Last week we started our journey towards healthy spiritual immune system. I presented a formula for spiritual health. God (the Spiritual Immune System) : Father (Rest) + Son (Nutrition)+ Holy Spirit(Exercise).
We need to have a healthy diet and a good balance of exercise and rest. All that together equals as the spiritual immune system.

[This second part of the series will be about the Father/Rest in the equation. The third part will be about the Son/Nutrition and the fourth part will be about the Holy Spirit/Exercise.]

We were created to live in a relationship with God. That’s our natural state. Everything else is forceful living. Thankfully God sent Jesus to provide us way back to God. Now we can again have peace with God through Jesus.

Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness combined with our faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory.(Romans 5:1-2, CEB)

We were also created for resting. Even God rested on the seventh day [See the picture: God is resting after creation. Byzantine mosaic in Monreale]. Also Jesus took time to pray and retreated to wilderness.

Sabbath-keeping is meant to be taken seriously. Restoration and rejuvenation are necessary for every Christian. We are to be strengtened by God. We are to be sustained by God. Not by our own efforts. God loves us and wants to lead us to find rest in him.

Oh, I must find rest in God only,
    because my hope comes from him!
Only God is my rock and my salvation—
    my stronghold!—I will not be shaken.
(Psalm 62:5-6, CEB, emphasis added,*)

Resting in God does not mean doing nothing. It is a way of living. That’s what living in grace is all about. Then we abide in God and rest in him while we go about our every day life.

How do we learn to do it? By practicing it. By leaving our worries to our Heavenly Father, praying without ceasing and listening to his voice. By meditating, contemplating, praying. By the grace of God we will be guided into living fully in God’s grace.

The more we abide in God the Father, the more we learn to trust him. Then, one day, we realize our Heavenly Father is our fortress and we know that we will not be shaken. Then God is indeed our best spiritual immune system.

 

Gracious God,
Thank you for
loving us,
sustaining us,
providing for us,
protecting us,
taking care of us.
Help us to always
abide in you,
rest in you,
live in your wild grace.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

Q4U:  How do you rest in our Heavenly Father?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as resting in God becomes your way of life!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.]

The VOICE GIVE AWAY: The winner has been selected and notified. Thank you!

I always appreciate if you help sharing the blog posts with your friends & followers. So that everyone might know the love of God, receive the grace of Christ, and live in the presence of the Holy Spirit! Thank you! BLESSINGS!

Image courtesy of Wikimedia. This post is refurbished from 2010. Linking up today with Sharing His Beauty, Hear it on Sunday, use it on Monday, Playdates with God, and counting blessings with Ann Voskamp:  #1093 Resting in God is a way of living.