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ProvenSample
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TRUST = REST
When Jesus promises us rest, He is almost always talking about soul rest.
It’s why all the ways we try to rest our souls don’t actually make us feel very rested—TV, sleep, Facebook® surfing, and so forth. They all fall short because nothing but Jesus can issue rest for our chaotic insides.
In fact, most of the ways we try and rest actually make our insides more chaotic.
In John 6:5-7, we see Jesus state the impossible task before Philip, testing him. It seems Jesus went out of His way to show Philip and the rest of the disciples it could not be done in their power.
Then with shocking ease and out of a place of relationship and trust with His Father, Jesus modeled for them and us the freedom from striving and the joy of dependence.
Jesus fully trusted in the exceeding abundance of His Father, God.
Do we?
Last night I sat up late processing all of this with Zac. We remembered how many times we have all but lost our minds with fear about the future, fear about provision, fear about pleasing people, fear about sickness, fear about measuring up.
FEAR = STRIVING
Philip believed there wasn’t enough. Philip believed they were in this with only their own resources. But Andrew had at least enough faith to bring Jesus whatever they had, even though it was insufficient.
And then, almost to drive home the point even further, in the chaos of a storm, Jesus walks on water to His men (John 6:19). He could have gotten on the boat before it left the shore, but then they would have missed His overwhelming power over all of the chaos. We may feel crushed by the fear of real circumstances, but Jesus is above the circumstances. He moves through chaos as if it doesn’t exist, because in light of eternity and His unending resources and power, our chaos here is a small storm that Jesus walks right through with us.
Our soul rest is not based on the absence of trouble and chaos. Our soul rest is based on the never-failing character of our good, capable, rich Father God.
He gives us what we need forever.
Praise God for His abundant mercy and care for us. Ask Him to teach us to stop striving and instead rest in His provision.
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About this Plan
Too many of us walk through life feeling as if we don't measure up. We always seem to thirst for more. We think if we could only work harder or be better, we could be enough. But the truth is, we will never be enough. An...
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