September 25, 2009
“You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.” Psalm 139:14-16 The Message
What does real rest look like in you …?
Maybe it looks like you relaxing after completing a project .. Maybe it looks like you getting away from all the distractions .. Maybe it looks like you just not doing anything .. answering anybody .. allowing yourself to stop whatever you were doing. There is a real rest that comes only from the Knowing One. It is a rest that seeps into all those places inside you that only the Lord sees. God knows exactly what rest looks like in you .. what it does in you .. and more importantly .. how that rest draws you to Him. He ought to know your every bit by bit .. He formed you .. shaped you .. life-breathed you .. and knows every day and moment of your whole life. He knows when you’ve taken your hands off .. when you have to have control .. when you try to manage life on your own .. and when you avoid being known .. and even when you hide needing help or feel weak and overwhelmed. Jesus told his holy-selected-world-changers how to face their everyday life by simply saying: Our Father … and the rest was just all the stuff that mattered in their lives … and your life too. And the great gift of Jesus is the Holy Spirit’s ever-present-help-now within you. There are no secret codes .. levels of performance .. intensities of pain .. or the absences of struggles or sins before God hears and pours out His love and life to you. It takes only a moment .. a search me .. know me .. point out in me .. and lead me moment. This is the open-secret of Jesus-rest ..
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you,and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Psalm 139:23-24 The New Living Translation
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Inside and Out Known Jesus Followers and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
