Resting in the LORD

Introduction

How many of you got a nap this afternoon? I am jealous. With time change this morning I should have gotten extra sleep, yet at 4:30 am I was wide awake. So needless to say after the morning service and lunch I layed down to take a nap, and that was my mistake. I tried to sleep, therefore No sleep happened. My brain would just not stop. That’s how it normally is with me, I take my best naps with a remote in my hand. Something about watching those brittish people baking cakes puts me out everytime.

Some of us have a hard time resting. To stop and take a real break feels like cheating. When we’re at work we daydream of time off, but soon as we are off we think of all the things we need to do. (or is that just me?) God has built us for work and rest. While working is good, we aren’t machines.

Difficult times Reveal the truth

Isaiah 40:27 NKJV

Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the Lord, And my just claim is passed over by my God”?

They felt unseen

They felt abandoned

They Wanted God to help, but the help hadn’t come

When difficulty arises we often feel this same way.

God why is my loved one sick?

God why is my job so hard?

God why is life so unfair?

I don’t think we ask these questions because we’re angry with God, rather we are lementing our situation. We expect God to save us, and when he doesn’t immideatly make our lives perfect we get disapointed. We complain, and wonder why. Did God forget us?

God had made a covenant with the nation of Israel, He would bless them, so long as they obeyed. But if they abandoned the LORD then the curses would follow. That doesn’t mean that all of our difficulties are directly our own fault, but we do live in a fallen world. A world that has been marred by sin. God’s perfect design was good, but our sin affected the world itself.

Romans 8:18–21 NKJV

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

In Difficult times, God is Still Working

Isaiah 40:28 NKJV

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

Verse 28 starts off asking these two questions, Have you not known? Have you not heard? In many cases people honestly haven’t heard and don’t know about God, But that’s not the case here. Isaiah is talking to the Jews, who should know God. The questions come accross rather sharp and possibly condisending. Yet sometimes we need sharp words to wake us up and remind us of the truth. Its easy for us to know something yet not remember it in the moment. As we go through our difficult times we end up like Peter standing on the waves, looking at the storm instead of the savior.

So what should we remember in the storms.

The LORD is the everlasting God

God hasn’t been dethroned, He isn’t elected, HE is just as much God today as he always has been. He is eternal, Aplha and Omega, Beginning and the End.

He is the Creator of all

God as creator is also greater than his creation. He speaks stars into being, tells the oceans where to stop, and quiets the storm. God is omnipotent. There is nothing outside his domain, even the demons who fight against us shudder at his power.

He Does Not Faint, nor Grow Weary

We get tired. Our power is limited, we need to rest. God doesn’t! He is stronger than an atom bomb and lasts longer than the energizer bunny. God doesn’t need naps, nor coffee breaks. He never overexerts himself. He never throws his back out. His power, glory, and majestiy don’t deminish over time.

His Understanding is Unsearchable

This phrase I’ll be honest seemed odd at first glance, But after reading through some other translations it seems to be reffering to The vastness of God’s knowledge. God is Omniciant, or All knowing. Imagine trying to search for aquote in a book in a library. No computer to help you search, no googling the answer. Not even the Dewy Decimal system. You just remember the sentance, but can’t quite remember who said it, but you do know it shoud be in a history book, which at least elliminates the Kids fantasy section. jk. Anyway you just start opening a book, looking for the quote. Then the next, and the next. It’d probably take you a few months to find that quote in just a small library. Now imagine that in the Library of Congress, Or even the internet again no serch engines, just website to website. You’d be there forever and might not find it.

God’s understanding isn’t just huge, its also higher than us on a cosmic scale.

Isaiah 55:8–9 NKJV

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Take our library situation again, but now imagine having to find that quote in books wrote in a different language. Russian for instance. Now on top of the already daunting task of finding the information, you also have to be able to translate the books in order to even read them.

That is like us trying to “search” God’s understanding. Impossible.

On the bright side, God isn’t trying to hide his ways from us, rather he has chosen to reveal himself to us through his word. That doesn’t mean we always understand what he reveals, but It does mean He cares for us. and Isn’t oblivious to our needs and might just be doing things that we don’t understand.

Romans 8:28 NKJV

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

In Difficult times we get burned out

Isaiah 40:30 NKJV

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall,

Run Forrest Run. I love that part of the movie where Forrest Gump decides to start running cross country, He runs and runs for over three years and the people who started following him as if he is this insightful leader were surprised by his reason for being done. “I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll go home now.”

While I am not an old man, I can honestly say that I can’t run like I used to in high school. Back then we did 5 mile races in 21 minutes. Now i would probably die if i tried to run 5 miles. But even 18 years ago at my peak, I would be weary after one of those races.

None of us can endure on our own indefeinatly in this Christian life. Burning the candle at both ends might brighten up the room, but only temporarily. When the difficulties hit and we get stretched, where is our help going to come from?

Psalm 20:7 NKJV

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

As mentioned before God did not build us to run on empty. He built us to rest, that’s why he commanded the Sabbath.

Exodus 20:8–11 NKJV

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

In Difficult Times God lifts us up

Isaiah 40:29 NKJV

He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.

Isaiah 40:31 ESV

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

You know the difference between a candle and an oil lamp? a candle’s wick burns away over time, but the lamp’s wick is a conduit pulling the oil up to burn. The oil burns away, but the wick remains. This is how God has designed us to function. He provides the power, out of his limitless strength for us to live Holy. For us to Function. That’s why Jesus talks about in John 15

John 15:1–5 ESV

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

We were never ment to do this on our own, but too often we try anyway. Sometimes out of pride, we think “I got this” only to in fact not got this. Or more often then not, we’ve stopped abiding. Oftentimes without even realizing it, we have disconnected from The Vine and are trying to produce fruit, in turn that effort kills us. We dry out, grow weary and fail.

God has promised that those of us who “wait on the LORD” he shall renew our strength.

He shall mount us up with wings like eagles.

Then we shall not grow weary or faint.

Conclusion

Fan and the kite

Eagles fly not through their own wings flapping, rather they soar on the lift produced by thier wings. The air lifts them up, and they don’t have to exhort effort onto it.

Our job is to trust in the LORD. To spend time with him abiding in him and letting him do the work through us. Some of us, myself included have to, stop trying and start abiding.

Why are we struggling in life, Sometimes its to keep us humble. Sometimes its to teach us to turn to him .

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 NKJV

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.