The Balance of Walking and Resting Purity 827

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Uh, today's photo of the sun shining high above and sparkling on the waters of Portsmouth Harbor in the United Kingdom comes to us from a pastor friend who enjoys paddling and praying as he enjoys the glory of God's creation while being active. Noting that his aquatic hobby was, uh, was the perfect way to end the day as we sail into Labor Day weekend. Uh, Brits don't celebrate Labor Day, so all the more reason to make the most of a Friday afternoon by heading out paddling, I guess. Well, we don't have to paddle to make it to the weekend any longer. We made it. And as much as yesterday's post was about taking care of unfinished business, and I encourage that if you are able to put some things in order over the weekend. But let's face it, it's not— it is not only is it Saturday today, it's Labor Day weekend in the States, and a lot of people and businesses have checked out and won't be doing anything until, uh, Tuesday. So I just wanted to say that it is perfectly fine to just take a deep breath and let it go for the weekend and rest. Big exhale and breathe in. Ah, oh, okay. In order to maintain our peace and purpose on the Christian path of discipleship, we need to try to establish balance. While the path requires discipline, this walk isn't just some legalistic attempt to do everything right every single minute of every single day. Because of God's grace, the truth is that we don't have to work for our approval or acceptance. God loves us and accepts us for who we are. However, he does invite us to follow him into all he has for us, so our faith isn't stationary. So another paradox of our Christian faith, as, as shown in Matthew 6, is walking or is walking, or our burden to follow, and resting. Um, let's see, Matthew 11:28-30 says, Jesus says, come to me, all you 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. Christ didn't want us to labor to be approved. Putting faith in Jesus gives us salvation. We can rest in the assurance that in him we have new life. Christ also wants us to rest from the burdens that the world, the flesh, and the devil have put on us. The burden we have to bear, which is comparatively easy and light, is in living out who we are in Christ and by forsaking the ways of the world. The reason Christ could say the business of repentance—turning to his ways—is easy or light is because our victories are won by faith, by believing what God's word says about us in Christ and living according to our new identity in Christ. What we can overcome, uh, the paradox of repentance is of course that yes, we are in a battle or a struggle to leave old patterns behind that will require discipline and a concerted effort to change, but the battle is won not by the sweat of our brow, but by the mental, emotional, and spiritual acceptance of the spiritual reality that we are new creations in Christ. The renewing of our mind with the Word of God, our volitionally setting our wills on living out our new lives in Christ, uh, and our mental and behavior, uh, behavioral decision to say no to our old ways of thinking and acting to live out who we are are all a part of the transformation process that makes what has already happened to us spiritually a living and breathing reality. In this life of faith, the Lord will bring new insights into how we live to show us areas that we have overlooked that he invites us to change to lessen the burden of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Are bringing to our experience. Uh, the Lord's goal for us is to be sanctified and to enjoy the abundant life he has for us. His word encourages us to drop every weight that is holding us down. So as we go on this victory parade of increasing freedom, we will discover that there are new challenges to face and victories to win. Well, we have to address the challenges in a balanced way. We need to persist but not burn out. As much as I am geared up about this, the latest challenge in my life to resolve the last remaining problem from my divorce, I have to be patient and realize this could be a long process before things are finished. So instead of keeping it at the forefront of my mind and stressing over it, I have to recognize when to, quote unquote, let it go. But at the same time, be determined to not quit. Balance, right? I am formally, and may still be to some extent, a person who goes to extremes. Oh, let's get this taken care of? Okay, let's fight to the death now, now, now! Or, um, oh, let it go? Okay, no problem, uh, let's just quit, uh, I didn't want to do it anyway. Um, as you can see, there has to be an in-between. We need to stay true to our convictions to resolve our conflicts or change our behaviors, but at the same time be able to have peace, and not so much peace that we decide to give up the cause and remain in bondage to the things we want to overcome. Um, so, uh, examine your situation and see what you can do. And whether or not it is a time to press in or it is a time to rest. This fluctuation between walking and resting is a key, uh, on the path that leads to progress and victory. Um, we work at it and give ourselves periods of rest to maintain our peace and to eventually accomplish what we set out to do. And every step of the way from here to there, we stay in the presence of the Lord to receive his love, comfort, guidance, and strength. Our Christian life isn't just a set of battles to be won or a list of things to accomplish. Our Christian life is a relationship with God, where we abide in our— in his presence and seek to please him and ourselves by accepting his wisdom and will for our lives. So it's Saturday and Labor Day weekend. You know your situation better than I do, but But some basic options for the next couple of days are: 1. Take care of business. 2. Enjoy the last blast of summer before school starts. Or 3. Just rest. Of course, you could come up with a balance of all three of those, but I'll only suggest you keep walking and talking with God and work that out for yourselves. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation promise book for men. This morning's meditation verse is James 5:16, and it says, confess your sins to each other and pray to each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Today's verse encourages us to confess our sins to one another and to pray to be healed, with the, with the assurance that the earnest prayers of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. There is really so much to say about this short verse. First, why do we have to confess our sins to each other since we have been forgiven of our sins by putting our faith in Jesus? Well, uh, that's why we keep reading. Uh, the verse tells us to do that and to pray so that we may be healed. And of course, there are two ways to go with that. Uh, we could— or more than two, we'll see. Uh, we could be healed of our sin Meaning our confession and prayer could lead to genuine repentance and victory as we are set on a course to never repeat the sins we have committed. This is a possibility. We are not condemned to continue in our sins. Romans 8 confirms that we have been set free of the power of sin and death, and it is really— it really is up to us to believe that and live according to it. We can be healed of our sins, specifically and progressively. Believe this: don't worry after you have victory over one set of sins, you will discover others you can work on. We could also be "healed" physically, as some diseases are a physical consequence of our sin or a chastisement from the Lord for sinning. The sin of addiction to alcohol, aka drunkenness, has physical consequences of hangovers. If we confess our sin and pray for healing, we could receive the strength and motivation to stop drinking and "be healed" of our addiction and all the aches and pains that come from it. Also, if God is allowing disease to come into our life, granted in ways we don't understand, and we confess, pray, and repent, God can allow healing to come into our life. On this note, God is our Creator, and His sovereign will is done in our lives. No one gets sick and dies on God's watch without His approval. Why does medicine work for some and not for others? I don't know, but God does. So because of God's role as Creator and His sovereign will, all healing comes from Him. So pray for healing. Did you know, uh, that according to crossexamined.org, uh, Dr. Frank Turek, 75% of doctors believe in miracles. It's because they have seen things that defy science that can— that they can't explain. So if you get sick, confess your sins and pray. If nothing else, you'll receive a guilt-free conscience and peace as you face your health crisis. And that's where the righteous person has great power. You know, quote-unquote righteous person in their prayer. Um, their power is in their harmonious relationship with God. Not for nothing, but as I have become a Christian and continue to keep short accounts with God by confessing my sins periodically and stay in constant communication with God through prayer and walking and talking with God, some pretty amazing things have happened in my life. So while we have not received While we may not receive everything we want in prayer, when we live a righteous life of faith in Jesus Christ, we will see the goodness of God in the land of the living and wonderful results from our life of faithfulness. So don't look, uh, for some righteous person to pray for you. Become that righteous person by confessing your sins to others and by praying. To God to be healed. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my, uh, brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue for sharing from Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness, and today we're going to share a section called— it's the conclusion, Contending with the Powers. And a section called Reevaluate Your Own Worldview in Light of Scripture. And so if you need to, you know, and that's really part of the discipleship path is reevaluating our own worldview in light of Scripture. We're to adopt God's truth, God's word as truth, and live according to it. So, um, if you want to read up on that, go to mt4christ.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. Um, as always, we encourage a life of Christian discipleship. Why? Because we— because the Lord called us to put faith, our faith in Jesus Christ, and set us on a course where our entire lives was transformed from one addiction and brokenness to one of peace in harmony with the Lord, and where I've received continual blessing. So I'm nothing special, um, believe me. Ask anybody who knew me from before I became a Christian, and they can tell you there was nothing special about me, um, and that, uh, you know, I was far from God, um. And I would hope they would, would, even if they're not a Christian, begrudgingly, uh, admit to the fact that I've changed, and hopefully in a good way. Um, but we don't care about other people's opinion. We care about the opinion of God. Um, you know, we want to be approved by him. And the good news is we only have to put our faith in Jesus Christ to do that. And when we do that, um, you know, he has a purpose for us to, to answer his call, whatever that is on your life. Even if it's just to tell people, oh yeah, I believe in Jesus, and to become a part of a local church, that's plenty of purpose in Christ. And there's more for you to do, you know, than the things of this world. And you'll have peace in it when you walk with the Lord. So we encourage that. How do you do this thing, walking in the Spirit, living by faith? Well, um, well, it's rather easy. You read the Word of God and transform your life and live according to it. And believe who you are in Christ. But if you need help with that, we do offer our discipleship teachings that we, we did at a local church in 2021. We podcasted the lessons and put them on our YouTube channel, and they're available for your listening and edification. Um, the classes we've done, of course, are based on Dr. Neil Anderson's work, um, and and the word of God. And the classes were Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. So if you want to check those out, they're available for you to listen to. We also revere the word of God, and we do an informal Bible study and podcast that and share it on YouTube once a week. It's called Bible Study with the Sincatis, where we are joined by my good friends Arthur and Susanna Sincotti and my wife Tammy Lynn sits in, um, and we discuss whatever Bible study, um, the Lord puts on Arthur's heart. It's usually just a topical study and it's a general discussion of the principles that we grab from scripture. So if you want to be a part of an informal Bible study discussion, you know, join us for those, uh, those, those podcasts. All the podcasts we've ever done, basically, for, uh, for that are available on the audio podcast, and the ones we did on video in 2022 are all available as well. So you can check all of them out on the, on the podcast or on YouTube as they're all available. Um, well, it's Saturday, and, uh, even though it's a 3-day weekend, I have to work today. You know, that's just the way it goes, but it's a blessing. You know, it's a blessing. Actually, they allowed me to work yesterday, so today is really overtime. So we'll take it because we could use it. And, uh, you know, the Lord will provide for us, but it doesn't mean we just sit around and ask for him to provide for us, you know, through our prayers. When we're able-bodied and need to work, like the Apostle Paul, we have to work. Um, you know, um, so, so I, I'm going to work and I'm going to rejoice in it because at the end of my work tour I'll be going to my countryside home to visit my, uh, wife who I miss dearly. So I'm looking forward to, uh, this day, uh, this work day coming to an end. Um, so let's get closer to it by praying and getting us out there. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We just thank you so much for all that you've done for us in Christ. We thank you so much that you've given us a burden of walking with you that is light, um, you know, and it's light because of our faith in you. The more we believe who we are in Christ, the easier it is to repent of the things we used to do and start living according to who we are now in Christ, Lord. So thank you for that light burden. And Lord, we just thank you for the rest that we have our salvation, and the, the physical rest that we get to enjoy, uh, when the workday is done and the weekend comes. We can, we can take times to just sit and rest, um, and our rest is deeper, uh, than other people's because we have the peace of the Lord with us, um, because of what you've done with us through Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you, um, for the people listening today. We just pray for you to bless them, uh, come alongside them in their walk and in their prayer requests. We're praying for our new students for our Freedom in Christ course, that they would be convicted to show up Tuesday and to watch the lessons that they're doing. And we pray for the health concerns that we've been made aware of and the different situations that people have asked for prayer for. Um, so Lord, we just pray for you to help us because we need your help. And Lord, of course, as always, we pray for you to go before us today, uh, open our eyes to the things we need to see and, uh, things we need to know in order to best represent you here on the earth. And we pray for your guidance to lead us into the good things you would have us do. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.