Resting is Gospel-Centered

Five of my children are taking the public school mandated assessments. Failing the test would mean not promoting to the next grade. My kids feel the weight of the responsibility today, but they have not always.

One squirrely rascal refused to listen to teachers or their PHD Reading Specialist mom! This child possesses the fortitude of a CEO bottled up in the body of a tadpole. They can exhibit a wiseacre attitude. You cannot teach a person who thinks they already know what they don’t know! Needless to say, the child didn’t do well.

It’s the best thing that ever happened to them!

I sat with my future CEO, knee to knee, offering reasons we believed they failed to succeed. First we cried and embraced the tragedy of the situation. Then I cautioned them about remaining on this path, and we proposed a new plan. Becoming teachable and open to receive what the authority in their life offered would be essential.

We find ourselves in a similar tender, but firm, encounter with the writer of Hebrews. Picture yourself sitting knee to knee. Just after the warnings and the challenge to strive toward entering His rest is given, a plan for how to be successful is made plain. 

You and I can be just like my squirrely kid. We sometimes think we already know what we don’t know. The writer steers us on a course for success. This Gospel—this Word—is different! We are encouraged to embrace this Gospel because it is changeless yet able to meet us where we are. It lives. We have no other resource to which it can compare.

For true rest, we must read this Word and receive this Word. Podcasts won’t be enough. Reading plans will not do it. Attending a great God-honoring church is wise and prudent, but will not satisfy the need. You and I must commit to hear it. See it. Memorize it. Get the Word in us any and every way possible—but let it be the actual Gospel, not something about the Bible.

Do you want out of those desert places of wandering? Are you teachable? Can you receive what the Lord is ready to give? The key to believing God and leaving those desert wanderings behind is through the living Word of God.

Read it.

Receive it.

And you will be on your way to Resting Well.

For more Gospel-centered resources from Cheri to help stir a desire for God into your everyday life, visit http://sheyearns.com .