Inspiration: Rest In God’s Peace [ORIGINAL]

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”– Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV

The scripture above tells us a simple truth of Christianity. We are saved by grace through faith. In other words, we were not worthy of salvation and there was nothing we could do to earn it. All we did, and all we can do, is believe. In that belief, in that faith, God releases his saving grace into our lives.

 Beloved, God wants to continually bless you. It is God’s desire that your life be nothing but blessing, after blessing, after blessing. Indeed, the scriptures tell us that God knows the desires of your heart and that he will not hold back anything that is good for you. Our Lord Jesus tells us that He has come not to be served but to serve. Are you allowing Jesus to serve you? Or are you to busy trying to serve God?

It is unnatural to think that we could have a life of blessing without earning it in some way. It does not make any sense at all. That is correct. It isn’t natural, it is supernatural. It does not make sense, but it makes faith. God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts our not our thoughts.

You see beloved, we forfeit our blessings because we don’t know how to rest in God’s grace. Look at Ephesians 2:9, “not by works”. We cannot earn God’s grace by anything we do. We cannot earn His favor or His love.  We cannot work our way through trials either. This is where we so often slip. The trial comes and we think that God is displeased or that we have somehow fallen from God’s grace because of circumstances or because we made some mistakes. But the whole time all God wants from us is to rest in Him and believe that we are being blessed. In the midst of your greatest trials God is blessing you. Just rest and believe. When the attack comes, God is blessing you. Just rest and believe.

We don’t have to go far to see how God protects us from the trials and attacks.

In the same chapter of Ephesians in verse 6 it reads,

and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”. You see beloved, when you receive Christ God puts you in a spiritual position of authority (with Christ) and rest (seated). Please understand that you may see chaos all around in the material world, but you have the supernatural protection of being seated with Christ on the right hand of the Father.

There was once a time at my job where they were doing layoffs. I was concerned about losing my job. Eventually, I was given a different position with a lesser title. I was fine with that but the test came in the form of my new supervisor. The supervisor had high anxiety levels and it overflowed on to me. We had different working styles and I thought I just had to find another job. I searched and searched for a new job and, despite being qualified; I was rejected at every turn. I revised my resume, I changed cover letters, I utilized my network and still no job. I had prayed and prayed for a new job and no new job came. Then I prayed, “Lord, what would you have me do.”  In response God told be to “Be still and rest.” I did just that.

I stopped looking for a new job, I learned to enjoy that position, and appreciate what I had. Soon I began praying for my supervisor and co-workers. Eventually, I found that each day at the job I was completely at peace. I had the victory over the circumstance and when I learned this lesson about rest, God sent someone to offer a new job that was a promotion. Our God not only teaches us and loves us, but he gives us exceedingly abundantly more! All we have to do is believe and rest.

Beloved— stop fighting. Stop worrying. Stop trying to prove yourself to God and men. When you accepted Christ, you received victory over every attack and circumstance. In Matthew 11:28 Jesus says:

come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Release all your burdens today. All you have to do is believe and rest in God’s grace.

Faith, Hope and Love,

Christian A. Friend

Dr. Christian A. Friend is a self-described child of God and servant to humanity. Christian is the Founder and President of C.A. Friend Consulting. He lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife, Stephanie. Christian worships and serves at True Destiny Christian Church. You connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.