We are either a product of religion or of the Spirit of God. For example, when we desire to make anything a success in worldly affairs, we put our whole heart into it. We are "religious" about whatever it is we are trying to succeed in. But we repeatedly have nothing left of our hearts to give to God, though we earnestly proclaim that He indeed "has our heart."
Is Christ Not Worthy?
How often do we rob our own Creator of opportunities to reveal His will to us by forsaking His Word and closing our ears to His still small voice?
As His providence would have it, He has surely given us a choice: obedience or disobedience. And disobedience is a direct result from not being at rest in His presence soulfully, emotionally, and physically. We must labor and discipline ourselves (in body, mind, and spirit) toward proper and practical discipleship to Christ, for with a stark awareness of our deficiencies we can more boldly pursue and walk in His sufficiency.
Only then can we sing with the psalmist: "With my whole heart I have sought You; O let me not wander from Your commandments! Your Word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You" (Psalm 119:10-11).
Is it Truly Christ We Follow?
In that Jesus is the Word made flesh, we can trust His example to inspire our own words to become flesh rather than rotting under the rising pile of idle intentions. And we also must move beyond merely understanding how Jesus utilized Scripture to perceiving how He viewed Himself in relation to it.
While on earth, Jesus was ever alert to not only His immediate circumstance but also the simultaneously existing eternal one. He knew when He was fulfilling Scripture, yet it was not forced. The Gospels do not present Jesus as being hurried or constrained by an unforgiving schedule that dictated His mood or actions. Despite His foreknowledge of coming events, Jesus' composure embodied peace and offered unequaled love.
Consider that after waiting thirty years to begin His public ministry, Jesus' first action was to follow the Spirit's leading for forty more days in the wilderness! Then there are the seemingly puzzling occasions when He unhurriedly made His way to heal a synagogue official's daughter and to visit His sick friend Lazarus, who died during a two-day delay(1). Let us consider these circumstances more carefully.
In the wilderness Jesus was tempted to take for Himself instantly what His Father had promised to provide in time according to His earthly ministry. Fasting and isolation had made Jesus weak physically but His fervent prayers to His Father and meditation on His Word made Him stronger mentally and spiritually. Thus empowered to resist the devil and pass this difficult test, Jesus was prepared to abide in the will of the Father and was equipped to be in step with the Spirit, every day (Galatians 5:16-25).
On His way to restore Jairus' daughter a woman reached out and touched Jesus' garment. She was instantly healed of her discharge of blood that she had suffered for twelve years. Jesus discerned the touch but rather than hurrying along He engaged the woman and commended her faith, turning the moment into an opportunity to instruct the surrounding crowd.
This apparent postponement of healing Jairus' daughter effected the girl's death, for while Jesus was still speaking to the crowd someone brought such news. Yet Jesus entreated Jairus not to be afraid and to "only believe" (Mark 5:35-36). When He appeared at the house to heal the girl, Jesus was met with a tumult of weeping and wailing but insisted that the child was not dead, to which the people responded with ridicule (Mark 5:39).
At His command to "Arise" the girl arose, full of life. Those present were overcome with great amazement (Mark 5:41-42).
In similar unhurried fashion, when Jesus heard news of Lazarus' illness and despite being two days' travel away, He tarried across the Jordan for two days and continued teaching those who came to Him(2). But upon His arrival in Bethany, where by this time Lazarus had been dead four days, Mary (Lazarus' sister) affectionately scolded Him by crying, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:32). Even some of those Jews who had joined Mary and Martha in their grieving said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?" (John 11:37).
Then at Jesus' command to open the tomb, Martha (who had just conversed with Jesus about His being "the resurrection and the life") expressed her own abiding doubt by stating, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days" (John 11:39). Now it was Jesus' turn to offer tenderhearted rebuke when He said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"
Jesus called Lazarus to come forth from the grave, and he did. Then many of the Jews who were present believed in Him (John 11:45).
Is it Christ's Love that Moves Us?
Being that love is patient and the eternal perspective is so much more revealing than a self-focused worldly one, Jesus' deliberate and relaxed pace of life allowed for more of Himself to be poured into others. Likewise for us.
The apparent delays were simply further opportunities to love, heal, and glorify God through resurrection from death, and it was death that Jesus was explicitly (and prophetically) showing to have no power: "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25). And it must be noted that Jesus' power over death included being set free from a death-driven mindset. Through Him one could (and still can) breathe freedom and live as He did in full, unhurried, and joyful awareness of their divine mission.
We must refuse to give in to the lies that beckon us toward the fruitlessness of frenetic and endless toil. Genuine discipleship teaches us to learn not only to value a Savior at rest but to also partake of His rest, even in the presence of the enemy (Psalm 23:5).
Is Our Rest in the Flesh or in Christ?
In his book The Life You've Always Wanted, John Ortberg states that hurry is not just a disordered schedule but a disordered heart.
Recall again Jesus' trial in the desert. How often do we purposefully avoid or indifferently dismiss the "wildernesses" in our discipleship that would establish or correct our bearings? Do we mistakenly believe that God would never lead us into a period of testing when not even Jesus was spared such? How many of our personal ministries are born of comfort and convenience rather than by fire and crucible?
Be still, and contemplate God (Psalm 46:10). Invite Jesus Christ to rectify any identity crisis and allow His Spirit to equip and direct you toward the mission you were created for (Jeremiah 1:5). And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by renewing your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2).
Let us be wholehearted disciples, and thus products of the Spirit of God. Let us live a life (in body, mind, and spirit) that proclaims Christ's worthiness of our worship! Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed, so let us not disappoint the faithful under the Old Covenant who have gone before us and had a more difficult time in "resting" and being loyal to a forward-pointing guarantee. For they did not see the fulfillment of the promises as we have. Promises we can rest on by a Savior whom we can rest in.
The promises' consummation came with us, and ours is the easier place in the plan of God (Hebrews 11:39-40).
Notes:
1. Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 5:22-43; John 11:1-43
2. John 10:40-42; 11:6-7
*A Savior at Rest, But Not Idle appeared in Signet Ring magazine, Vol. 2.3
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