Entering His Rest

Are you down?

I know that when I'm down, the principles I've learnt about God are sometimes my greatest enemy. That I should not worry, because He is greater than my problems. That I should not feel condemned, because He has paid for all my sins. That I should rejoice, and give thanks for all things, and strengthen myself in the Lord. When I'm down and needing God, thinking about these things sometimes makes me feel more guilty and ashamed than before.

It was like that with Jesus in the desert. On the fortieth day, when he was at his weakest, the enemy came and used scripture to tempt him. The truth is that it is not the scriptures or principles which haunt us, but the enemy using these principles out of context to chain us down. Only Holy Spirit can lead us to the truth that will set us free. But this is not the main thing I want to say here.

What I want to say is this. That in our moment of sadness, we only have to remember we can come before Father God, and be completely honest and open with Him about how we are feeling and thinking. That I feel so stupid for what I did. That I feel like a failure. I feel angry and hate somebody. That I'm worried sick and God doesn't seem to care about me. God is not threatened at all by what we say to Him. But His not-being-threatened doesn't mean He doesn't care. In fact, He cares the world about how we feel. He says, "If only you know how much I love you."

He knows what we are trying to say, even if we cannot say it well. One of my favorite ways of unloading on Him is talking gibberish. As babies, we are extremely good at doing that, and as we grow up, we unlearn this spiritual gift. The truth is, we do not even have to say anything if we don't want to. We can just let Him hug us, or hold our hand, or sit next to us, and love on us.

He tells me that I can take my time and not rush. It is not about getting my issues resolved. That the most important thing is entering into the moment with Him. All the problems in the world can wait. All the tasks that need accomplishing, and all the people who need our help, they can wait. We are only called to enter into the moment with Him, and even that, He is the one who will draw us in, not by our own efforts. He knows exactly what we need. This entering-into-the-moment is entering His rest. On the seventh day of creation, God rested. We are still now in that seventh day, and learning how to enter into His rest (Hebrews 4).

Sometimes, we feel very alone in our struggles, because these things don't get preached very much in church. It seems as though everyone else is doing well, conquering and succeeding in their lives. But this is His heart: that He cares more about those who are struggling, than those who are doing well. He will leave ninety-nine sheep to go after one that needs Him (Luke 15:4). If you want to know where the presence of God is, find those who are hurting, and sit with them.

I am tired of pretending that my life is going well. The truth is, I have a lot of struggles in my life, but God always causes His goodness to permeate every situation. Life is hard, but God is gooder.

I want to correct a big misconception in the church, that God ignores our sins. Well, the story is that Jesus has died for our sins, so God doesn't see them anymore. We often say this so that people will feel better for the wrong they have done.

No, God doesn't ignore our sins. He sees every single one of them. He knows what we have done. But you need to know His heart. He sees our sins as symptoms of a child that is hurting. A child greatly in need of love, to be told that he is loved, to be shown in concrete ways that he is important to someone else, that he is of real worth and value, that he was not made by accident, but on purpose and for greatness. God extends that love every time we sin.

People don't need to feel better for the wrong they have done. They need forgiveness. How can they receive forgiveness from a God who doesn't see the sin? God is telling us that He sees the sin, and it needs to be punished, but we are more important to Him than the punishment, so He has someone else take the punishment for us, so that we can receive the love and healing instead. How cool is that! Plus, we are no longer sinners. Our identity as sinners has been replaced by our identity as sons and daughters of a loving passionate Father.