And Now You Know The Rest Of The Story-Part Two

The "rest" of the story I am sharing about is from our foundational scripture Matt 11:28, "Come to Me (Jesus) all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest".  More specifically, how we need not strive in order to have faith in God and in His promises.

What does it mean to have faith?  This is something that always seemed to be very mystical to me; having faith. How do I know if I have enough faith? I hope that I have enough faith to manifest that thing which I have need of.  I think I believe God, but what if ...  what if my prayers aren't answered. 

I know that God's word says that all of His promises are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. However, some would say, "Why did so-and-so not get their prayers answered"? Others may respond, "Well maybe that was the answer to their prayers. Sometimes God says yes, sometimes He says no and sometimes he says not yet"

I know, I have said this myself.  I don't recall reading that in the bible but I can say that as well meaning Christians we want to console folks who go through troubling times, knowing that God's word says one thing while their situation dictates another. 

Now I know that I certainly do not have all the answers, in fact it seems silly even saying that, as though I need to convince anyone of this fact. I know God fearing people who have lost the battle to sickness and disease or had to bury a young child whose life ended far too early. To this, I must say I do not understand the "whys" in situations like these but I will declare this fact; I do not base my understanding of God's word or His will on circumstances that I or others may face.  I base my "faith" on what God says in His word, like the scripture we discussed yesterday, "man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the Father's mouth. 

So when life's challenges come my way, do I just simply speak God's word over the situation and smile saying, "I have no fear, I don't care how I feel or what I see, I trust God...”  Well now, let me be down right honest here.  NO, I don't. 

Oh, I may like others to think that I am "in faith" as we would say.  I may desire to give folks the impression that I have it all under control, but I have learned over the years that there is no "rest" in that.   Many well meaning Christians will use "Christianese" and declare God's promise, acting as though they have no fear or better yet, they have full confidence in God. And quite honestly, some really may have "arrived" at this point. However, in reality I have found that my world can be shaken. 

You cannot hear the word "cancer" and think nothing of it.  You cannot hear that your niece lost her life in a car accident and not be moved with anger, fear for your own children or hopelessness.  You cannot discover that you lost your job in the worst of economic times and just respond, "Hallelujah, my God provides" and not feel anxiety, fear and discouragement.  

Applying faith in good times or bad can be a real challenge but God's word says, "In this world, you will have tribulation".  This isn't anything we have to "exercise our faith" to believe.  We do have tribulation, but the word of God doesn't stop there.  It goes on to say, “BUT, be of good cheer for I have overcome the world".

So where is the rest when it comes to trusting God?  It doesn't come from us living a life free from trouble. It doesn't come as a result of us striving to "do all the do's" and "don't do the don'ts".  We find rest in Jesus, who was tempted in all ways but without sin. 

When trouble comes our way, we come to a loving Father who knows our pain; knows our sorrows; knows our fears and tells us that He loves us and will not leave us. He allows us to feel hurt.  He allows us to feel mad. He allows us to wonder and question.  He allows all of this and doesn't give up on us.  He still move's on our behalf. He still believes the best about us and His desire is to bring us to that place of peace, love and comfort.

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, the enemy would like us to think that the condition of our life will be based on what we do.  In the case of Jesus being led into the desert, the tempter said to Jesus as he had been without food for 40 days, "If you are the son of God, turn these stones into bread".  He tries to deceive us into believing that the suffering or pain that comes our way is a result of what we have done or haven't done and if we want to move beyond our pain we must do something.  But Jesus recalled the words God spoke over Him just before the desert experience when a voice from heaven said, "This is my Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased".  Jesus based his relationship with the Father on what the Father said, not on what his circumstances dictated.

So when a need comes our way, we aren't to struggle with our faith, trying to believe that God will answer our prayer against a backdrop of other people's experiences or maybe even our own past failures.  Our rest is in the discovery of who we are in Christ; how great the Father's love is for us and that he gave us some tremendous promises.

Tomorrow, we will talk more about how we can move in "effortless" faith but for now, we can rest in the fact of knowing that God wants to bring us from a place of fear and hurt and discouragement to a place of victory in His Grace - His Divine Influence in our Hearts.  That "heart peace" I talked about a couple days ago.

May His Love overtake you today and may you take that love and share it with another as His Spirit leads you.