Rest in the Go

The rest of God pertains to all faucets of life. For His will for your life is peace. “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14:1). He is everywhere and speaks all the time, calling us to enter and remain in His rest. The world may scream and pull from every angle, but all we have to do is acknowledge Him, listen and obey. While God has called us all with great purpose, there are many times He calls us to be still and wait. Even Jesus Himself wasn’t “going” all the time. “Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” (Luke 5:16). If you ask me, I think He looked forward to His alone time of stillness. With the woman at the well in John 4, Jesus got to sitting down because He was tired. This type of stillness is not popular, though it is necessary. Far too often have Christians rushed themselves into anxiety when Christ promises peace. Even in the “going” there’s a lot more rest than given credit for.

We were given a great commission. “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). I first heard this commission as a burden to carry rather than an honor and a privilege. If this is how you read this passage, I want to challenge you. If you have indeed found the rest of God and see nothing but joy in the words of His great commission, good. See to it that you remain in His rest and let everything you do be from overflow of your intimacy with Him. But if His rest is something you’ve never known, I implore you to wait. Meditate on the truth of Jesus and ask Him to reveal the overwhelming reality of His love to you. Ask Him this that you may overflow with His love by the power of His Spirit that you can’t help but go and make disciples. “Those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31). Wait on Him so you don’t slave away at His commandments. God measures your heart before He measures your work because He wants to remain one with you.

“God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, But the Lord looks at the heart” (1Samuel 16:7). It’s far too easy to criticize oneself based on the amount of work that is done or even the quality thereof. If you may be slightly satisfied, simply compare your work with another that’s greater and see how you have yet to measure up. But when it comes to the work of the Lord, the measuring stick is quite different. “If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (1Corinthians 13:2). Whether you’re the man who gets saved while dying on the cross next to Jesus, or you’re a world renown saint that everyone loves, God looks at your heart before any amount of work can impress Him.

It’s a pity to work all your life with the goal of hearing the Lord say “well done my good and faithful servant,” only to find out you did it all for your own sake rather than for the people you were serving. “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). The reason Jesus was able to serve people with the fullness of love is because He didn’t need anything from them. He was the Son of God and already stood with favor of the Most High. He served them because He loved them and wanted them united with the Father. That was His only agenda. But this is how we are called to be when following Him. “The one who says he abides in Him ought Himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1John 2:6). As He gave His life for the worst of us, so should we also serve others.

We are made in His image and are now capable of walking effortlessly like Him because of His Spirit. “You have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15). He has adopted us. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. The same favor He bestowed on Jesus, He now gives to us also. This is the greatest favor we could ever ask for. Therefore, with nothing else to gain, there’s nothing to do but to give and serve. Coming into this revelation is what makes our work fulfilled in love. “We love because He first loved us” (1John 4:19). It’s the only reason why we’re saved in the first place. Its the only reason why His rest is possible for us to enter.

Therefore, I implore you to enter His rest and remember the favor He’s already given you. Before jumping into the great commission based on a “works” mentality, examine your own heart and wait on the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts in everything. “In whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things” (1John 3:20). As Christians, we know one thing for certain, do not condemn yourself in anyway. “We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2Corinthians 5:10). If any thought breeds the motivation of working to gain a greater glory, favor, or recognition, it is not deserving of our attention. But remembering the favor and love He’s lavished upon us through the blood of His Son is what frees us from all forms of slavery and keeps us going forward in His rest.

“For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His” – Hebrews 4:10