IFCA Article: How Busyness Affects Restfulness_v2

Comparing a Modern Ministry Cadence to that Exhibited by Christ

Salutation

Dear Exhausted Pastor,

Your diligence in ministry is apparent. You keep yourself constantly engaged in the work. You are both faithful and fruitful, you have striven to be a model to the many lethargic and lukewarm ones. But brother, after many years are you finding yourself near the breaking point? It is showing in your gray hairs and tired eyes, we can see the weariness written on your face; we can hear it in your words. You seem tired.

Invitation to Assess

Beloved, could we possibly be ready to be reasoned with? Would we desire to be restored to a new season of fruitfulness? Does freedom from fear, anxiety and the endless race have any appeal? Perhaps, this short letter may point the way to a small change in perspective and a large blessing of comfort not only for us but those we serve.

Christ’s Example

Fellow Worker, the Spirit is always pointing us to our Savior Jesus shall we not look? Let us examine His ministry... is there not a difference between His cadence and ours? He was calm, controlled yet constantly engaged, always doing the will of His Father. Although He was tired and had to deal with both the ignorant and the antagonistic (as do we), yet He never flagged or faded in fulfilling His ministry. He is still as faithful as He has always been. As the Gospel accounts testify, it is difficult to find a record of Christ being either anxious or fearful. And yet do we not find ourselves giving in to the temptation to our worries? Dear one, hear this gentle rebuke from one who is also rebuking himself… Jesus just doesn’t look as ‘busy’ as we do.

Questions to Ask

These question keep coming to mind: Why is our mind so ‘busy’? Do fears, worry or control, contribute to that ‘busy’ mindset? Is our ‘busy’ mind the mind of Christ and would His Father (and ours) have that for us, or would He rather bless Romans 8:6 “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,”

Oh Friend! In the midst of so many obligations have we forgotten to focus our minds on our Beloved, His wealth of glory and the power at His immediate disposal Colossians 3:1–2 “Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” Have we instead believed Him to be stingy, fickle, unyielding - that hardly sounds like Christ’s prayers to His Father John 17:26 “and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.””

Why have our prayers faded to rote formulas instead of active expressions of adoration and dependence? Where is the leading of the Spirit? How often have we taught of Christ doing His Father’s will, of His great joy in communion with His Father, being led by the Spirit, and yet perhaps those have been absent in us for some time. Rather than Mary, enjoying the good part, resting at Christ’s feet we seem at this time to be modeling Martha - busy and concerned with so many things - which are good - but certainly not the best Luke 10:39–42 “And she (Martha) had a sister called Mary, who was also seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the preparations alone? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”” What awesome worship could we have enjoyed? What protection? If we had learned Mary’s mode of rest and well prioritized sacrifices before her Master would not that be notable? Matthew 26:13 ““Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.””

We cannot forget the words of Solomon, can we? Ecclesiastes 10:10 “If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of giving success.” When was the last time we stepped away from the work to apply the honed the edge of our only weapon to ourself. Rather than letting it pierce our hearts, it would seem a callous is forming. Hardened after resisting the command to rest. What was the excuse we gave into? Was it because there was a need truly or did we busy ourselves to inflate our own sense of self importance and gratify our own pride. Have we forgotten to apply these truths we urged others to in our counseling and teaching and preaching. It would seem that we neglected one member of the body, ourselves.

Did Christ ever do so? Is this not why you are so weary?

Here is relief in truths that we know, that we have taught, that we indeed belief and confess.

Reminded of Both Doctrines and Promises

Brother, is there not rest in the sovereignty of our good God - that He will fulfill His great plans completely for His glory alone? Are you not comforted at the endlessly expansive nature of Christ’s kingdom? That not one promise of His has ever failed. That God left His glory above, to take on a slave’s status and submit to every humiliation to draw the very worst of sinners near because of His great love for us Galatians 2:20 ““I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Is there not joy in the knowledge that the work begun in us will be not be abandoned, no not ever. Philippians 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Take heart Comrade! We are dearly loved, exorbitantly supplied, and have been given the exceeding honor of ministering to objects of grace by our loving heavenly Father Romans 8:32 “He who indeed did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” Was not the Son exalted after humiliation? Philippians 2:9–10 “Therefore, God also highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,” Are not promises of rewards still valid, trustworthy? 2 Timothy 4:8 “In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” Our hearts, prompted by the Holy Spirit know these things to be true.

1). Sabbath

Perhaps in our haste to remedy our faults we proceeded too quickly from the promises of the Lord to where we should have started. Shall we not return to the beginning of Creation when all was new and full of life, as we were once upon a time. When Creation had first turned the page on the first week of the calendar we see our Lord of the Sabbath enjoying, rather delighting, in His creation. Why should we elevate ourselves over our Maker? He granted, commanded and demonstrated rest before all of His works. Such a silly thing that we should be ‘busy’ during the gift of our day of rest. Isn’t the rest sweet when it returns to full focuses on the Lord; isn’t that true rest and trust in Him blessed by Him Isaiah 58:13–14 ““If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot From doing your own desire on My holy day, And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of Yahweh honorable, And honor it, by not doing your own ways, By not finding your own desire And speaking your own word, Then you will take delight in Yahweh, And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father, For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”” The Lord of the Sabbath has supplied our tired minds the means to greater effectiveness, greater joy, indeed even delight by giving us to focus on Him and not the mundane Mark 2:27–28 “And Jesus was saying to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. “Consequently the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.””

2). Spirit

What else was shown in the beginning? Let us look to the inauguration of Christ’s public ministry. Is it not notable that the Holy Spirit so conspicuously led the Son as prophesied in Isaiah 11:2 The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and might, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh. That same Spirit led Him in and through both temptation and trial in Luke 3:21–22; Luke 4:1; Luke 4:14, bade Him to proclaim the good news to the lost Luke 4:18 ““The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed,” and bids us to continue the work in His power.

Has the Spirit who Counsels, Comforts and Illuminates us actually given us leave to override His leading. Did our Christ ever do that? If He had, surely our Sacrificial Lamb would no longer be spotless. Truly, He submitted to the leading of the Spirit in the beginning, and continued in perfect sensitivity to Him and was empowered by Him. It would seem that our distracted and ‘busy’ mind may have become deafened to the Scriptures that we have so vigorously preached. It would seem that we have left off wisdom and understanding and the fear of the Lord. Fellow Slave! Let us return to the vigorous preaching of the Spirit’s Word to ourselves first before next Sunday.

3). Supplication

Lastly, let us see Christ’s marked devotion to prayer. He who never flagged in His communion with His Father either before, during or after His earthly ministry prays. Oh how He prays! He is praying for us now! What a thrill and encouragement and a stunning model that we often reject as our mold. With our model as our Great Intercessor Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Ha! How often have we trusted in our own laughably weak strength! How often have we with our ‘busyness’ cried down the benevolence of the Bread of life? Did Jesus really mean these words? John 15:5 ““I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Why should we be afraid to entrust every moment of every day to Him. He is the One who made not only the grain, but who also blessed and broke the loaves and supplied innumerable image bearers with a both a sign and a testimony of His goodness. He, our King is the Bread of Life who was provided to sustain, He is not a ‘just- in-case’ emergency meal ready to eat (MRE). He is so much more. Why do we kid ourselves? Dependency is what Christ modeled and this is truly we must be conformed to the mold. The silliness of this question defies its answer… Will the Master fail to feed the slave? Will the slave lack for anything to do the work commanded? Certainly not! Since that is so why have we become anxious, fearful, impatient, confused? This is not modeled by Christ, therefore we ought to turn from the temptation to wrangle control away from Him.

Rather, we are to persistently prayer in our poverty Matthew 7:7–8 ““Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” For with what could God be more greatly glorified than to have our faith exercised by waiting on His providence and eagerly anticipating joyful praise for yet another masterpiece that assuredly astonishes us every time He answers.

Let us further add gratitude as those who have been trained to wait for His will to come. Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

The Final Ultimate Expression of Christ’s Rest in His Father

Undoubtedly brother, we know these things and maybe there was a murmur of hope in our tired hearts. This letter was never intended to provoke shame but to simply remind and encourage us after Christ’s cadence of ministry. Indeed these pages were written to encourage us to set aside the distractions and focus on the Kingdom of God. To that end let us be reminded how Christ went calmly to the cross after praying and being strengthened by the angel sent by His Father. Luke 22:41–43 “And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me, yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.”

Parting Well Wishes

My fellow worker in the truth! I commend to you the words of another letter. Another encouragement to the things known, agreed with, taught and trusted. These are the word of Jesus to the Church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:2–5 “‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot bear with those who are evil, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, you also have not grown weary. ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first. But if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent.”

Let us now agree with the Spirit of our Savior, and turn from the temptations to fear, anxiety, and the busyness of a ministry apart from Him and do that which we did at the beginning. Let us rest in Him. Let us be led by His Spirit. Let us pray.

Who knows, perhaps today is the day when the 'busy’ mind will rest, a starving heart will find hope, and the Church will be renewed in their understanding of Christ’s cadence of ministry because they will see Him in us?