So far we have learned the following about Biblical self-care:
- God rested and He created us in His image; thus, we need rest.
- The rest God offers us is deeper than physical rest; it’s rest for our soul.
- God commanded us to diligently pursue His rest and, in fact, we are warned “FEAR lest [we fall] short of it.” (Hebrews 4)
- We have identified “unbelief” as the primary reason we don’t have His rest.
So, what must we DO in order to possess God’s supernatural rest for our soul?
Well, we need to go back to an earlier devotional where we discussed the difference between “faith” and “believe.” Remember, “faith” (a noun) is something we possess which motivates us to “believe” (a verb) or to take action. You could say “faith” is the intel; while “believing” is acting on the intel. Everyone who is physically alive has what we call “earthly faith” which is derived from information gleaned from our physical senses. The simple act of sitting in a chair is engaging faith in the intel we have gleaned through our five senses as well as our experience with chairs. Our FAITH in the chair engages our mind to BELIEVE and—we sit on it. If we don’t believe then—we refuse to find rest for our weary legs in that chair.
We all have “earthly faith” which is based on information gathered from our five senses that causes us to BELIEVE and take a particular course of action.
So when the Bible is talking about the “unbelief” which robs us of “rest for our soul,” we need to be clear that God is not talking about the exercise of earthly faith. We had many discussions about the difference between supernatural faith and earthly faith. It’s critical we understand the difference in the context of pursuing God’s rest for our soul. If the source of our EARTHLY faith is information from our PHYSICAL senses, it makes sense that the source of SUPERNATURAL faith comes through our SPIRITUAL senses, that is, our born again soul and spirit engaging with God.
We must both POSSESS and EXERCISE supernatural faith in order to enter into God’s rest for our soul!
Let’s discuss these two contexts—that is, POSSESSING and EXERCISING supernatural faith. The first occurs at salvation—and the second, in the context of living the Christian life. The ”REST” God offers only belongs to those who have accepted His gift of salvation and are living it out every day! Let’s briefly examine both.
- Supernatural faith for salvation. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation which reconciles us to Himself. (Romans 1:16) When we HEAR God’s Word, He gives us the gift of supernatural faith. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) When we hear the Gospel message, the gift of faith is ours to keep if we will believe it. Belief isn’t looking at that chair—it’s sitting on it. When we believe in Jesus as our Savior and Lord and surrender to Him—our soul and spirit are made alive in Christ. The gift of supernatural faith is planted in us forever. It is that supernatural gift that enables us to live a life of belief in Christ!
- Supernatural faith for Christian living. Then, after we are children of God through salvation, we must EXERCISE our new supernatural faith in order to dwell in God’s rest while we walk the treacherous path of this fallen world.
God has prescribed a superior faith for us to live by! The Bible says:
“Faith” is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1
Hebrews Chapter 11 goes on to recount the ACTIONS of born-again folks who exercised their supernatural faith. For example:
By faith Noah spent 100 years building an Ark when he’d never SEEN rain or HEARD of a flood.
By faith Abraham left his nation, his community, and his family to follow God without KNOWING his destination.
Hebrews 11:7-8
If Noah had been motivated to act (believe) based ONLY upon his five senses, building an ark would have been complete nonsense. If Abraham had been motivated ONLY by his five senses, he would have never left Ur. If Esther had been motivated ONLY by her five senses, she would have never challenged the King or Haman and saved the Jews. (Esther 5-10) Supernatural faith allows us to transcend what our five senses tell us “makes sense” and to act under the direction of God because we know Him and He knows all things. We know He is far more reliable than our physical senses lead us to believe.
If we are to find rest for our soul, supernatural faith in God must be the driving force of our life—in other words—it must be “mixed” into all we do! (Hebrews 4:1-2)
And so the problem, and—the reason we do not have this supernatural rest prescribed by God—is our failure to move beyond our faith in our five senses. Thus, we’re simply left to exhaust ourselves and our budget with self-care methods that fall short of giving us the rest our soul needs. That’s why even when we do all the right things prescribed by our physicians, parents, and even follow many of the rules in God’s Word—eat healthy, exercise, work, pamper ourselves, go to church, live a good life—we STILL feel exhausted and worried.
Faith in earthly things [even our own “godly” works” will NEVER produce God’s supernatural rest. When our faith stops short of God—we are living in “unbelief” in Him.
Unless we are living by supernatural faith, we will remain crushed and exhausted by our need for rest.
So, how do we learn to live in supernatural faith when our brain has been trained for years to only live by earthly faith? My friend, this is only possible through diligent and consistent soul-care, which is the topic of tomorrow’s devotional. God’s ways are amazing! Are you ready???
