Today we continue our series entitled, “Pursuing Grace-Based Success!”
Here are our foundational scriptures:
(Ephesians 2:8-10 ERV)
8 I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.
9 You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about.
10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.
(1 Corinthians 1:30,31 NLT)
30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.
31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”
(2 Timothy 1:9 NKJV)
Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.
Last week I introduced you to a passage in Hebrews 4 (verses 1-11) and I started teaching you about God’s rest. We have worked our way through the passage. Today we look at the last verse. I will share the verse with you in two versions:
(Hebrews 4:11 Amplified Bible)
Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell].
(Hebrews 4:11 Easy-To-Read-Version)
So let us try as hard as we can to enter God’s place of rest. We must try hard so that none of us will be lost by following the example of those who refused to obey God.
After painting a vivid picture of the supernatural rest God freely makes available for us (a rest the Israelites failed to enter into and a rest that many believers are still missing out on), the writer of Hebrews tells us to exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest. Other transitions say: “make every effort,” “keep at it,” and “be completely diligent.” The point is clear: we will NOT be able to enter into and remain in this type of rest without effort. We must be purposeful if we are going to enter into and remain in God’s rest. If we slack off, even for a day or so, the enemy can quickly get us out of God’s rest and back into fear, doubt, unbelief, worry, and all sorts of anxiety.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. It takes discipline to maintain the disposition of your soul.
To maintain a disposition of divine rest in your soul, you must be diligent concerning protecting it. You cannot be lax or let down your guard.
I know people who take care of their physical bodies very well. They are disciplined concerning what they eat, how much water they drink, how much they exercise and stretch, and how many supplements they take. This level of focus, diligence, and dedication keeps athletes operating physically at the highest level. If you understand that, you can understand how your soul needs that same level of dedication. There are three parts of you. If you put all of that type of effort into the maintenance of your physical body but you neglect your soul and your spirit, then you may have amazing physical health, but your life will be falling apart.
This series is about becoming the best version of yourself and operating in the level of divine success that God has called you to operate in. My desire is for you to maximize your purpose and potential while you are in the land of the living. But to be clear, that will never happen if you don’t if you are not purposeful concerning the maintenance of your soul. Your soul contains your mind, emotions, and will. It is in your soul that you decide, feel, and think.
If you lack discipline where your soul is concerned, you make yourself an easy target for satan. Satan is a master manipulator. He knows how to rob people of their joy and peace. He knows how to distract you and possibly even derail you from your destiny. He wants you to live a life full of fear, confusion, doubt, and despair. He loves it when you delve into depression. You can be Born-Again and depressed. You can be Born-Again and live every day with NO PEACE in your heart. Why? Becuase you lack discipline where your soul is concerned. As a believer, you must maintain a proper disposition in your soul. This is how you make the most of every day, making the impact you were born to make.
2. You won’t ENTER INTO God’s rest unless you do so on purpose.
You will not simply wake up one day and find yourself completely free of worry, stress, and unnecessary strain. You won’t ‘just happen’ to find yourself totally relying on God and not your ability. No, if you are going to enjoy divine rest, you will have to do so on purpose, knowing that it is available by God’s grace and you lay hold of it with your faith.
Stop being passive. God is not going to force you to be blessed. God will not impose His best upon your life. God wants you to enter into and enjoy His rest, but He is looking for YOU to submit to the process. Success in life, which can come when you enter into God’s rest, will not require more trying. Divine success requires more dying. Die to self and enter into God’s rest. Once you have God’s peace and rest in your soul, you are in a position to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, to embrace God’s grace to do what you could never do without Him and to leave a mark in this world that will not easily be erased.
3. You won’t REMAIN IN God’s rest unless you do so on purpose.
Once you have made an effort to lay hold of the divine rest the Father has made available to you, then you must also make an effort to remain there. If you are not careful, both satan and your old nature will get you out of God’s rest. Let me address both:
a) Satan will do his best to keep you outside of God’s rest. Make no mistake, we do have an adversary, and he is not happy if you are happy. The enemy and his minions will do all they can to get you OUT of God’s rest and INTO fear, doubt, unbelief, worry, stress, struggle, and strain. So once you are IN God’s rest, you have to strive to remain there. When negative thoughts come, take control of them quickly and remind yourself of who you are in Christ, of the blessing the Father wants you to richly enjoy, and of the rest that you have been enjoying. Once you have tasted this rest, you will never want to be without it!
b) Your mind must be renewed. While satan will do his best to get you OUT of God’s rest, the reality is that everything is not satan. If your mind is not renewed to think God’s way, then your un-renewed mind can be as damaging as satan himself. This is why the Bible urges us to be deprogrammed and then reprogrammed to think the way God thinks. Once your mind is renewed and your heart is conditioned to experience and expect divine rest, it will be much harder for satan to get in, and more importantly, you won’t be defeating yourself with your old thoughts.
4. Work on NOT working.
The writer of Hebrews teaches us to labor, to work hard, on NOT working. What this means is that we must NOT rely on our strength. Human ability and effort are not enough to do what God has called us to do. If we focus too much on our own ability when God is calling us into His destiny (which will require HIM), we may wind up making the same mistake the people in the text made. God said the land was theirs. God said He was GIVING IT to them. God said He made a promise to their forefathers to give them that land. So God’s grace was obviously ON THEM to take possession of the land. But since they looked at themselves and their ability instead of God and His ability, they wound up putting a “NO” where God had already put a “YES!” Millions of people died in the wilderness and missed out on God’s best becuase they failed to enter into God’s rest. Please don’t make the same mistake.
I know that what I am teaching can be challenging. It is difficult because many Christians are much more apt to rely on themselves than on God. But you must make every effort to rely on God, to enter into His rest, and to resist every urge to stress out over things you should be trusting God for.
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for teaching me about grace-based success. I also thank You for making it clear that Your divine rest is available.
Before coming to You, I grew up learning that I needed to be independent. I was taught to rely on myself. I developed over the years to the point where I felt proud that I could do things on my own. Then I was Born-Again, and Your Word taught me another way. Your Word has taught me to rely on You totally.
Your Word is teaching me that You already planned for my existence, prepared for my arrival, set up everything I need for success in this world, and You did all of this simply because You love me.
Your grace is amazing, and You are now teaching me to access Your grace with my faith. You don’t want me to live my life relying on me, my ability, or my strength. You know that if I live that way, it will lead to a life of stress, struggle and strain. You offer me a better way. You offer me Your REST by Your grace.
So, Father, my work is now focused on NOT working (with my ability alone). I make every effort to enter into Your rest, and once I am there, I remain there by faith. I resist every temptation to fall back into fear, doubt, worry, unbelief, stress, struggle, and strife. I submit unto You, I resist satan, and he flees from me.
I think the way You think, rest the way You rest, and enjoy the life that Christ Jesus died to give me. Living this way, I know GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
