2) Legalism forfeits rest.
3) Rest is not inaction or stagnancy.
I am prone to procrastinate obeying God, which ends up with me just being disobedient. God says, "Go," and I say, "Ok! Tomorrow!" and the opportunity passes. To attempt to counteract this disobedience, I make up a whole lot of little rules.
God encourages me to spend time in His Word. I won't for a couple days, and then I decide that I need to read my Bible for at least an hour every day.
Or I feel like I need to eat healthier, I don't, and then I decide I'm eating nothing but fruits and vegetables for two weeks.
God says, "Pray for this person," and I put it off. So then I try to make up for it by praying for a set amount of time the next morning.
Discipline and structure are awesome things that I don't have a very strong grasp on.
Legalism, I've found, is my response to my own disobedience. God calls us to discipline, and we call ourselves to legalism. Discipline is covered by the grace of God; legalism is seeped in pride and shame.
"Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams." 1 Samuel 15b:22
Legalism is a sacrifice that we call ourselves to, and we decide that it will make up for our disobedience. "Ok, God, so I didn't do (insert what God said), but look what I'm doing to make up for it!"
And God says, "You can't!"
That's where resting comes in.
God's grace washes us clean. It covers me. It COVERS me. This is crazy. Where my sin increases, God's grace increases. (Read all of Romans. This is in Romans 5.) He is my righteousness.
So yes, we are called to obedience. Of course we need to obey God! He's the only One who actually knows what's going on, and He's all-loving and all-powerful and all-knowing. Why wouldn't we obey Him?
But, when we don't, we can rest in the assurance that we are covered. So, instead of fighting to make up for it, we can turn around, look into the loving eyes of our Father, and say, "I'm so sorry, Dad." We can crawl into His lap and cry for the pain we've caused Him, and then we can move on.
We can go forward, resting in peace and running in obedience.
I had the same thought as #3 the other day with the command to "Be Still" -- be is still an action verb aka an intentional choice we have to make! Try that on for a paradox!!
ReplyDeleteI know. And I just had a tonsillectomy, so I've been forced to be still. It's been hard! It's hard for me to not be doing things and to have Mom waiting on me (when she's already spending her life for the sake of everyone everywhere) and it's hard to just be.
ReplyDeleteBut, I think I'm learning something much deeper about resting. I think that peace and rest are inseparable. Peace comes from meditating on the Lord and lifting everything up to Him in prayer (Philippians 4:4-9). Rest is being in God's presence (Check out Hebrews 3). We are in God's presence as we lift up our lives to Him in prayer and submission.
And God changes us. He changes our minds from a place of stress to a place of peace. Our entire mindset is transformed because of his welcome work in our minds. God answers prayers. We live like we don't believe that sometimes, but He really does (Hebrews 11:6). And as we pray about everything, He works in us about everything we encounter, and He works in everything we encounter (Romans 8:28). This amazing exchange takes place.
Our surrender to His Will makes His prayers our prayers, we are walking in peace and confidence. We are in His Presence: our place of rest. As we trust in God with everything we are and everything we have, we lean in to Him so closely that we need Him, we know Him, and the obvious result is that we love Him. (Proverbs 3:5-7) And we know that He gently guides us in the path of life.