Take Shelter under the Umbrella
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Nobody earns the right to rest. We lay down our rights to follow the will of God for our lives. Jesus fulfilled the requirement for rest, once and for all. Levels of faith died with Jesus on the cross. No matter the amount of time since we surrendered our lives to Jesus, we will all greet Him eternally. Rest with Him, forever. Rest, which begins here on earth, through the power of the Holy Spirit living in us.
The way to rest is through the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the Living Word of God – Christ Jesus. The apostle John wrote:
Like a nightlight allows a child frightened of the dark to rest peacefully, so is the effect of Christ Jesus in our lives. His light allows us to rest peacefully in dark places. In our loneliness, we find rest in His constant and permanent company. His light allows us to see the world, and the people He has put in it, through His perspective. The power of the Light in us allows us to be led by the Spirit in strength, astonishing ourselves at what He’s capable of through us when we yield to Him. Light is the way. The Word is the way.
Study of the Bible is essential to kindling the Light in our hearts. The Word is the way God communicates with us the most, connecting our lives to the wisdom He has prepared for us. Each day, illuminating the evidence of His love in our lives, even in the toughest seasons and most painful situations. Especially in those, He gives us supernatural rest, in Him through Christ Jesus. “Christ’s first coming did not abolish rest; it ushered in a deeper kind of rest than the Sabbath could ever offer,” Scott Hubbard wrote for Desiring God. “In Jesus, something greater than the Sabbath is here.”
Umbrellas protect us from being soaked by the rain. Jesus is our umbrella. Recently, I found myself surrounded by enemies at a high school basketball game. In that moment, I felt so alone. When I waved to a couple of fellow youth leaders, and they chose to sit with me instead of the student section they were probably aiming for, I felt the arms of the Lord literally wrap me up in comfort. Like an umbrella, protecting me from being saturated by the loneliness I felt sitting there surrounded.
“God’s timing is often odd,” John Piper wrote. “Which is not surprising, since ‘with the Lord one day is a thousand years and a thousand years as one day’ (2 Peter 3:8). The Lord can pack a thousand years of impact into one day (by prayer!). And he can take a thousand years to do a day’s work.” Just so long as we remember, under the umbrella, we are safe. We are never alone. Jesus loves us for who we are, right where we are at. When we come close to Him, He is close to us. Don’t get soaked, accept for by His love.
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Love Differently – Even When It’s Difficult
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