Rest

Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28

For the most part, I am a happy, energetic guy. These past few weeks, I have not been happy and energetic. Any time I am not enjoying life, I do an assessment of what is going on and figure out what I am doing differently.

How about you? Are you living victoriously?   I’m not asking you if everything is going good in your life. Life throws all kind of circumstances at us all. Sunday night, my wife fell and sprained both of her ankles. Of course she isn’t happy about it, but I have not seen that affect her attitude one bit. I have tried not to let it affect mine either.   When these moments hit, I learn very quickly just how much it is she does for my family and me! (Thanks baby . . . I love you!)

Now, John 10:10 sums up everything we need to know about Jesus as well as everything we need to know about our adversary, the devil. The devil has one purpose: “The thief comes but to steal, to kill, and destroy.” The primary thing he wants to steal is joy from a person who calls him or herself a Christian. If he can accomplish this, he has killed that person’s testimony, and destroyed any witness they may have. A person who has Christ in their life should live a life in sharp contrast to a person who does not.

This brings us to Jesus, He says “but I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” I have not had “abundant life” these past few weeks. Where did I go wrong? What happened? For me, I allowed the devil to change one little word to what I would consider my life verse. Let me explain.

I have been working on one thing lately with my relationship with God. I am striving to have Him constantly on my mind every moment of every day. This is incredibly difficult doing a job like teaching because so many other people are involved. However, that does not keep me from trying. I actually got pretty close on one particular day. But, for the most part, it is epic failure. On the majority of days, I don’t even come close. When the time to start teaching class begins and students begin to act like my math lesson is some sort of awful tasting medicine the doctor is forcing them to take, my thoughts completely leave God and I go into “work mode” or “teacher mode” for hours. As soon as I am alone again, I remember Him, I connect with Him, and I try to keep Him as long as I can.

Now, I have since 2007 made Colossians 3:23 my life verse. Whatever it is that I do, I work at it with all my heart as working for the Lord, not for men. Somehow, in the last few weeks, I changed the word with “heart” to “might” or “strength.” The difference is night and day. After teaching 6 straight non-stop hours on a Monday last week with all my might, I was ready to die. I was exhausted. During those 6 hours, I never once thought of God. I was doing my own thing.   I was working in a way He never asked me to work.

After realizing this, I prayed and asked Him to help me stay focused on Him. I have had some really long workdays since then. But now, every time I pause, I take just a few seconds to acknowledge Him, to ask for help, to guide my thoughts, my feet and my hands. It has been amazing. I have life again . . . abundant life. I go home with energy. I am looking forward to having more and more of Him and that very real sense that I am walking with Him.

There is no one like Him!

I was weary.

I was heavy laden.

I came to Him.

He gave me rest.

He will do the same for you.

Later

Adam