I feel like I sorta started a trend with opening Mr. Bloggy to the world with this Hebrews for Advent thing. Well, since it's apparently encouraging to others, I guess I'll keep it going!
Hebrews 4 is all about entering into God's rest. We do this by believing and holding fast to the Word of God. Well, none of us does this perfectly. We all have this goal of entering into God's rest, but we never really truly get there. Even when I look back at my own life before I became Christian, I sort of started to understand more of who God is, but honestly reading the Bible was like reading a foreign language. I remember my small group leader asking me to read a passage that made absolutely no sense to me as I was reading it. I remember finishing and saying, "Ok, I read it, what does that mean?" There was also this striving to do better, to not sin as much to make God happy.
Even as a Christian, I could fall into the trap of not being good enough. This was really difficult when I was called out on social-graces type stuff. Here I was - a Human Development and Family Studies student who struggled to interact with her peers. Ironic in a painful way. I wasn't a leader, though I was super-old for being in the college group. So many other girls were doing 'better' than me by officially discipling (mentoring) other girls and achieving developmental milestones like full-time jobs and getting married etc. I wasn't finding rest because I wanted to do better to do more for God. I wondered if God was really pleased with me.
Hebrews 4:14 - 5:10 talks about Jesus as the High Priest. He is the mediator between God and I. He brought me into God's family so I could finally have a true relationship with my Creator instead of sitting there wondering if anyone was really truly out there. He atoned and became a propitiation (thanks for big words, Mitch) for my sins and so I no longer was condemned for my sins :) :) :) Something I learned last year was that I didn't have to strive as hard to please God. This doesn't mean that I could just sit there and sin and let myself atrophy. But it meant that I didn't have to compare myself to others. God started the work in me, He will complete it. Forward progress is made just by growing closer to God and obeying. If I fall down, I don't have to beat myself up and say, "Bad girl, bad girl!" If I fall down, Jesus bends down and picks me up again so we can keep walking. Because I don't have to strive, I can look at others in my life and truly love them and encourage them instead of secretly comparing myself to them :) :) That is true rest indeed :D
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