I will find the rest of God by resting in God.
I This is my dad's piece of wisdom below after asking him, "I want to learn how to REST deeper in God. I don't want to constantly "run run". But I feel like I am addicted to it and it is part of my nature. Any advice??" Yes, it’s part of your nature – you get that from me – sorry! It’s actually a good trait if/when you learn to manage it; if you don’t learn to manage it, it will manage you! The old adage that “idle hands are the devil’s tools” is true, but I have come to believe the opposite extreme is equally dangerous if not kept in check. I’ve learned, while sin is a powerful weapon in Satan’s arsenal, he only employees it to deter the unsaved from coming to Christ and to lure the saved away from doing God’s will. I think the church has both over-simplified and over-complicated the whole meaning of sin. The way I see it, regardless of what the unsaved person has or hasn’t done, he or she will only hear one thing on judgment day; “I never knew you,” so in reality that’s ultimately their only sin. For the Christian, defining sin, apart from the obvious, drunkenness, lust, greed etc, is much more complicated and personal; for us being out of God’s will is sin – “…to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17)
I don’t believe it leads to us losing our salvation, but possibly some eternal rewards – “If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (1 Cor 3:14-15) Paul isn’t talking about sin as being stuff that won’t necessarily reap eternal benefits, even the best Christians do things, go out to eat, watch TV etc, live their life doing things every day that seemingly have no eternal benefit, other than helping us to recharge so we can have the strength to work for God. The verses leading up to these verses are talking about building foundations, our life around the temporal things that ultimately have no eternal value. In short, keeping Christians busy doing activities, even “good works,” is another weapon in Satan’s arsenal and people like you and I always have to guard against getting off-track; it’s especially hard when you’re trying to build a career and pay bills etc. Busyness is like a drug; it can enhance your quality of life if you take the right dosage, but it’s easy to get addicted if you don’t guard against it. I think many are busyness junkies. They only think they’re in control, but they need activity – it’s their drug-of-choice!
I think I was becoming addicted before getting diagnosed and, as strange as it might sound, I still fight it, it just manifests itself differently. I have to have mom turn my internet off every morning until ten or eleven, till I finish reading my bible and journaling etc (in fact, it’s been off all day today) because I want to see what’s going on in the news, I want to read my email and do GMO etc. None of these things are in and of themselves bad or sinful, in fact they’re either neutral or good, but doing them before or instead of doing “what I know I should be doing” makes them wrong. But, I feel like a hypocrite giving you , miss “Jesus time” every morning, advice in this area; if you’re like me, it’s a balancing-act you’ll have to make adjustments to your whole life, but that’s not a bad thing, that’s life! Life changes, new job, a move, relationships etc, force us to rebalance, and the fact that you have been thinking about it, is a good indication that you need to make some adjustments.
