STAYING IN REST

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA: After over a hundred years of missionary work in Tunisia the church is finally beginning to grow even as Islam is experiencing new vitality. The church is not recognized by the government and is not allowed to own property. Leadership is gradually developing as churches meet for worship and discipleship with most believers having less than 15 years in the faith. Pray for the church and leaders in Tunisia.

 Red background represents blood shed in defending Tunisian independence. White circle represents peace, with symbols of crescent and star as a reminder of belonging to Islamic Ottoman Empire.

 


Are you aware of what God is working on in your life at this time in your spiritual walk? This awareness helps us to work with God and helps us to notice the resources and lessons that He places in our path toward His goal of making us like Jesus His Son. In my life at this time God is working on patience and rest in Jesus. So I was very much encouraged by the devotional in My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers on August 20th. It stated in very clear words the process that I was learning from God in the area of walking in rest. Here is the devotional:

Christ-Awareness

By Oswald Chambers

…and I will give you rest. —Matthew 11:28

Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once, asking Him to re-establish your rest. Never allow anything to remain in your life that is causing the unrest. Think of every detail of your life that is causing the disintegration as something to fight against, not as something you should allow to remain. Ask the Lord to put awareness of Himself in you, and your self-awareness will disappear. Then He will be your all in all. Beware of allowing your self-awareness to continue, because slowly but surely it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is satanic. Don’t allow yourself to say, “Well, they have just misunderstood me, and this is something over which they should be apologizing to me; I’m sure I must have this cleared up with them already.” Learn to leave others alone regarding this. Simply ask the Lord to give you Christ-awareness, and He will steady you until your completeness in Him is absolute.

A complete life is the life of a child. When I am fully conscious of my awareness of Christ, there is something wrong. It is the sick person who really knows what health is. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he is the will of God. When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, “Lord, what is your will?” A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer.

If we try to overcome our self-awareness through any of our own commonsense methods, we will only serve to strengthen our self-awareness tremendously. Jesus says, “Come to Me…and I will give you rest,” that is, Christ-awareness will take the place of self-awareness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest— the rest of the completion of activity in our lives that is never aware of itself.

 

 I find the insight about rest in this devotional particularly helpful and confirming in what I have been learning in my personal walk with God.

I encourage you to ask God to make you aware of what He is doing in your life and then to work with Him to be conformed to the image of Jesus in you. 

Good Articles This Week:
The Unreliability of Islam as seen in the Hajj
Jesus Loves Toronto Chinatown. Pray for this event this week.