Elijah House
The Power of the Cross
Through the Spirit and the Word
Working to Heal and Restore Families
www.elijahhouse.org
On Coming Into Rest Part 3
by Terry Thomas
Psalm 92:12-14 says, "The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord they will flourish in the courts of God. They will still yield fruit in old age, they will be full of sap and very green" The righteous man. Who is the righteous man? Is it the person who strives and works and pushes, or the one who has believed and come into rest, allowing Christ to be his righteousness?Paul tells us in I Corinthians 4:1&2 [NKJV], "Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful." (Faithful to believe, to receive, to obey and live at rest.)
In Isaiah 40:29-31 we are told that "He gives strength to the weary and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength, they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary." And in 30:15, "For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, "In repentance and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength."
Unless we believe and come into rest, we will never realize the milk and honey of the Promised Land. When we fail to enter into rest, we fail to look fully at God, and we fail to look fully at ourselves. We are afraid we will have to give up control; we whistle in the dark, fearing what we will find in ourselves. We have disdained the part of ourselves that is needy and helpless, impoverished, imperfect and dependent, and so we stay busy facing everyone elders neediness, then feel good about ourselves because we care. But we fail to care for ourselves, and we can only truly care for others to the degree that we care for and about ourselves.
In Matthew 13:24-30, Jesus tells the parable of a man who sowed good seed onto well-prepared ground. When the wheat had grown and started to mature, it was discovered that someone had sown tares into the wheat. His servants asked if they should go and pull out the tares. He replied, "No, for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest."
We haven't been still, and so we don't know Him as God in the midst of our tares. We have welcomed Him only into what we have judged to be our wheat. We do not love the unlovely parts of ourselves, and so we do not believe that anyone else will, either. But if we haven't been still often and long enough to know God in our darkness, fear and pain, in our poverty and imperfection, our anger and sin, then we don't truly know Him at all. We don't believe God loves the real us, and so we don't enter into rest - the rest of being loved regardless of, in spite of, in the midst of who we are, rather than because of something we have done to earn it or buy it or win it.
We are designed to be doing good works out of the love God has for us, not out of drivenness to be loved; out of the approval we know from Him, not out of the need to be approved by Him. We put our energy into being busy, pretending, denying, forgetting and working rather than into being still and coming to know, so we don't know God as different from ourselves, as "not being a man that He should lie." But it is in being still that we come to know who God really is, and in knowing God, find that place of rest and knowing, where we can begin to love ourselves without condition, the way God does.
The children of Israel came out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, but, when given the chance to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land, they didn't believe that God was greater than their enemies, that He would protect them, that He could love so well and so perfectly. So they didn't enter because of unbelief. Hebrews 3:18&19 says, "And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see they were not able to enter [His rest] because of unbelief." And so, too, with us. We receive Christ and come quickly out of slavery, but it takes a lifetime to get the slavery out of us. It took forty years of wandering in the wilderness, until all the old men died, before they could come into the rest of faith that God had for them. All of our old man has to die, too, before we can come into our rest of faith.
We don't talk much about the theology of loss and failure, sorrow and pain. Too often our culture, not our Lord, has been our teacher, and our culture teaches the lesson of SUCCESS, PROGRESS, ACHIEVEMENT. We find no place of rest and accepting the self that is imperfect, sinful, needy and impoverished - that self which is a part of each of us - and so we hide it from God and others, as well as from ourselves. But when we enter into the fellowship of Christ's suffering, we can let go of our own and receive all that His suffering accomplished. Here we can allow our souls to rest in Him and in what His suffering purchased for us.
In Mark 2:27, Jesus tells us that the Sabbath was made for the sake of man, and not man for the Sabbath. In Matthew 22:37, He talks of the commandments to love God, and our neighbor as ourselves. We often do not hear or register the part about loving self, and yet it is commanded. To rest and to love self are not options for us, they are commanded.
Be still and know that God will meet us as He is, Who He is, His way. The world seduces us with artificial urgency that requires us to respond without listening to what is most deeply true. Sabbath creates a sense of eternity and rest. There is no rush to get to the end, because we are never finished. Our lives go on forever. There is no end to being me, to always being with myself and God. It is always today, forever!
Rest is the result of believing that all those things we work so hard to acquire, He is! He is our righteousness, our perfection, justification and wisdom, our acceptance, identity, salvation, our all in all. If only we can come to believe this, then we can accept His offer of entering into His rest. It requires receiving all that His suffering, His death and resurrection purchased for us. If we will believe in it and enter it, we will be able to live our lives out of this position of REST, of knowing who we are in Him, of allowing Him to be all and to do all. From this place we can do the good works we were created to do, operating in our gifts, loving ourselves, our neighbors and our God.
Live in peace; let every day be your Sabbath!
Terry Thomas joined Elijah House with a background in education in public and Christian schools, and nine years of private and church counseling practice. She leads seminars and retreats focusing on our Christian journey toward wholeness. She ministers within a wide variety of groups on topics relating to inner transformation. Terry enjoys spending quiet time beside a river or leaning on a large tree writing poetry. She finds refreshment in her flower garden, getting together with friends, eating, talking, fishing, playing, and long walks holding hands and talking with Elton Thomas, her husband.
Terry received her Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Eastern Oregon State College and her Master of Education in private and school-based counseling. She now lives in Wenatchee, Washington, counseling and teaching regularly in our Elijah House schools and seminars.
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Elijah House
17397 W Laura Ln
Post Falls, ID, USA 83854
208-773-1645
fax 208-773-1647
http://www.elijahhouse.org
