Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

REST is an expression of humility. Humility is directly proportional to aligning ourselves with the rhythms of rest. We are as humble as we are free from stress and pressure.

Pride, on the other hand, is directly proportional to the "I'm busy" syndrome. Building our identity on how hard we work, as opposed to how well we love, is the evidence of pride. The more stress and pressure that we are under, the less we are under Christ's humble yolk.

Eccles. 4:6 "One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind."

Live better.

POWER-PARADOX

POWER-PARADOX

Can you think of POWER aside from MONEY? Just pause on that for a moment...POWER aside from MONEY...?

It would seem in this present age that nothing significant can be done without money, wouldn’t you say? Be honest now! (Eccl 10:19 says, “...money is the answer to everything.”) All that really means is that money is a good substitute for the real thing! And with money comes all the other powers: popularity, prominence, profile, influence and control. Ooh, we like those! Scripture says that in these closing days, Christians will “have a form of godliness but deny its power. Have nothing to do with them.” (2 Tim. 3:5) Money’s a great substitute for real power, it really is, but we’re told to make a wide berth around the “Prosperity Plague”. There’s nothing quite like the real thing: Check out these penniless dudes from the book of Acts: “But Peter said, "I don't have any money for you. But I'll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!" [7] Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man's feet and anklebones were healed and strengthened.” (Acts 3:6-7) Power without money? I think so.

So here’s a thought: What if God chose to put His power exactly where we think it doesn’t belong? (Is 55:8)

What do you mean?

What if God clapped His hands in delight over all of our weaknesses and frailties, and said, “Now there’s a person I can really invest God-power into.”?

“You must be joking. That’s silly. Surely God needs me to “get my act together”, to “get all my ducks in a row”... (OOPS, sorry, that’s a negative confession – I’m not a duck! Cancel that!) But really, surely God will use me because, well... “... I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. [12] 'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get, I don’t play in mud puddles, I soar like an eagle...and blah...blah...blah...' (See Luke 18:11-12) Mmmm...

That seems like a perfect landing place for celebrity status in Jesus, doesn’t it? But, friends, it’s not the place of God-POWER! Our brow-beaten brother Paul discovered the amazing power-paradox in 2 Cor. 12:9-10, where he writes, “And (Jesus) has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for POWER IS PERFECTED IN WEAKNESS." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my WEAKNESSES, so that the POWER of Christ may dwell in me. [10] Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am WEAK, then I am (“POWERFUL” YLT). (NASB-U)

In the economy of grace, we are only POWER-FULL when we are WEAK! Perfect POWER makes a soft-landing. Go ahead, and try’n package that for resale in this “control-freak” world!