Resting and Rousing
I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
Rise, let us be going.
Matthew 26:46
He rests us and He rouses us. This nervous age keeps going with pills to put it to sleep and pills to keep it awake. From sedative to stimulant our generation lives by shots in the arm. We both rest and rouse our jaded selves artificially.
But all we need for both purposes is found in Jesus. He gives us His peace. “Rest in the Lord” is God’s prescription. “Entered Into Rest” should not be limited to epitaphs on tombstones. We can enter into His rest any time we cease from our own feverish works and rest in His finished work.
And He rouses us. “Be not drunk with win wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.” There you have the world’s false stimulant and the Divine stirring of the Spirit. “Stir up the gift of God” means kindling the Fire within us, although the coals may be covered with ashes. Alas, “there is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of God.”
Whether you need resting or rousing, He does both. But we co-operate as we rest in Him or rouse ourselves to do His bidding.