I started something new. I started asking God for my Word for the day. In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread. His Word is our daily bread and we should be asking and receiving a fresh, new word every day. It’s exciting each day to receive a new word. I encourage you to do this as well! Ask and you shall receive.
Just as God rained down bread from heaven for the Israelites, He still rains down bread for us.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.
Deuteronomy 16:4
As I prayed for my word today, I heard “passivity.”
And I knew that I had to dig a little deeper to get a better understanding of what God is showing me in this word. So I Googled the word:)
Passivity (root word – passive) is defined as:
- acceptance of what happens, without active response or resistance
- lacking in energy or will: lethargic: tending not to take an active or dominant part
- acted upon by an external agency: receptive to outside impressions or influences
- not active or operating
God’s Word promises us new life in Christ.
But are we living a new life now? Or does it look suspiciously like our old life? Jesus gave us His peace when He went to sit at His Father’s right side. But do we see that peace in our life?
Too many of us in the Body of Christ are passively waiting on God to act. Click To Tweet
We are lethargic, lacking in energy or will. We are accepting of what happens in our lives without actively resisting those things that are not of God.
We are passively being led through life by others instead of taking the reigns and being the leaders.
Let me share this important truth. This is not God’s will for us!
While we are passively sitting around waiting for God to act, oftentimes, He is waiting on us to act.
It’s a stand-off. Us against God – and I’m sure we can both guess who will win.
Are you waiting on God to show you clearly the calling on your life?
Are you waiting on God to clean up some areas of your life in the hopes of being drawn closer to Him?
Are you in need of healing?
Do you have inner pain that consumes you?
Do you live life a little out of control hoping that any minute, God will bring peace and joy but never really experiencing that peace or joy?
God wants us to enter into His rest but His rest is not passivity.
The promise of entering into God’s rest still stands for us today.
Here are some things the Word instructs us to do even as we are in His rest:
- Pay careful attention to what we’ve heard so that we do not drift away (Hebrews 2:1)
- Fix your thoughts on Jesus (Hebrews 3:1)
- Hold on to our courage and hope (Hebrews 3:6)
- Do not harden your hearts (Hebrews 3:7)
- Do not have a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God (Hebrews 3:12, 19)
- Encourage one another daily so that no one may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness (Hebrews 3:13)
- Be obedient (Hebrews 3:18)
- Combine what we hear with our faith (Hebrews 4:2)
So what exactly does it mean to “enter into His rest?”
Let’s read a little more in Hebrews 4.
For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
“So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
Hebrews 4:2-7
Jesus finished the work since the creation of the world.
We simply need to rest in Jesus and let Him guide our lives. As He guides our lives, we will see victory and success, even during trials and suffering. When we allow Jesus to take over our lives, we will not only experience peace and joy but it will become the very DNA in our beings.
When we enter into His rest, we will accomplish more in one hour than we ever could accomplish in a full day in our own flesh. So the question is this: Are you living life in Christ Jesus or in your own efforts? This is the difference between finding His rest and not finding it.
I hope we all find His rest TODAY.
Stay in the Light and Love always,
Eva
