{"id":11150,"date":"2017-07-06T00:10:51","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T07:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=11150"},"modified":"2017-07-06T00:10:51","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T07:10:51","slug":"july-6-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/07\/06\/july-6-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"July 6, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cFor we are God\u2019s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.\u201d<\/em> Ephesians 2:10<\/span><\/p>\n

Rest vs. Laziness<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

This morning, I felt like there were certain cleaning projects I needed to get done this day. This is not an uncommon feeling\u2014I often will sense that God is giving me a specific task list. But I did not feel like doing what I sensed I was supposed to do today. The thought of it overwhelmed me. So I tried to bargain with God. \u201cI already did these other things today, I don\u2019t really need to do these new tasks TODAY, do I? I can do them another day, can\u2019t I? Because we both know that I\u2019m not actually lazy; don\u2019t you see me sweating over here?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I opened my Bible and the first verse I read said, \u201cA lazy person is just as bad as someone who destroys things\u201d<\/em> (Proverbs 18:9).<\/span><\/p>\n

Gulp. I could not deny those words. My house will indeed will be destroyed by my laziness. So I asked the LORD to help me do what I knew I was being asked to do. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What happened next is what happens every time I submit my inner Jonah to the Lordship of Christ Jesus. I started doing the tasks and they were not nearly as difficult or time-consuming as I expected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The part of me that wants to pretend I didn\u2019t hear from the Lord is forgetting that Jesus promised in Matthew 11:30, \u201cMy yoke is easy and My burden is light.\u201d<\/em> We do not have to do what He is asking us to do without His help.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Exactly five years ago, for a five-month period of time, I felt that my life was unnaturally easy. There was a supernatural calm about it. Well, that rest period ended suddenly when I was given an undeniably large task that I would not have been able to accomplish without having had those months of rest. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We live in a society that values hard work, and if we feel we aren\u2019t doing enough, our flesh can feel incompetent, but that is all about our pride.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lesson is in listening to the Lord and following His directions. I do not think it is wise to join a ministry the LORD has not asked you to join. If He is giving you a season of rest, then let yourself rest. You do not know what work may be just around the corner. Either way, His perfect peace comes only when we obey Him. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This morning, as I finished the specific cleaning tasks I knew that God asked me to do this day, I sensed him whispering this sweet phrase: Big things are small things when done in God\u2019s strength, small things are big things when done in human strength.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDear Lord Jesus, thank You for helping us do the work for which we were created. Thank You also for seasons of rest. Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor we are God\u2019s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-2TQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}