Knowing God's Ways Leads To Rest

Compassionate LORD,

Thy mercies have brought me to the dawn

of another day,

Vain will be its gift unless I grow in grace,

increase in knowledge,

ripen for spiritual harvest.

Let me this day know thee as thou art,

love thee supremely,

serve thee wholly,

admire thee fully.

Through grace let my will respond to thee,

Knowing that power to obey is not in me, but

that thy free love alone enables me to serve thee.

Here then is my empty heart,

overflow it with thy choicest gifts;

Here is my blind understanding,

chase away its mists of ignorance.

O ever watchful Shepherd,

lead, guide, tend me this day;

Without thy restraining rod I err and stray;

Hedge up my path lest I wander into

unwholesome pleasure,

and drink its poisonous streams;

Direct my feet that I be not entangled

in Satan's secret snares,

nor fall into his hidden traps.

Defend me from assailing foes,

from evil circumstances,

from myself.

My adversaries are part and parcel of my nature;

They cling to me as my very skin;

I cannot escape their contact.

In my rising up and sitting down they

barnacle me;

They entice with constant baits;

My enemy is within the citadel;

Come with almighty power and cast him out,

pierce him to death,

and abolish in me every particle

of carnal life this day.

MORNING  The Valley of Vision; Puritan Prayers and Devotions

"The difference between knowing God's works and knowing His ways, is the difference between rest and relapse."  

Rande Greene

All throughout the book of Romans, Paul is instructing the believers in Rome about God's ways in this new covenant where they have access to freedom and peace.  

Continually he reminds them that it is the work of God that establishes and produces their ways NOT the work of their own hands.  

Paul's objective is to instill a paradigm shift within this people, who have practiced knowing all about God's works but not resting in His ways.  

This constant striving is not isolated to the Israelites of old but it is a human quandary.  Often times we know the theme of scripture and the power of God throughout all of creation but we never see His ways that lead to rest.  

We want to live according to some law or formula that will ensure our righteousness before God but this mindset leads to a relapse of a works based faith where striving and fear rule our hearts.  

Psalm 86:11

Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; 

Unite my heart to fear your name.  

This fear is not a servile fear of a tortured prisoner where anxiety and dread rule in the heart, but Luther defines a filial fear;

A fear a  child has for a Father,  a fear of offending the one he loves because he is afraid of displeasing the One who is the source of all security and love.  

Romans 8 gives us the ability to rest in the ways of God.  

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God... Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

When our minds are set on what we are doing wrong and not on the finished work of Christ, which makes us free from the law of sin and death, we relapse into carnal Christianity where we live under condemnation and fear of disapproval.  

Paul goes onto say

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, 

if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.  

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ 

does not belong to him.  But if Christ is in you, 

although the body is dead because of sin, 

the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  ...

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, 

to live according to the flesh.  

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, 

but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, 

you will live.  For all who are led by the Spirit of God 

are sons of God.  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery 

to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption

 as sons, by whom we cry, 

"Abba! Father!"  

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit 

that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - 

heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, 

provided we suffer with him 

in order that we may also be glorified with him.  

Our identity as sons and daughters of God leads to an understanding and knowing of God's ways through the redemptive work of justificaiton that we didn't deserve but freely received through Christ's sacrifice.  The reality of the gospel takes root in our hearts when we grow in our understanding of God's outrageoulsy loving ways.  It is here that we find confident hope that leads to rest.