7 Days of Meditation and Declarations for Every Son of GodSample

Stop Trying What Doesn’t Work

You surely know the popular definition of insanity. Namely, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Yet it seems that when it comes to doing all the “dos” of the Christian life and avoiding all the “don’ts,” we’re all crazy. Let me explain.

It has been said that the last two thousand years of teaching and preaching on how to successfully live the Christian life and please God could actually be encapsulated in a simple two-word exhortation:

Try harder.

Do you keep stumbling over the same sin or habit? Try harder. Struggling to love unlovely and obnoxious people? Try harder. Failing time and again to rise an hour early for prayer and Bible reading? Try harder. Not giving enough? Serving enough? Witnessing enough? Attending church services enough?

You know the prescription. Bear down. Double up. Lather, rinse, repeat—in an endless, frustrating, shame-soaked cycle of defeat and failure that robs you of your confidence before God and keeps you feeling like the only Christian in the world who isn’t properly “doing all the things.”

None of that sounds very restful, does it? Yet, as our key verse reminds us, rest is precisely what we are called to in Jesus. Particularly rest from striving and straining to earn God’s approval.

The fact is, God sent Jesus so we could become restful human beings, not busy human doings. God paid an enormous price and lavished His grace upon us to restore us—not to good behavior—but to Himself. To reconnect us to the source of life and love to which we were always meant to live in connection.

When you live and rest in that connection, all those other good and noble things overflow out of your life organically and effortlessly. Witnessing? The peace, joy, and confidence that shine from you become an irresistible beacon to the lost and hurting. Love? When you become absolutely secure in God’s love and acceptance, you become un-offendable and naturally capable of more patience and grace than you thought possible.

We have all tried the “try harder” approach. It doesn’t work. But resting in grace does!

Grace Declaration: Heavenly Father, I have ceased from my futile labors. I rejoice and rest in my connection to You through Your Son. He is the vine, and I am a connected branch. In Him, Your love, Your power, Your goodness, and Your empowering grace all flow through me—producing fruit naturally and shaping my desires and appetites. For me, every day is a day of Sabbath rest.

This plan contains devotions from Praying Grace for Men: 55 Meditations and Declarations for Every Son of God, by David Holland. Learn more at https://broadstreetpublishing.com/praying-grace-for-men/9781424564163/.