Complaining?

Attitudes are often evaluated by whether a person considers a glass half-full or half-empty. Yesterday I heard a radio sermon that judged current Christians by all our failures. It was a call for a revival and likely needed, yet I would rather the speaker had focused on successes.

For instance, Samaritan’s Purse is in place at world disasters to bring help and hope long before any other aid arrives. A local mission is feeding lunch to nearly a thousand students in over a dozen schools every day of the school year. Hundreds are being reached with the Gospel in the Middle East by Christians risking their lives to faithfully share Christ. A woman in a US state has a prayer room in her store where customers can pray, leave requests, and take the requests of others home to pray for them. Our church has brunch every Sunday and some of the several hundred who are fed do not attend the service. They come in at the end so they can eat and no one tells them to leave.

The song says, “Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what the Lord has done.” Christians are blessed with new hearts, new life, a desire to live for Christ. As we follow His teaching and love His Word, He blesses and guides us into new and challenging territory. Consider how cooperation with Him brings blessing:

Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him; the Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies. The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health. (Psalm 41:1–3)

Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. (Psalm 112:1–3)

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. (Psalm 128:1–4)

These blessings are linked to obedience. Take care of the poor, delight in His commands with an awe that produces obedience, and He takes care of us in illness and blesses our families! No wonder the psalmist wrote, “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!” (Psalm 84:12)

These OT material blessings are for this life yet God does not stop there. He says much more in the NT with these words: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 1:3)

The link between obedience and blessing is stronger in the NT also. When someone blessed another person, Jesus said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:28)

Other NT verses repeat this verse, a favorite from the Psalms: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1–2) Here are a few more:

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:25)

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Revelation 1:3)

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12)

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. (1 Peter 4:14)

PRAY: Lord, You know that I woke today with a negative attitude. You gave me songs that lifted my spirits, and now these reminders of how much I am blessed. Who can remain crabby and praise God at the same time! In You is fullness of joy. That joy alone is a great blessing as it swallows up my petty complaints. You so often save me from myself. I am grateful.

PONDER: Count my many blessings, name them one by one . . . !

 

 

More than just putting my feet up . . .

 

Yesterday I reorganized my studio, moved furniture and tossed extras. I slept well, am sore in several places today, and plan not to work as hard. I need a day of rest.

When God created on six days, this is exactly what He did on the seventh day; He quit working — not for the same reasons (God does not get tired or ache) but gave us a pattern for a regular cessation of activity. Not only do we need it, but this also foreshadows that final heavenly rest.

REST comes from several Hebrew words and one Greek word. Nûaḥ is often used to describe stopping activity and in this sense is a synonym for šābat related to “Sabbath.” Both are used to describe God resting on the seventh day. While hundreds of other verses describe human resting or ceasing activity in the “rest” of death, some verses describe God giving people a “promised land” rest from enemies, with safety and security. Again, this foreshadows our final resting place as described in Hebrews 3:7-4:13.

Related to the noun Sabbath, the OT word šābat is used to describe what God did on that seventh day when He “rested” from the work of creation. Also, when He gave His people manna in the wilderness, He supplied enough for two days on the sixth day so they could rest on the seventh day. They were to observe the Sabbath as a sign of the perpetual covenant with the Lord.

Exodus 34:21. “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.”

By the time Jesus came, this idea of ceasing labor had become a list of rules. Some continue to this day and my gas stove even has a Sabbath mode on it! Back then, Jesus was criticized for healing on the Sabbath. The religious leaders told Him that His disciples should not take care of their needs on that day.

Mark 2:23–27. One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

The NT word anapauō means “to gain relief by resting” such as ceasing from toil or to rest in the sense of bringing something to completion. It is also used of spiritual refreshment. Jesus said . . .

Matthew 11:28–29. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Jesus contrasts rest with anxiety about life and fear of being without earthly possessions. He told a parable about a farmer who thought he could rest when his barns were full but Jesus pointed out that true rest comes from knowing our loving Father in heaven provides all we need. This rest comes from the Spirit of God as 1 Peter 4:14 indicates: “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”

Heavenly rest is not an eternity without activity. In Revelation, rest refers to four things: we will never cease worshiping the Lord, those in hell will never rest in their torment, those who die before Christ’s return are told to rest as they wait for their vindication, and those who die in the Lord will rest from their labors:

Revelation 14:13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. All this said, I also understand that resting in the Lord is ceasing my efforts to run my own life. Sabbath rest is not just one day a week but every day — trusting Him and His way over my efforts and ideas. It is living by listening and obedience, by being calm and without stress over the little and big things that life hands me. I might be working hard or lying on the sofa— yet as I listen to His still small voice, He tells me when to get busy and when to have a nap — either way, because of Jesus I can experience His rest.