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BREAD FOR THE JOURNEY BLOG@ Rhythms of Grace: a Journey into RestSustenance for the journey into rest and peace
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NEW SERIES Do everything without grumbling or arguing… [Philippians 2:14] After the recent short break, a warm welcome back to 'Bread for the Journey' to both my regular visitors, and to every newcomer. I hope you will be blessed by this new series, which focuses on a behaviour many of us struggle with—a grumbling attitude. We can tend to dismiss this mindset as inconsequential, without realising that it is both offensive to the Lord, and seriously undermines our pursuit of rest. We see this first illustrated in the story of Israel’s journey to the Promised Land. Old Testament stories are shadows of the reality revealed in the New Testament, the reality which came through the Lord Jesus. The first generation of Israelites were unable to enter the rest promised by God, in the land He would give them, because of their unbelief. Their purpose and destiny as freed slaves was to rest in the total provision of the Lord. The wonders they had witnessed in the past were supposed to enable them to trust in God for the future. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as He did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the wilderness. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place. In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God. [Deuteronomy 1:30-32] As we know, that generation failed the test, and were refused entry into their destiny, because of their unbelief. The words translated 'unbelief' or 'rebellion' [Numbers 14, Psalm 95], refer to an unwillingness to be persuaded, a hardened heart, or stubborn disobedience. This tells us that belief is to do with choice—not a warm fuzzy glow. It’s the choice to trust in God for our future, based on our revelation of Him in the past. He expects our previous experience of His faithfulness, to inform our view of the future. One of the ways this unbelief manifested in the Israelites was through grumbling! [Numbers 14:27]. It was a serious offense as far as the Lord was concerned, as He viewed every grumble as a statement of unbelief, a lack of trust in His goodness and provision. (And no grumble escapes His notice.) This should pull us up short—grumbling can be a national past-time! For Christians and non-Christians alike, complaining about the weather, the traffic, next door neighbours, family members, the price of food, the state of the country… is often a normal part of conversation. The root of much grumbling is fear, the fear that God is not good; the fear that good is being withheld from us (which was essentially Eve’s sin); the fear that our needs will not be met; the fear that we are somehow losing out. And fear produces unbelief. And the point of all this? Our pursuit of rest is affected by our grumbling… And the antidote for this malaise? We’ll look at some remedies over the next few weeks, but right now, we need to do a self-audit—the focus of this week’s grace rhythm. It is so easy to fill ourselves with good stuff, and then move on to the next thing, without ever actually doing anything about it. Let's be doers of the word, not merely hearers! [James1:22] THIS WEEK’S GRACE RHYTHM
NEXT WEEK: ROWING INTO THE FUTURE Finding the antidote to the malaise of grumbling... GET IN TOUCH!
[Photo credits: Engin Akyurt (woman); Brett Jordan (mail icon) @ Unsplash, with thanks]
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