggle to keep the commandments. I think the verse from Hebrews says it well. It's a striving to rest. Now, in that verse I think it's actually telling us that those of us who are in Christ have entered that rest, and it's telling the readers that those among them who haven't entered it... strive to enter into it! But yet there are so many people who truly are believers and have entered God's rest - which in reality is a Person, Jesus - who aren't experiencing that rest as a normal part of life. In that sense, the struggle remains.

And I fully understand it! I deal with the struggle too! Grace, and God's rest, goes against the fleshly tendencies we have to do the job ourselves. Walking by faith is not the way of the world around us. "We walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7). To not walk by sight... is not easy!

To trust that there is a Person living in me who says I am not my own workmanship, but I'm His workmanship, doesn't make sense to my senses. Through my senses, it's easier if I can just read the pages of my Bible and get a list of things that I'm supposed to do, and then set off on a daily quest to try to do those things. But of course, often that list gets hard to do!

Aside from not being by sight, faith is also contrasted with something else. "The law is not of faith" (Gal 3:12). To walk a walk of faith - to walk in God's rest - means letting go of at least two things: walking by what we see and walking according to the law/commandments.

If you're walking in love because you've been commanded to love, then you're not walking in love, but by a commandment. However, if you're walking in love because you are resting in God, and by His work in you, you are working out the love that is already in you (because His life is in you), then you're following a commandment without even following a commandment!

Strive, be diligent... to walk in the rest that is yours in Christ. Look around at all the busy people, trying so carefully to follow all the rules and principles, and you will generally see people who are not at rest in their souls. Look around at the few people around you who are at rest in their souls, due to abiding in Christ's rest, and you will see people who are walking naturally in love.

As a person who is learning from Christ (see first scripture above)... are you walking in a love-relationship with Him or a performance-based relationship? If you say 'performance-based,' please let it be HIS performance you're talking about. :)

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.

Holiday

Steve McVey's "Sailing in Agape - Day Eleven" video (see below), in which he talked about the "permanent vacation," or "rest," that we have in Christ, reminded me of a great song from Tony Vincent called "Holiday."



Put yourself in the shoes of someone who has worked himself to death, trying to prove himself to God, trying to work his way to heaven and trying to earn God's love, trying to be perfect and trying to justify himself before God. You may be there right now, or you may have been there and it may not be hard at all to put yourself in those shoes again.

Then... finally the truth comes and "memories of my hollow days are scattered on a sea of grace." You finally realize that "what I thought was righteousness was nothing less than blind ambition." When Jesus came, "every day became a holiday."

The rest of the lyrics to the song are wonderful and can be found here and you can listen to a snippet of the song (and other T.V. songs) here.

Tony Vincent - Out of My Hands

There are many reasons why the self-titled CD from Tony Vincent (1995) is my favorite album of all time. The following song is one of the reasons. The other nine songs on the album are the other reasons. :) Over the next few days I'll be posting some other things from T.V. I've followed his career from his days as a CCM artist up to the present.

Out of My Hands Video (embedding disabled)

Lyrics - check it out!

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."

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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: