Resting

There is a guy, Gary, who is in my life.  He is a wonderful encourager.  The moments when he passes through my life are like the first bite of one of Jan’s cherry pies, eye-popping delicious.  He is the tipping point person who sent me into this journey of blogging.

Not long ago, he sent me a text suggesting I consider the word “rest” used in 1 Peter 4:14. In that historical New Testament moment, the term “rest” was not lost in the message of hope for Christians thriving under persecution.  Here is the Phillips translation:

If you are reproached for being Christ’s followers, that is a great privilege, for you can be sure that God’s Spirit of glory is resting upon you.

It is so challenging to restrain my mind from pursuing the phrase, “God’s Spirit of glory.”  But, it is pointless to consider the word “rest” without those four words in mind.  Notice, the persecuted Christian is not doing the resting.  It is the Spirit of God!

To get the word “rest” in a relatable position in my mind, I found it necessary to think from a miserable to pleasurable logic.  To me, there is nothing more melancholy in my human experience than the “dog days of summer.” I have had a lot of distress over the years from all the regular sources.  But the oppressive heat and humidity of summer zap life; all I want to do is sit in front of our freezer and watch the frozen pork chops slowly thaw.  The sultry air is thick and oppressive.  After peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, air conditioning is my favorite gift from our Creator.

I found a cool web page I had never considered to be in existence, “The Farmer’s Almanac.” It has a good explanation of the term “Dog Days.” ( https://www.farmersalmanac.com/why-are-they-called-dog-days-of-summer-21705 )

A coincidence?  Gary sent me his text on the first official day of the 2020 Dog Days of summer.

The word “rest” is the opposite of that, yet with the same meaning.  Take out the “dog” thing and put in “cherry pie,” and you have what the “resting” of God’s Spirit’s glory is all about.  I don’t think I can say it any clearer.

There are at least two thoughts to considered to realize this resting of the Spirit experience.  First, you have to take the tart cherries out of the can!  Having mere friendly speaking terms with God and His Word will not suffice when life gets hard.  It takes some work to get to the place where God’s glory can be seen in suffering.  Work on getting close to God now, and when you have a crisis, you will discover He is way ahead of you. Don’t do the work now, and you will be gnawing and clawing on your theology tin can; the glory is so very close but so very far away.  Life will have its painful times.  How, and to the extent, you can relax in suffering will determine your availably for God’s glory in that pain.

For me, there is another image here; the glory of God’s Spirit is “resting.” That tells me the Spirit of God is not working at a manic pace.  He, the Holy Spirit of Jesus who is the Christ, has finished His work.  Your persecution is the negative evidence of His finished work.  My body may not be at rest, but my soul should be.  Then I can make a choice to either live in the moment of my pain or live in the moment of the Spirit’s glory.   Such a world view does not mean persecution, or troubles, will be painless.  By definition, persecution will be painful!  Persecution is purposeful, gloriously purposeful. 

There is yet one observation I have in this consideration.  In all my missionary travels, I have met many brothers and sisters who carry the literal scars of people suffering for following Jesus.  In all my years of pastoring Southern Baptist churches, I cannot recall a single member who suffered real persecution for taking a stand with Jesus Christ.  Not many in our culture have experienced the suffering Peter is preparing his readers to face.  That is not to say we will not in the future have that opportunity.   It is a blessed thing to live in a land of “religious freedom,” but we should never believe that a particular “freedom” cannot be stripped away.  If lighter skin tone Christians were treated in the USA like the Christians of darker skin tones, then we might have a better perspective of what New Testament persecution is all about.  Just something to ponder!

Photo – One of my resting places, the back porch of my shop.