He Is Willing to Help You Rest and Run

Writer

Updated March 31, 2023

PLUS

There are times when I feel the need to recommit my heart to Jesus. You too? We can feel pulled away. We can feel frightened by sins that come into sharp focus, while God is doing His good pruning work in our lives. We can see the plots of the evil one against our spirits. We see the failures of our will and how we could have prevented those — if we had just been faithful this way or that way. And all those things being true, when I recommit my heart to Jesus, I think of His great grace. It truly is inexhaustible. And I am forever grateful for that fact.

Determine that you desire closeness with you Friend, your King, your Savior, the Lover of your soul more than anything else in this world. Realize that He is for you. He will take you back again and again. Rend your heart with godly sorrow at what pulls you away from Him; don’t become hardened. Ask God for the heart of flesh every believer has to stay soft and never become fallow. Trust in Jesus. He is powerful to “win” us to Himself, to keep us, and to change us. When the race is hard, remember that in Christ — in believing His death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sin — you race is complete in your Lord. God has already lifted us and set us in His rest in the eyes and mind of Christ: “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6).

Rest there, seated, and run. Run your race so as to win the prize (1 Cor. 9:24). Understand? I am still learning, but at the same time, it’s also clear. We rest in His finished work in order to run hard after Him so that He would be honored. Can we do that? Of course we can — we can fix our eyes on the beautiful image of Jesus we have in the Scriptures and tune our ears to His loving words toward us. Jesus will be glorified in His children. And He is highly glorified when we believe this love, this grace, this mercy — that these are real and never run dry. He promises.

We used to be on paths of destruction in sin, but God has freely saved our souls in His marvelous light. The path of sin and pleasing of self is dark, but the path of looking to the salvation of Jesus is wonderful life. Will you join me in praising our God that He has set us on paths of light and life? A life of praise is what He dearly desires from us — lives that display the thanksgiving of being truly saved and redeemed.

Praise is what emanates from us, and this is the light of praise that He wants us to shine before men and never remove from ourselves. We might be tempted to grumble, to complaint, or to fold in on ourselves and think only about what is best for us. But Jesus is worthy of the highest praise of our lives, and we do well to remember that — as well as the light and life of thanksgiving in our inner spirits by His strength within us. These are good.

Jesus wants our hearts. He wants our minds. He wants our souls. He wants our strength, and the direction of our strength, to be aimed at Him. Believe and watch Jesus do marvelous things within you and for you, both in the fight and the rest, of this life!

Photo credit: Unsplash/Morgan Sarkissian

Lianna Davis is author of Keeping the Faith: A Study in Jude and Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss. She is also a contributor to We Evangelicals and Our Mission with Cascade Books. Lianna is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She lives in Illinois with her husband and daughter. You can learn more about her writing at her website.

He Is Willing to Help You Rest and Run

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