(CLICK HERE for part 1) Be honest for a moment: What can/do you control? Can you MAKE anyone do anything? As much as you’d like to think otherwise, you cannot control anyone or anything. You can’t even make anyone drink a glass of water. You might threaten them with loss of job… physical violence… or even death, but unless THEY choose to drink the water, it won’t happen.
Can you control your boss… co-workers… or employees? Can you control your spouse, children, or family? Can you control the stock market or the weather? Can you prolong your life one second (If you think yes, consider Psalm 139:16 and James 4:15). Can you will yourself to grow six inches taller? Can you control what you dream at night? Don’t think of how little control you have next time you’re on a two lane road with cars passing you in the opposite direction at 60 MPH!
If you think about it, thinking we’re in control is an illusion… a false reality we’ve convinced ourselves of so we can function in a somewhat normal way. There is only ONE person who can control anything… and DOES control everything. God. Stay with me… and consider the flow of a few Scriptures.
Ja 4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such & such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 You ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Lk 12:16 A rich man… thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
Lk 12:25 Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
Eph 1:11 In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will…
Ro 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?
Ps 84:11 The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly (Who are in Christ).
Is 46:9 I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all My purpose…”
Lk 12:31 Seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. 32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Mt 7:9 Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (Compare with Lk 11:11-13)
Our Problem: We don’t like “THY kingdom come, THY will be done.” We don’t rest because our will is contrary to God’s will. We don’t really trust God nor do we believe Him or His Word. We don’t think God will get “IT” right (Whatever “IT” is for us). Now back to the idea of rest…
SINCE all these things are true, there is but one answer… REST IN CHRIST by trusting in our all wise, loving, and gracious heavenly Father! Jesus bids us… calls us… encourages us to come to HIM and we will find REST for our soul.