New Endeavor, Rest First

Life seems to be a series of transitions, including new seasons, starting new things, at times loss, and leaving something old behind.  In God's design from the beginning in Genesis we see a rhythm where God creates in the first six days, creating human beings on the end of the six day then God rests.  God declares the seventh day to be a day of rest (Sabbath) and blesses and sanctifies this day.  Did He rest because He was tired and somehow worked too hard.  God did not have to rest but chose to and began a rhythm that we still loosely follow today with our 7 day week.  So God works first in creating and then rests, which is exactly the opposite of the rhythm He gives for human beings.  Adam and Eve are created at the end of the sixth day, with their first day being the Sabbath.  God designed for man to rest and then work.

In laying out the beauty of redemption, God parallels Creation when Christ finishes His work on the cross, is resurrected, and then exalted to the right hand of the Father being seated on the throne (Ephesians 1:20-23).  When you sit down you take off the weight from your legs and naturally relax, this is a position of rest and authority.  There were no "born again" believers till after Christ went to the cross finishing His work, thus all believers were "born again" as New Creations from a place of rest not our working.  Many wrongly believe that they found Jesus but I believe that when we are in sin and living as orphans we are not looking for Him.  The Word tells us that "...the Father draws all men to Jesus."  In Ephesians 2:6 God seats us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ, in a place of rest and authority.

The question is do we grow in our walk with the Lord, increase in spiritual gifts, or be transformed in our inner man by our own striving, effort, or disciplining ourselves.  There is effort and discipline involved in places in our growth but we don't start by working but by resting.  "Every new spiritual experience begins with an acceptance by faith of what God has done- with a new 'sitting down' if you like."  It's actually from a posture of rest that faith comes forth as God breathes on His written Word to reveal it to us.  Many have studied the Word of God believing that it is by their self-effort that the secrets contained in it will be unlocked, only to be frustrated and may even become more religious.

In Father's Love He is the initiator and we are the receivers.  We are in a place of dependence, need, and even weakness.  Yet to those who learn dependence and rest there seems to be no limit to the grace God is willing to give them.

In Rest,
Bret