Learning to Rest In the Lord

Many churches teach the great commission for Christian's young and old is Matthew 28: 19-20 -

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The secret to the Christian life is to first learn how to sit/rest in the Lord!

Christians are admonished to "GO" and "DO" but even the apostles had to learn to wait and rest upon the Lord before they did anything for God. They waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit to descend upon them, to empower them to be able to be a vessel to have the Lord serve through them. We no longer need to wait upon the release of the Holy Spirit because since this first outpouring He is being continually outpoured to believers, but we must learn to rest in God.

We must rest our entire weight upon God, just as if we are sitting in a chair and resting upon its support. Spiritually our whole weight is our entire life (past, present and future) must be resting upon the Lord. Until we get to this point, we can not progress in our Christian "walk". Sitting comes before walking. Our deliverance of sin is not based on what we do, but on totally relying on what Christ has done. It is because of Jesus that we can confess, repent and be forgiven to walk clean, holy and righteous before God. This is a continual process of resting in grace, undeserved but provided mercy (forgiveness).

But let us look to Ephesians to understand spiritual what takes place at our salvation:

"The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, ... raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places... (1:17-21)" "And raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: ... for by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not works, that no man should boast in glory." (2:6-9)

God made Jesus to sit first, and then by faith we through Him also must be made to sit with Him. Our salvation is a gift of grace, not of works; therefore, even more so, our Christian life is also by faith and grace and not done by works. Christianity begins in sitting. This is the greatest secret of spiritual life. Allow yourself to meditate upon this, envision it until you know deep within every crevice in your soul that you are His, and He is yours. Be satisfied, wanting nothing but more of Him.

We begin our Christian newness of life when we by faith see ourselves forgiven and made righteous by what Jesus has done for us. Never forget that in the end when Jesus was on the cross he spoke the words, "It is finished!" He did it all! We must first learn to take deep pleasure in God and what He has done for us, knowing there is nothing we can attain for ourselves.




In our utter dependence on Him alone our faith grows, so that we will be filled with the Holy Spirit afresh daily, able to see and do as His Spirit guides and moves.

Truly salvation does not come until a person has first reached the point of saying within his soul, "I can do nothing but it is God who has already done it all for me through Jesus." A heart abandoned to the Lord and resting in His provision is truly a heart that is saved for eternal life with God.

Jesus did not begin life doing. He grew and rested in His father before He began His earthly ministry. And likewise Adam, the first man, first rested with God on the 7th day before he did anything. We must learn to rest and enjoy God, to worship Him, hear Him and be one with Him.

You will eventually walk in service unto God and be used by Him when He determines the time and situation, but let it be more than enough for you to relish in resting in God. This is how we know peace that is unending and can say, "It is well with my soul."