Today’s Reading:
James 1
Psalm 32
Matthew 11
Hebrews 4
“As we enter into God’s faith-rest life we cease from our own works, just as God celebrates his finished works and rests in them. So then we must be eager to experience this faith-rest life, so that no one falls short by following the same pattern of doubt and unbelief.”
Hebrews 4:10-11 TPT
I heard the Spirit of the Living God say,
Rest in my love. Striving must cease. You are wrapped in my unending love, and My rest is here. It’s available, and it is persistent. This is not fleeting rest. This is persistent rest that sustains you. Just as My love sustains you and gives you purpose, just as My joy sustains you and gives you strength. So My rest will sustain you and give you longevity. You can go the distance, and you can travel much farther distances with much less effort when you enter into My rest.
“Just make sure you ask empowered by confident faith without doubting that you will receive. For the ambivalent person believes one minute and doubts the next. Being undecided makes you become like the rough seas driven and tossed by the wind. You’re up one minute and tossed down the next.”
James (Jacob) 1:6-8 TPT
My rest is not meant to be like a bus that you get on and off of at will. Mine is a full-time rest. It comes through My grace, and it is based in your faith. Don’t be wave tossed and wild — resting in me and alternately relying on your own strength to move ahead. No. That is not the way of a blood bought believer. My perfect rest is continually available. It is like a slip-stream of My grace that you can ride without end. Don’t choose the choppy waves of a self-propelled row boat. Choose to get your front wheel in My slipstream and coast, glide and advance easily.
‘“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”’
Matthew 11:28-30
I’m leading you into rest that I don’t intend to be a stop along the way. It’s the new way. Rest is the new way. Partner with Me in rest. Work from a place of profound trust that keeps you in rest. You do not have to climb the face of this mountain as a solo climber with axes, ropes and sheer grit. I can show you the better way. Just hook into My slipstream of grace and learn the ways of My faith-rest life. My burden is easy and My yoke is light. My asks may seem daunting, but each step, each revolution is simple.
Shed that old, confining, stuffy, rule-based way and join Me in the new way — where there is freedom of movement to work hard, yes, but also to play — in purity and in love, empowered by a foundation of childlike faith.
How to Respond
- Pray, Lord, help me take off the old way and to put on Your new way. Help me to move from a place of confinement, striving and rules to a place of free movement linked in to Your grace and Your ongoing gift of rest by faith.
- Declare, ‘Lord, you are my secret hiding place, protecting me from these troubles, surrounding me with songs of gladness! Your joyous shouts of rescue release my breakthrough. I hear the Lord saying, “I will stay close to you, instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with my eyes as your guide. So don’t make it difficult; don’t be stubborn when I take you where you’ve not been before. Don’t make me tug you and pull you along. Just come with me!”’
Psalms 32:7-9 - Decree, I will leave my old ways behind and choose the new way that the Lord is providing. I will lock into the slipstream of His grace, and by faith, live from the continual place of rest in Him. I will not strive and try to do it all by grit and determination in my own strength. I choose the new way — the faith-rest way that is powered by the Lord’s grace.
For more encouragement from The Glory & New Wine, check out the post from this day in years past:
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