Rest. It usually alludes me even when I am trying to be intentional. It’s one of those things that never really happens because we wait for our circumstances to align and magically create space. Rest isn’t achieved in controlling our atmosphere, and even though I know this, I still constantly try. Real rest is actually achieved with remembrance.
I started reading Hebrews this morning. In the first few verses, there is an important phrase we often skip over because of its familiarity. After Jesus took care of sin, He “sat down at the right hand of the Father”. This little phrase has crazy significance.
The book of Hebrews is addressed to Jewish Christians who would have had a clear understanding of OT allusions. If you were Jewish and reading Hebrews, the image of Jesus sitting down would have special significance. In the OT, priests serving in the temple never sat down, never. In fact, there were not even chairs found anywhere in the temple. They couldn’t rest because sin had not been atoned for so their work was never finished. The fact that Jesus, our High Priest, sat down indicates His work was finished. Sin is done, it has been stripped of its power over those of us who believe. In one move, Jesus undid Satan’s plan.
Jesus took care of everything already. If I could just keep this in focus, I could rest. All my sin and failures are already atoned for, and in the process of sanctification, God is redeeming them. It’s the tension of already, but not yet. My sins are already paid for, even though I’m still here committing them. It’s hard to understand that Jesus already did everything that matters and how that frees me to be able to participate in the tension between good and evil. I can fight back, and the ways I obey become tools that God can use. While sanctification admittedly isn’t a walk in the park, the outcome, my future, is secure.
That’s a lot. I just need to sit down in it for a minute, you?
I need to soak in it, until my fingers get all pruny, to marinate this truth until it flavors everything. Okay, that was a lot of metaphors.
Now what do I do with it?
I need to actively remember that I don’t have to make a way for myself, Jesus has already done that. Sometimes I need permission for my mind to rest so I can stop arm wrestling my circumstances and breathe. Jesus gave me that permission when He sat down. He set the example for me.
There is something Jesus is actively doing as He sits at the right hand of the Father. Romans 8:34 tells me that Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us, talking to God about you and me. Even though Jesus has already won, He lets us participate in the battles so that we can share in the victory.I need to let them fall in the already taken care of category in my brain and rest and watch for how God works it out. I can choose to be remember that Jesus has taken care of everything that matters, and sink down into the grace He brings.
Whatever you are wrestling about in your head, hand it to Jesus and sit down. He is already talking to God about it.