Returning And Resting

Listening to Terry Virgo's sermon on Sunday, I was struck by the power of God's 'abundant grace' he has given to us in Jesus. Contrasting the law with grace, as Paul does in the book of Romans, Terry used the image of being married to the old husband of the law - still wanting to abide by strict rules that are ultimately impossible to fulfil, rather than enjoying the free gift of being in a relationship with the new husband of grace.

It really struck a chord with me. How often do I read the Bible to try and please God in some way, or even prove to myself that I am an obedient daughter of God? Or how often do I behave in a certain way to appear Christ-like, even though my heart is hard and rebellious? What is so radical about knowing Jesus is that we can now live in his grace that woos us, like the perfect husband - lavishly spoiling us with gifts we don't deserve and that we can't earn no matter how we try. And as we get to know Jesus, we love to spend more time in prayer, speaking and listening to Him and we read the Bible to understand what He is saying, not out of duty.

Even though we may have heard this message before, there is something in us that needs constant reminding of living under this amazing free gift of grace! At the end of the sermon, I was reminded of a time in my life when a close Christian friend read these verses in Isaiah 30:15 to me, which spoke so directly to my busy and restless heart.

'In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust will be your strength.

I laughed as I wouldn't have described my life as being full of rest, quietness or trust at all at the time! But God really spoke to me through these verses in such a powerful way. We are saved by returning to God and repenting in our hearts and then resting in the fact we can fully trust Him. That's what brings about a quiet trust, knowing that we are fully accepted and loved by God because of the grace and mercy given to us at the cross. No striving or frantic prayer making to please God, just a humility in our weakness and trust in His strength.

We are naturally restless people. It was Augustine in his Confessions who wrote, 'Thou has formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee'. How true this is. Our hearts so easily wander and pursue other places of refuge. In the passage in Isaiah 30, the prophet is calling out Israel for its stubbornness in continuing to look to the power of Egypt for its salvation. They trusted in Pharaoh rather than God, a sign of their rebellion.

Let us be a Church that doesn't look to false gods and promises the world offers that only fail. And let us have faith and learn to rest. It's hard for us to be still, especially in the midst of a world that is heavy with aching and seemingly intractable problems. But the heart of God remains the same:

In Isaiah 30, we go on to read: 'Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you'.