Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Rest Not Wrest

I was reminded of a verse tonight while posting a comment at a friend’s site-
“7 Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.”
Psalm 37:7-8

Resting in the Lord is hard to do when we feel that we must DO something. Think of Sarai convincing Abram that they should go the route of surrogacy to gain an heir. God wasn’t working fast enough for them. We know how well that turned out.
God is not obligated to bless every endeavor that occurs to us. A wise man once said, “Work is a form of nervousness.”
God is the judge of our works, the paltry piffle we accomplish during our lives. Be ready to share the Gospel as the Lord leads. But don’t strive, and don’t fret; those are signs that you’re going on your own strengths and abilities rather than trusting God to bring the increase. As the verse above says, “Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.”
There was once a successful ministry when fell into error because they got so busy “working for God that they forgot about God”. They were going 24/7/365, beaming the Gospel on satellite around the globe, leading prayer conferences, printing Bibles, sending missionaries…and it all fell apart.
Another ministry which is still limping along, striving and fretting, has moved from the Gospel message to a message of “Don’t trust your Government.” All in the name of Christ. I think that that ministry is also doomed to fail.
Here’s the simple: Trust God, Pray and remain malleable, allowing God to mold you as He sees fit. He’ll let you know when He’s done perfecting you. After you’re perfected, you won’t be fretting anyway, so why not give it up now?

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