“There is no striving, there is no striving in His love…”
There’s this amazing song I’ve been playing on repeat over here cause I need the words to rewire my thinking and my living so badly.
There is no striving in His love. There is no striving in His love.
Which means there is rest in His love. There is REST.
Rest is the way of the Kingdom.
It’s this weird paradox isn’t it? (In NOT striving we actually get farther, “do” more, find more “success.”
In the Kingdom of God it’s rest and not striving but everything and everyone else says work harder, push harder, hustle stronger.
Rest. Enjoy. Lighten up.
In the Kingdom we GET to live from rest.
I know that’s certainly not my default.
Maybe our default should be to rest and dwell in His love, to work hard to ENJOY, then to work hard when you know what He’s said to work on, to put in good effort when you hear what He wants you to dig into.
Cause we’re not self-sufficient anymore (hello that’s life changing!). We’re not self-sufficient. We’re God-dependent. In the most beautiful, freeing, relieving way because He is SUCH a good Dad and He has ALL the resources and connections and provision you need.
In His love there’s no striving, no working for love, no busting your butt to make your life purpose happen. There’s rest. There’s joy. There’s provision. There’s abundant resources.
Matthew 11v30 says, “My yoke is EASY and my burden is LIGHT.”
You don’t need convincing that rest is the way of the Kingdom.
“Be still in His presence, wait patiently for HIM to act.” (Psalm 37v7)
“Be STILL and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46v10)
It’s an upside down paradigm isn’t it?
The world says work harder! Try harder! YOU create your best life.
God says, rest. Abide. Settle into this rest. Take a deep breath.
Putting Judah to bed I sing him a song or two, sometimes real songs, sometimes spontaneous songs of what I’m praying and what I feel like God is doing. Lately it’s been so much “We rest in your love, we tuck into and settle into your love. We wanna dwell here in your love.”
That’s our spot, isn’t it?
Resting safe inside His big, capable, always loving, best intentioned arms. That’s where I wanna be.
So running after your dreams? Absolutely. But it’s a divine, beautiful partnering with God. Afterall, He has the best resources, all the connections, amazing new ideas, perfect strategies.
Working hard? Absolutely! Proverbs is filled with “don’t be lazy” but there’s this beautiful dance of working and resting. Working and doing what God is saying and asking, but resting and allowing Him to move ahead of you and pave the way.
Serving. Ya, sure. But never because you’re trying to earn His love. Serving is a beautiful overflow, a natural response to your being SO LOVED by God. We serve FROM love. If you stop serving and feel like God is no longer pleased with you, you’ve missed the point. Serving is good, but relationship with Him, trust in Him, being with Him is always meant to be the first thing. And it’s easier that way too, isn’t it?
Remember John 15? “He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit.” (John 15v5) It’s a promise. Do this, then this will happen. Can you picture a branch tirelessly laboring for fruit? It’s the natural outcome of abiding.
Practically speaking, when the to do list is long, when you feel the pressure of so much work, when life seems overwhelming, maybe it’s time to step back and get his perspective. Maybe it’s time to step into rest. (It’s hard, I know!!)
Or when you want to go after your dreams, maybe it’s not stepping into work and hustle, but stepping into God’s presence to partner with Him to get you there.
The other day I was overwhelmed and stressed out and it was making me panicky and tense and miserable. I felt like the Lord stopped me in my tracks and whispered, “Just rest. Enjoy.”
Woah. Deep breath. I couldn’t help but pause and take a deep breath.
Enjoy.
Suddenly I began to think of things I wanted to do to rest and enjoy. Some of the things on my “list” stayed the same.
-Spend time with Jesus
-Work out
-Grocery shopping
But instead of feeling stressed about it, my mindset shifted and I was able to come at those things out of joy instead of task and pressure. Instead of feeling “you better spend time with Jesus!” I felt “I would so love to spend time with Jesus.” Instead of feeling the pressure of “read x amount of scripture” I turned on some worship music and just listened and worshipped and was REFRESHED BEYOND MEASURE. I dove into a bit of Ephesians, because I wanted to. And I wanted to remember His love. It was a treasure in my day, and it fueled me.
Maybe it’s time you need to start living from rest.
Or let me rephrase that.
Maybe it’s time you want to start living from rest. Time to start dwelling in, resting in, tucking into God’s presence and believing His deep, never failing, no conditions love for you.
Living from rest is the best thing ever! To get to wake up and say how will I ENJOY today? How will I enjoy God and life and my cutie little amazing family?
I’m telling you, you will find so much life. The tasky things don’t go away and there’s still work to do, but coming at it being refueled and doing it with God, doing it from a place of rest is WAY more fun and re-energizing.
Maybe it’s time to stop stressing about what’s next… the job, the provision, the next step, how you can serve more, give more, do, do, do.
Maybe it’s time to R E S T and enjoy.
LET IT SINK IN:
I know, you have a million things to do and you feel like you don’t have the time to do this next part. But maybe you need to take the next few minutes and do this because you need to learn a new way to live. Not striving and working hard all the time, but resting and dwelling in His love. THIS WILL BE SO WORTH IT.
In fact, I pray right now that you would find deep refreshing and re-energizing and whatever you need for the time you take right now to let His words sink in.
Listen to this song and let the words wash over you. Imagine yourself resting in God’s arms. I know, it can feel weird. But He loves you. These are His words. This is the way He knows you will find the BEST life.
“There is no striving. There is no striving in His love. Freely you have given. Freely you have given to us. You have called us yours. You have called us daughters and sons. Cause this is who you are and this is what your love has done.”
Let these words wash over you.
“Be still in the presence of the Lord. Wait patiently for Him to act.” (Psalm 37v7)
Ask Him, are there areas I can stop striving? What are the areas I need to rest?
Are there any areas or things I need to let go or stop doing so I can dwell in Your rest and love and partner with You (God)?
Take a couple minutes to just rest in His love and His presence. Close your eyes, maybe open your hands as a posture to show you want to receive whatever He has for you. Picture God, just look in His face and remember, dwell on, rest in His love.
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