Believers should enjoy to the fullest what the finished works of Christ Jesus offers. We don’t take lightly Jesus’ accomplishment, a feat meant for our free partaking on a table set for believers. God saw His creation good. Jesus remarked of His assignment that it’s finished. It’s good and finished.
DEVOTION: Erasmus Makarimayi
Human contribution cannot perfect that, which God perfected. The devil demeans this and misleads people to seek solutions and answers to life elsewhere. Religion offers alternatives, options that lead to dead end. The devil is so cunning that some naïvely accept diabolic suggestions that there are issues beyond God’s purview that require demonic solutions. They say this is ancestral, meaning science and God have failed. What trash! Even without robotics knowledge, it’s so clear that the Creator, Author and Finisher, that’s God Almighty, cannot be outgrown and overpowered by anything.
Believers enter rest of the finished works of Christ Jesus and enjoy the promise. There’s need to maximise the appropriation of the dividends. Grace believers are so often said to be stubborn and arrogant when they assert their belief and access their inheritance. They are sure and certain of their standing in Christ. They simply enjoy it and express it without apology nor regret because they didn’t merit it, earn it nor deserve it. Enjoying the grace of God solicits total trust and reliance on the finished works of Jesus Christ. This entails rest in the assurance that it’s a done deal simply waiting for your assent. All you need to do is believe and enjoy.
Those who have accepted the Gospel and are enjoying the grace of God need to understand that all we do is tune and adjust our minds to a new reality accomplished before the foundation of the world. We don’t harden our hearts, but condition ourselves by yielding to the enabling grace of God to free access of His benefits.
You have to be fully persuaded. The first line to understand is Ephesians 2:8-9. It reads: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
The salvation we are enjoying came by grace. This means we didn’t work for it. It’s unmerited, undeserved and unearned. To access this grace we needed faith. That faith also came freely to us as a gift. Gifts are simply received for use. So no one can boast of having done anything to be saved. We didn’t keep commandments or sowed any seed for salvation to come. No one was upright to appeal to God.
Romans 5:8 teaches: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The love of God has brought us all in the beloved.
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In a fast moving challenging and unpredictable world we live in, rest is critical. You may run around, up and down to make ends meet trusting in your ingenuity and industriousness. When and if you come to a dead end or hit a brick wall you may be dejected, bitter and succumb to hypertension, ulcers and other unwelcome predicament. Trusting in the finished works of Christ Jesus gives you peace. You pursue your dreams diligently knowing that you’re following a loving and caring God desirous of your success.
Hebrews 4:10 guides us: “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”
If God, who owns and is in charge of the whole universe and the seen and unseen rested, what does a person own that she/he endures sleepless nights? Entering God’s rest means we stop relying on our effort. If we are to enjoy God’s rest, we have to be singleminded that He has good thoughts for us. We have to believe His incontestable goodwill towards mankind.
God is not your enemy. He loves you. God is love and there’s no evil in Him. He has good intentions towards you.
Jeremiah 29:11 declares: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” The issue is not that God has bad intentions towards us. He means good to us. The challenge is to accept it. We have to will His goodwill to us! To you now He says grace, mercy and peace. His hand is stretched out to take you and me through our individual destinies. Under the guidance of the good Shepherd we will make it.
Psalm 23:2 assures us: “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.” Grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge. You are going somewhere.
All Bible quotations are from the King James Version.
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