It’s Labor Day here in the USA. It’s our holiday to honor the extremely hard-working folks who go to work to make this country great. It’s about celebrating the many generations of people who decided they could get ahead if they would just do their best. They knew their efforts would be rewarded as they labored to make their lives better and the lives of their families. Those of us who know God, know that He has blessed our nation but working hard is one of those factors of how He blessed us. Working is noble and I am proud of the people in this country that work hard and make it what it is today.
From our Christian perspective, I was thinking about our laboring. I used to approach serving God from a standpoint of fear of being punished or missing out on a blessing if I didn’t do the work that I thought was required of me. I even thought of prayer as one of those works that would please God and get the attention of my Father in Heaven. This process of a works mentality was very exhausting and kept me bound to some very destructive habits in my spiritual life.
I had a notion that serving God meant I did things like praying, giving, fasting, reading my bible, working in the church building, as well as committing to projects that my pastor and the other leaders of the church were promoting. These were all good things. They were all healthy things IF I had a proper perspective and appropriate mindset. I did not. I thought DO these things equaled blessing.
No we are blessed because we HAVE the blessing. The blessing is the Spirit of Christ dwelling on the inside. Eph 1:13-14 In Him you also who have heard the Word of Truth, the glad tidings (Gospel) of your salvation, and have believed in and adhered to and relied on Him, were stamped with the seal of the long-promised Holy Spirit. That [Spirit] is the guarantee of our inheritance [the firstfruits, the pledge and foretaste, the down payment on our heritage], in anticipation of its full redemption and our acquiring [complete] possession of it--to the praise of His glory.
We are co-laborers with Christ. That does not mean we work along side of Christ. Nope. It means He works in us and through us as we are IN CHRIST JESUS.
You and I are actually dead. The old man died when I became born-again. This is very important to realize if we are to understand what it means to rest in the finished work of Christ or the Cross.
Jesus did all the work. He labored so I could rest. I have to laugh at the irony in Hebrews chapter 4. We are told to labor to enter into His rest. Well, I guess that makes sense. It’s my natural mindset to try to work to make God happy. I asked Him to even work on me to perfect me, which is contrary to the Good News. God is not trying to fix my old nature.
He made me a NEW CREATION in Christ Jesus. So I need to stop trying to fix that corpse. So as a Christian brother reminded me recently, we labor to rid ourselves of the erroneous beliefs. This takes time and is a process. Hallelujah! We can labor to enter His Rest.
I need to continue to grow in the knowledge that I am not that old corpse but a brand New Creation and no longer from the seed of the first Adam but from the Seed of the Last Adam. Wow! Take a minute and wrap your mind around that. I am --and you are --now born of incorruptible SEED.
So if you are still thinking you need to work for God to be blessed, take some time and ask the Holy Spirit to show you this process of resting in the finished work of Christ. I promise you He will be faithful and begin a good work in you that will change your Christian walk from a chore to a daily Sabbath Rest.
