Stop Striving Start Abiding
Sister, you can stop.
You can rest. You can take a deep breath and cease striving.
You don’t need to prove yourself or defend yourself.
Jesus already proved everything for you on the cross when he defeated sin and death.
And Jesus is your defender.
This world is telling you- do more, make more, be the best X Y Z, keep up with everyone, influence everyone, build your own little kingdom, do everything. But JESUS is calling you to abide in him, to rest in him, to trust him. I promise you that the world will leave you parched, thirsty for more more more, but you will never be satisfied. And I, without a shadow of a doubt, promise you that abiding in, resting in, and trusting in Jesus will FULLY satisfy you and then some. (And I mean AND THEN SOME!!!!)
So, if you needed permission today to stop striving and chasing the things of this world. Here it is.
If you needed the reminder today that Jesus isn’t asking you to do more for Him, but to rest and be with Him. From that space, alone, He will lead you to the works He has prepared for you.
If you’re feeling the suffocation of these little apps telling you there’s “more” for you out there apart from Jesus, they’re lying.
The world won’t satisfy, only Jesus will.
So, take a slow deep breath right now.
Breathe in: I can rest in what Jesus did for me on the cross.
Breathe out: Lord help me to cease striving and chasing the things of the this world.
Lord, show us where we are striving but blinded by our sin to see it.
Show us where we are building our own little kingdoms but blinded by our pride to admit it.
Lord, give us the strength by Your Spirit to swim upstream in this culture of hurry, worry, striving.
In you, God, there is rest, in you there is fullness of joy.
Lord, we believe it.
Would we live out of that place of abiding and rest.
Let this permeate our hearts deeply, God.
Amen.
Jesus: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
