Rest Or Worry Part 3

Rest Or Worry PART 3

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your LIFE, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your BODY, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the BIRDS of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more VALUE than they? 27 Which of you by WORRYING can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the LILIES of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of LITTLE FAITH? - Matt 6:25-30 (emphasis added)

Resting is about recognising our value as God's beloved sons and daughters. When we worry, we are saying, "Father, I am not really valuable to you. I need to work out the solutions. No one is helping me. I must do something."

But when we rest, we are saying, "Father, I am so valuable to you. I am more valuable than the birds and the lilies. My value is the value of Your beloved, treasured, favoured and begotten Son Jesus Christ. In fact, I am so valuable that You gave Him up to live IN me. So I can trust You to provide for me."

As mentioned in part 1 and 2, the remedy for worrying is simply resting. It is an activity of the heart. Resting is about affirming your value and your identity in Christ. However, you can't simply tell someone NOT to worry and simply REST without giving him/her something to replace worrying with.

In the following verses, God lovingly revealed how we can practically REST in Him.

“Therefore DO NOT WORRY, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the GENTILES seek. For your heavenly Father KNOWS that you need all these things. 33 BUT seek FIRST the KINGDOM of God and His RIGHTEOUSNESS, and all these things SHALL BE ADDED to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about TOMORROW, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. - Matt 6:31-34 (emphasis added)

"DO NOT WORRY, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'" 

Again, worrying is always the revelation that we are looking to the external, temporal and visible. These are the material things that the world (gentiles) seeks - they pursue them; they give their time, energy, focus, mind and whole being to pursue the external.

Yet the Father KNOWS that we need all these things. He is not saying, "Don't bother about the external. You don't need them. You just need the spiritual." He knows that we live IN the world and we NEED them. But the only way to stop us from worrying is to simply DIRECT our attention to something else.

"BUT seek FIRST the KINGDOM of God and His RIGHTEOUSNESS..."

For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. - Rom 14:17

The kingdom of God is opposite from the kingdom of the world. The latter focuses on external - eating and drinking. But the former focuses on the internal - righteousness, peace and joy.

God is showing us the way to practically REST - by focusing on the internal - Righteousness, Peace & Joy. When we know our right standing (Righteousness) before Him, we will be AT Peace with Him and BE filled with Joy. Peace is life for the soul, just as joy is life for the body (a cheerful heart is good medicine). God is concerned with our soul and our body. When we affirm our right standing with Him, we find rest for our soul and health.

The second part says, "seek... His RIGHTEOUSNESS". What does that mean? 

1 Cor 1:30 says, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us... Righteousness..."

Christ is Our Righteousness. The word 'seek' in Greek is to 'pursue, aim at'. Hence, to seek His Righteousness is to pursue and BECOME like Christ. If we want to practically pursue something, it is not pursuing the material (the external). It is pursuing Christ (the internal) to become like Him and manifest Him.

When we focus on Christ and manifest His kingdom, God says that the external things that we need will be ADDED to us. How awesome that is!

How can we NOT worry about the external things? By practically focusing on becoming like Christ and manifesting His kingdom. In doing that, we are resting in our true value and trusting God to take care of our needs. #identity #rest #supply

Rest Or Worry Part 2

Rest Or Worry PART 2

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your LIFE, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your BODY, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the BIRDS of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more VALUE than they? 27 Which of you by WORRYING can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the LILIES of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of LITTLE FAITH? - Matt 6:25-30 (emphasis added)

As mentioned in Part 1, resting is not about inactivity. It is about identity. It is a constant activity to affirm our value and identity. The reason why we can rest is because of the New Covenant that Christ has with the Father.

Some time ago, I asked Him, "Why would You consider the lilies of the field to be more glorious than all the glory of Solomon? Maybe I don't know how to appreciate the lilies more than the riches of Solomon... but how is that possible?"

He said, "Because the lilies neither TOIL nor spin..." Then I was reminded of Solomon.

"I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. 5 I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. 7 I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me... Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had TOILED; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 2:4-7, 11 (emphasis added)

Solomon lived in the Old Covenant; we live in the New Covenant. Solomon could not rest on the inside, because Christ had not finished His works on the Cross. In other words, Solomon had to reap what he sowed, but we can reap what we did not sow.

This is why God said, "Look at the BIRDS of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more VALUE than they?"

The birds neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; the lilies neither toil nor spin. Because the Father's world doesn't work like our world. We don't work FOR rest ---- that's toiling. We work FROM rest.

As worrying cannot add one cubit to our stature, it means that worrying is not an external activity. It is an activity of the heart. In other words, two people can be doing the same outward activity, but each has a different activity in their heart --- one is out of worrying while the other is out of rest. You can't tell the difference outwardly, but you can tell by looking at their soul (LIFE) and health (BODY). This is why the kingdom doesn't work by applying the same method. It works by our relationship with the Father.

The remedy for worrying is to replace that activity of the heart with resting. How?

Jesus said, "Are you not of more VALUE than they?" The next time when you look at the birds and the lilies, you can gladly tell yourself, "Well, I am more valuable than these. And if the Father feeds and clothes them, how much MORE will He feed and clothe me."

The value we have is the value of the New Covenant. It took the death of God's Son to establish the New Covenant. Our value IS the life of Jesus. When we recognise our value, we can rest. Your working cannot increase or decrease your value. But your resting empowers you to affirm your value.

When we worry, we supply what we need. But when we rest, our Father will supply what we need. It is impossible for Him to break this rule, because it means that He has to first 'de-value' us, which in turn, 'de-value' the Cross.

If He compares worrying to "O you of LITTLE FAITH", it also means that He sees you of GREAT FAITH when you simply rest.

In the next part, we will see the practical way to truly REST in Him as He revealed in the same passage. #identity #rest #supply

Rest Or Worry Part 1

Rest Or Worry PART 1

When there are so many things on hand, it is vital to put aside what is URGENT to focus on what is IMPORTANT. Only one thing is necessary, like Mary, and that is to choose His presence. Today, I chose to sit at His feet while I know that I have so many different things that I have yet to do.

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your LIFE, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your BODY, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the BIRDS of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more VALUE than they? 27 Which of you by WORRYING can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the LILIES of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of LITTLE FAITH? - Matt 6:25-30 (emphasis added)

This passage is a continual source of power and strength to me personally. Each time when I meditate on it, I discover fresh riches of His grace.

While we are concerned with the external, God is concerned with our internal. What we eat or drink are from outside in, but our LIFE is from inside out. We are concerned with the material things, but God is concerned with our inner life - our soul. 

"Beloved, I wish that you prosper in all things and be in health, even as your soul prospers." - 3 John 2

There is an order of priority: Soul -> Body -> Material. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. The greatest care has to be the care of the soul, for which God is concerned with.

While we are anxious about what to wear, God is 'anxious' about our health (BODY). Because health is the greatest asset, as compared to Prada, Gucci, etc. You can have $1 million but without health, you really have nothing. What is outside always depreciates, but what is inside will appreciate. This is why men look for girlfriends who are beautiful on the outside but they look for wives who are beautiful on the inside.

God is waiting for us to see what He sees: for us to stop looking outside and start looking inside - LIFE & HEALTH, so that we realise these intangible assets require ONE thing: Complete dependence upon Him.

When we focus on the external things, we WORK for it because it is humanly achievable. When we focus on the internal, we REST for it because it is humanly impossible.

This is why God said, "Do not worry about your life and your body..." We worry because we think that our life has to do with food and our body has to do with clothing, when in actual fact, it has to do with our soul and our health. So we will keep worrying if we keep looking at the external. 

When God said, "Do not worry", it means that He has a remedy. Worrying is an attitude of the heart. What's the remedy? Resting. Because resting is also an attitude of the heart. Resting is not inactivity. It is a constant activity to affirm your value and your identity. The reason why people cannot rest is because they don't know their value. So they tie their value to their achievements - job, work, fitness regime, miracles, signs and wonders, etc. But the moment they stop doing, they feel useless and get depressed. They question their self-worth. The greatest test of a person's value is not giving him challenges and work; it's giving him nothing to do and force him to do nothing - that will reveal his true value.

This is why resting is an attitude where many of us don't live there all the time. And we need to get back to focus on that ONE thing: To sit at His feet and appreciate Him, so that we will appreciate our value in Him.

In the next part, we will see how God graciously and lovingly empowered us to REST, instead of worrying. He is a good, good Father. #identity #rest #supply

Prophetic Word For Mama

I asked J, “Do you have a Word for Mama concerning her work?”

He paused, spoke to Jesus and replied, “Teach them well!”

My wife was shocked. J had never used these words before. It’s absolutely Jesus and a reminder for her to focus on her passion and purpose of teaching and nurturing the children, regardless of politics, leadership and other stuff that took her time and attention away from the precious lives. Jesus!

Significance

Wanting significance and being significant are two different things. The former is about being someone else while the latter is about being yourself. #identity

Wisdom In Parenting

It is always intriguing to me when New Covenant teachers can divide the Old and New Testament (including) the book of Proverbs appropriately, and believe that God the Father does not inflict pain to teach His children a lesson, yet they believe in spanking the child to teach them a lesson.

Sometimes, what we believe in the head is not translated to the heart, especially when it comes to parenting. It's not what you believe that reveals your belief. It's what you live out and practise that reveals what you truly believe.

99% of the time, we spank because we are helpless, lost control, filled with anger and frustration, or wanting control over the behaviour of the child. If this is the way to discipline, I'm pretty sure God just needs to whack us one time and it is done. We will then live in complete fear of the Lord.

The word 'discipline' is often tied to spanking (which includes caning, punishment, etc.) Yet the word 'discipline' doesn't have to do with spanking. It has to do with training and instruction.

Eph 6:4 - Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the DISCIPLINE and instruction of the Lord.

The word 'discipline' here means 'instruction that trains someone to reach full development (maturity).'

There are many ways to discipline a child. And what we need is continual wisdom.

"As you listen to me, my beloved child, you will grow in wisdom and your heart will be drawn into understanding, which will empower you to make right decisions. - Prov 23:19

Parenting requires wisdom, not spanking. In the early stage of J's lives, we applied different discipline ways through the direction of the Lord. What I realise is this... as he grows older, what worked before has to change. And thus, we need to keep having wisdom to parent him.

Parenting is probably one of the most dynamic thingy in life. Because there is no one size that fits all. Get advice as you need, but don't follow the methods. Follow Jesus and His wisdom.

P.S: If you can see Jesus spanking a child, let me know. #identity #fathering