Just Relax
Just Relax
Jesus said that He would give rest for the souls of those who were weary and weighed down. He said that He is gentle and lowly of heart and that His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
When we find ourselves overwhelmed, loaded down, and worn out from trying to walk according to the Spirit, that is when we know that we are trying to do something only God can do.
Romans 8:9 tells us that we “are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in [us]” (NASB 2020).
Philippians 2:12–13 guide us to remember that we can only work out, or exhibit in our daily life, those things that God has worked into us. Here’s what it says, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure” (NASB 2020).
We do this with some trepidation because it is easy for us to fall back into thinking that success is up to us and that we are responsible for the outcome of every situation. It is only when we remember that it is all of God that we can live in peace and freedom. He is the dynamo that energizes us, and He is the one who does the work. Here’s the way Jesus put it in John 14:10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own, but the Father, as He remains in Me, does His works” (NASB 2020).
The same is true of you, saint. You carry around the Life of God (see John 10:10). You are in Christ (who is your Life) (see Romans 8:1 & Colossians 3:4), the Holy Spirit lives in you (see 1 Corinthians 3:16 & 6:19), and your life is safely kept with Christ Jesus in God (see Colossians 3:3).
I want to encourage you to simply relax. Father is not going to drop you. He will complete the good work He has begun in you. It's not your job to produce more fruit or get your theology perfect. It is He who works in you both to desire, and to do, godly things as we saw in Philippians 2:13 above. He produces the fruit, and you just bear it like an apple tree branch bears apples produced by the root.
John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (NASB 2020)
Romans 11:16 “If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are as well” (NASB 2020).
