The following is an excerpt from Jennie Allen’s new study, Proven. Order your copy or see a free sample today at Lifeway.com/Proven. You can also pick up a copy at your local Lifeway Store!
When Jesus promises us rest, He is almost always talking about soul rest. It’s why all the ways we try to rest our souls don’t actually make us feel very rested—TV, sleep, Facebook surfing, and so forth. They all fall short because nothing but Jesus can issue rest for our chaotic insides.
In fact, most of the ways we try and rest actually make our insides more chaotic. Surfing Facebook can end with us angry over someone’s post or comparing our lives to our friends’. Binge-watching a show can suck us into fictional stress and distract us from connecting with our real-life people. Even taking a vacation can become chaotic with plans and preparation and possibly disappointed expectations.
Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.”
John 6:5-7, ESV
In these verses we see Jesus state the impossible task before Philip, testing him. It seems Jesus went out of His way to show Philip and the rest of the disciples it could not be done in their power.
Then with shocking ease and out of a place of relationship and trust with His Father, Jesus modeled for them and us the freedom from striving and the joy of dependence.
Jesus fully trusted in the exceeding abundance of His Father, God.
Do we?
Last night I sat up late processing all of this with Zac. We remembered how many times we have all but lost our minds with fear about the future, fear about provisions, fear about pleasing people, fear about sickness, fear about measuring up.
Fear = Striving
Philip believed there wasn’t enough. Philip believed they were in this with only their own resources. But Andrew had at least enough faith to bring Jesus whatever they had, even though it was insufficient.
And then, almost to drive home the point even further, in the chaos of a storm, Jesus walks on water to His men. He could have gotten on the boat before it left the shore, but then they would have missed His overwhelming power over all of the chaos. We may feel crushed by the fear of real circumstances, but Jesus is above the circumstances. He moves through chaos as if it doesn’t exist, because in light of eternity and His unending resources and power, our chaos here is a small storm that Jesus walks right through with us.
Jesus is the living, unending water and the Bread of life when all other breads run out. He keeps giving in abundance. Our soul rest is not based on the absence of trouble and chaos. Our soul rest is based on the never-failing character of our good, capable, rich Father God.
Take a minute and lay out your fears.
What are you afraid of?
What are you worried about?
If God wants to rescue us from chaos, He can. But what if He doesn’t? What if He allows the storm so that we might know His power to walk right through it with us? Perhaps the chaos continues so that He might conform us to the image of His Son.
In the middle of the storm we need to remember some important things. This world is not our home. This life is not the end. There is nothing man can do to us, nothing sacred that can be taken from us. We are as secure as Jesus was on that water because we know our Father God is with us. He has prepared a forever place for us. And one day all things will be made right.
Actually, through studying with you the last few weeks I realized my hopes weren’t big enough for this God. He doesn’t just give us what we need now; He gives us what we need forever, with no fear of it ever running out.
Joy
Peace
Hope
Love
Presence
Rest in spades—forever.