Living a Happy Life: A 7-Day Devotional for Parents About Living From Acceptance—Not for AcceptanceSample

Day Six: Rest from Working

There are two ways to approach God. The most common approach is to try to work your way to Him, to think that you can be good enough to get His attention. People who attempt to approach God this way want to do more good things than bad things in their lives and hope that God will see them trying and accept them. This is the most common approach because this is how the world often works. Work hard to get good grades. Work hard to do well in your job. Work hard to be a good player in your favorite sport. 

But the Bible teaches that this way to approach God does not work because we cannot approach God in our own goodness. No matter how good we are, we will never be good enough because God is perfect and we are not. If we try to work our way to God, we will get what our deeds deserve, which is not good news. Because we are not perfect, we deserve separation from the only One who can give us life. If we try and approach God by working, we won’t enjoy Him and we will be forever separated from Him.

The uncommon way—the right way—to approach God is to rest!

Instead of trying to get God to love you, you rest in the good news that He has already loved you. Instead of trusting your good works, you trust the good work of Jesus on the cross for your sin. Instead of attempting to achieve God, you rest and receive Him. 

You can only approach God in the goodness and perfection of Jesus. If you rest from your own works and place your trust in Christ, you receive all of His goodness. The perfection of Jesus is yours if you will stop working and rest in what Christ has done for you. If you rest in Jesus, you will have no sin charged against you!