Jesus Gives Rest, The Church Gives Work

Following Jesus Christ is supposed to be restful.

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.””

So, why does church life seem so busy and burdensome at times?

Who Made You Heavy Laden?

Sometimes it is our churches themselves that pile it on.  Programs are overdone and still find ways to get bigger every time around.  Structures are in out-of-control growth mode.  Relationships come with heavy ongoing expectations and can’t seem to be just normal.  Event after event requires commitment after commitment.  New emphases or themes arrive with each new year requiring refocus or retooling.

Sometimes it is the church’s fault, and we want to escape, or run and hide for a while.  But sometimes our heavy load is our own fault.  We sign up for too many things.  We find our significance in excessive spiritual activity.  We expect too much from ourselves, and then often we are the ones who end up overburdening others with our expectations of what makes for spiritual spirituality.

Shift the Burden, Regardless

If the burden is imposed on us, how might we rest in the midst of the burden?  First of all, we must trust in the Lord’s sovereignty in our situation and not panic.  Next, we need to remind ourselves that the “why” of what we are doing is Jesus.  Then, in repeated times of prayer we must let Him carry the burden for us.  Finally, we should seek to help our church leaders see what is going on and make adjustments for the sake of our church body.

If the burden is self-imposed, how might we rest by lightening our burden?  We should begin by recognizing that it is our doing and not seek to blame others for our over commitment.  Then, we should rethink our personal commitments and what we can give that will most effectively advance the Gospel mission.  Once we have settled in prayer where we need to go, we can responsibly exit some of our commitments.  Finally, we should think and pray through who else we might have drawn into our pseudo-spiritual frenzy, and help them through the same process.

Our Lord Jesus Christ will save us from ourselves and from our religious busyness.  This is yet one more application of Hebrews 4, especially verse 10,  “for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”

We Don’t Always Have To Pray About It

How often do we hear people say “I will need to pray about it” and we wonder why this is really necessary?

Certainly, praying about a decision is spiritually wise and biblically correct.  But, some prayers should be relatively brief and a decision made quickly.

Here are three common mistakes in thinking we need to pray over every decision, with three suggested adjustments.

Avoiding a Decision or a Person

Sometimes people already know their answer.  And often it is the right answer.  But they say they will pray about it to avoid being honest and direct.  Perhaps they are afraid to say “no,” especially if pressured to pray about it, or to say “yes” too suddenly. 

In such cases it is not likely that serious prayer will be performed.  Instead, we should be clear with people from the beginning with a “yes” or “no” and a simple reason why.  This may lead to a deeper conversation and even possibly truly thoughtful prayer about the decision.

Mistaking it for Humility

How can anyone disagree with prayer?!  It is the Christian thing to do to submit to God in prayer.  But I wonder if this type of humble prayer is taking place as often as it is reported.  There are many things in life that we just decide without conscious prayer for direction; and this is fine.

Humble reliance upon the indwelling Spirit of God should allow Christians to make many decisions with confidence, and not use prayer as a means of delay.  There is no need to feign humility and spirituality if it is not needed, or you already know the answer God wants you give.

Denying the Obvious Will of God

Many times, in fact very many times, when people say they need to pray about it they already know God’s will in the matter.  This is tragic.  Because, if God has been clear in His Word, clear in our mind and heart, clear in godly counsel and clear by life’s circumstances, then we should get on with it!  

It is an insult to God and foolish to pray against His will, like Gideon in Judges 6.  Instead, we should pray with great thanksgiving that He has equipped us for the task at hand, and led us so faithfully!

Different Decisions and Degrees of Prayers

Certainly, there are many decisions that require significant amounts of prayer and intense searching before the Lord.  If this is required we should definitely give ourselves to the Lord in prayer.   It takes spiritual wisdom to know the outcomes of an upcoming decision and how to match it to the degree of prayer necessary.

We should challenge others and ourselves when we say “I need to pray about it.”  Do we really need to do so, and for how long?  If we are abiding in Christ, walking in the Spirit, and enjoying our relationship with our Father, then we will find that many decisions can be made without delay and with spiritual confidence and humility.

Encouragement Is Underrated

Leaders are lonely. Some leaders are more lonely than others. This is more true in more isolated and unreached areas of the world.

Travel to Encourage a Fellow Leader

As soon as you show up, encouragement begins. Simply start by spending time together. Talk about family, life and the struggles and joys that are attached. Take time to talk about deeper matters of the heart and share together about your walks with God in Christ.

See their places of ministry. Watch what is going well with excitement. Observe what is not going well and share in the concerns and humbly offer your ideas. Ask good questions. Stay long enough to discuss many times over each of your visions and dreams for ministry.

Gather your friend’s colleagues together for an informal leadership forum. Learn from one another. Talk leaders to leaders about what God might have next for everyone and pray.

In doing these things we experience more of what our Apostle Paul was discussing in Romans 1:9–12 ESV “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.”

Encouragement Changes Everything

“Is that all you did?!” People might say this to you. Or, you might fear people are thinking it, or you are thinking it yourself.

But you did more than show you care. Encouragement is severely underrated. This is because of our overly pragmatic approach to ministry, and our out-of-control desire for immediate and reportable results. In reality, planning for a profound future took place.

Encouragement changes everything because it changes perspective and builds long term relationships. The lives of leaders and the future of ministries change simply by spending time together thinking bigger and thinking about it out loud together. There is no need to worry about action, because leaders by definition will take action.

The Apostle’s letter to the Romans ends like it began with anticipation of the blessings that come from mutual encouragement. Romans 15:29 ESV “I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.”

Leadership can be a lonely calling. So, just get on a plane and get over there and see how the Lord Christ brings about the fullness of His blessing to them and to you!

If Prayer Works There, It Must Work Here Too

If you want to change your prayer life go on a mission to a difficult location.

Even within one week you will learn to pray in new ways for new things, and see God at work as you have never seen Him before.

Different Lives, Different Prayers

Our teams from our church prayed for safety from militants, healing for suffering children and freedom from demons and their influence.  And we do have our stories of favor with powerful leaders, healings that led to salvation and spiritual warfare that brought glory to Christ and the Gospel.

It was very important for us to learn, that although those seemed like exotic prayer requests to us at the time, they are normal prayer requests for most Christians in the world today.

But, we also prayed for more normal things to us like unity on the team, success with the Gospel, general health and safety, Spirit inspired words to speak, stamina, love for all kinds of people, and the list goes on.  These are just as spiritual of requests.

God answered what we considered unusual requests in ways that changed our thinking.  But He answered our more usual requests so immediately and palpably that we were just as amazed!

We would return home from these mission campaigns having learned that prayer works, that our faith works.  Actually, we learned that God is mightily at work in the world to bring glory to His Name through Jesus Christ and crush His opponents in the spiritual realm!

Now, Different Prayers in Our Lives

We learned that not only does prayer really work, but how to pray more according to His will.  Our Lord Jesus taught us about His Mission, our role in it and the place of prayer.

John 14:12–14 ESV ““Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

To pray in Jesus’ name means that we are praying for His honor and glory to increase, for the Gospel to advance, and with confident trust in Him for the details.

We started to pray very differently, more fervently and focused. We learned to pray for more important things in people’s lives and with greater confidence and simplicity.   Prayer meetings became lively encouraging and visionary experiences, not the dull and poorly attended ones you might avoid.

1 John 5:14–15 ESV “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”

Prayer worked there, so it must work here as well.  It is not that God didn’t answer our prayers before we went.  But, we became more observant, concerned for the answers that would advance the name of Jesus Christ.  We became more faithful, sensitive to the true needs, especially the spiritual needs, of those around us.  We became more faith-filled, praying like we meant it and that we believed God cared.

Even more importantly we learned how best to be praying four our national partners and our missionaries.  Many have returned often; and some have signed up for a new life and Gospel mission in a different part of the world!

Good Guys Always Win

In American folklore the good guys always win.  Although this makes for great books and movies, we know that it doesn’t always work out this way in real life.

Maybe Not Today

However, often times it does!  As the book of Proverbs teaches, God very frequently demonstrates His moral order in our lives and our lifetime.  And yet, we also learn from the Bible that the story is not over.  There are many scenes still to be played out in history.

God has fixed a day for His final justice to be perfectly established and His full blessings to be distributed with honor and glory.  Ultimately, the bad guys will get what they deserve, and the good guys will win.

Romans 2:6–8 ESV “He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”

Ready for Tomorrow

We must also understand that “seeking for glory and honor and immortality” in the above passage from the book of Romans is not built upon a trust in one’s own “well-doing” and power behind it.  Much of Romans is dedicated to debunking this false sense of security and self-righteousness, especially when people trust in their religion to save them.

The seeking for glory, honor and immortality is later revealed in the book of Romans to begin with seeking it by faith in Christ, His Cross and Resurrection.  Then, our continuing seeking for them is by this same faith in Christ, persevering by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Salvation and the life transformation that accompanies it come from God Himself through the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

John 3:20–21 ESV “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.””

The Tremendous Win

Eventually, the degrees of recompense are justly measured out for good and bad deeds.  But also, those who are rewarded have nothing of which to boast except the power of Christ working righteousness through them.

Revelation 2:26–27 ESV “The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.”

In the end, and for all eternity, the good guys do win and win big.

Proverbs 4:18 ESV “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”