BY GREG CRUM
“For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. Be ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.” Isaiah 30:15-16
This passage in Isaiah speaks of a rest, a rest from our own works, and instead, a trusting in God to do what He said He would do. For many Christians there is an abiding temptation to solve this life’s problems on our own, through the resources we can procure from man’s invention. It’s a contradictory little dance we dance because we strive, knowing we must “work” our faith to receive from the Lord His promises in this life. But in reality, some of the times our “works of faith” actually mask a distrust of God.
What?
Think about it. Have you ever attempted to receive something from the Lord, then faced opposition and wondered, “What am I not doing? What else do I need to do to receive this promise from God?”
Brothers and sisters, most often the answer to those questions is, “You’re doing too much already.”
Your “trust” in God has turned into your own works and you need to back off and just allow God to do in His time what He said He would do.
Too many times I’ve seen Christians struggling to receive from the Lord the “exceeding great and precious promises.” (2 Peter 1:4)
He has provided for us during this life. Whether it be peace of mind, health in body or provision for family, they struggle to have in full measure what Jesus sacrificed so much for. When this struggle gets “real” a lot of believers become perplexed and discouraged because they can’t figure out what is keeping them from receiving. They just can’t figure out “what else” they need to do. A lot of times the reality is they are already doing too much. They’ve prayed and asked God for His solution, but then they start “adding onto Jesus” when they don’t immediately see the results they desire. I can understand this, though. We live in a fast-food society and when the order doesn’t come as soon as we anticipate, we become disgruntled fairly quickly.
I heard a wise man once say that how we do life is how we’ll do faith and this is very much the case in this instance.
Take receiving the promise of health for our bodies for example. We take I Peter 2:24 as literal (and that’s great) and seek God for a cure for what is ailing us. We pray or have someone we perceive with greater faith pray for us that we would become well. Wise move, a Biblical choice for sure, but unfortunately when the cure doesn’t come in 30 minutes or less, we are looking for a refund, give up on that cure, and begin to seek another!
Is this the pattern we see successful in the Word? Do we ever read of Jesus telling someone who came to him for healing, “Hey, if this doesn’t work in a day or so, you’d better go to Dr. Simeon and try something else”? Nope, of course not! Even medical doctors of our day let a “cure” run its course before they begin another type of treatment, but here we can’t wait even a month before we move on to another source.
Friends, there is no rest in jumping from “cure” to “cure.” There is no trust in God in thinking, “What else do I need to do?” When we are believing God for an answer to prayer for any promise in His Word, we need to be more confident in His processes and patient for His outcomes. Did you apply a Biblical “cure” (pray, confess His Word, etc.)? Great, then just be good with that and allow God to do the rest! He will never fail to come through on fulfilling His Word if we will get out of His way and allow Him to be all we need to do!
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.