Spiritual Rest Volume 1, Issue 2

Paul was a man that God used greatly to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the children of Israel and to the gentiles. Paul was placed as the Apostle to the gentiles and dealt with many difficult challenges. We can wonder as the day is long what keep Paul maintaining through all the shipwrecks, beatings, starvation, imprisonment, stoning and more. Well we simply have to see what Paul's motive was in Christ, his one true desire.

Philippians 3

1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit,[a] rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, 4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul's hope was to draw as close as he could to this risen Christ. He counted all things lose and rubbish to just know Him, and not just intellectually but to share in His sufferings and the power of His resurrection. It was God that keep Paul through those times and performed those miracles because Paul understood the Grace afforded Him and he pursued Christ with his all. Our motive is not to worry about how to serve God, it is to draw as deep as we desire to go into Christ!!! Abraham the Father of our faith, was counted as righteous based on believing God at His Word. David, the greatest King of Israel, was a man after God's own Heart. Job a man that God Himself told Satan was blameless and perfect and there was none like him in all the earth in Job 1:8. Job states that "I have esteemed the words of his mouth," Job said, "more than my necessary food", Job 23:12. All of these ordinary men decided to pursue their God with all their might and God used them mightily. Today, "seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you", Matthew 6:33!!! Be Encouraged!!! Have a wonderful life of Spiritual Rest on purpose!!!!!

Jeremiah 17

5 Thus says the LORD:

“ Cursed is the man who trusts in man

And makes flesh his strength,

Whose heart departs from the LORD.

6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,

And shall not see when good comes,

But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,

In a salt land which is not inhabited.

7 “ Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,

And whose hope is the LORD.

8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,

Which spreads out its roots by the river,

And will not fear[b] when heat comes;

But its leaf will be green,

And will not be anxious in the year of drought,

Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

9 “ The heart is deceitful above all things,

And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

10 I, the LORD, search the heart,

I test the mind,

Even to give every man according to his ways,

According to the fruit of his doings.

11 “ As a partridge that broods but does not hatch,

So is he who gets riches, but not by right;

It will leave him in the midst of his days,

And at his end he will be a fool.”

12 A glorious high throne from the beginning

Is the place of our sanctuary.

13 O LORD, the hope of Israel,

All who forsake You shall be ashamed.

“ Those who depart from Me

Shall be written in the earth,

Because they have forsaken the LORD,

The fountain of living waters.”