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Just try harder
is all I heard,
When I failed to
God obey,
And penance
became my sole
companion.
Though he was
hardly that,
for he made me wear
Sleeves of shame
everywhere
I went.
No rest for the wicked,
the same
would say.
Good behavior
and going to
Heaven
Were well beyond
my wretched
grasp.
Then a man
of some renown,
A man who knew
all too well
the weight of
the guilt-soaked cycle
of never ending
defeat,
Said, God made us,
in Christ Jesus,
to be "restful human beings,
not busy human doings."*
Jesus is our good behavior.
Jesus is our deliverance.
Jesus is our rest.
Through Him alone
we can truly
live no more
striving in futility to gain
God's elusive favor.
Trying harder does not work,
because the
work is done,
Like a grape vine to a branch,
Jesus' Spirit
flows through
to me, all the while
Making me into who
God wants me
to be.
In Jesus,
with every
breath,
inhaling "YH,"
and exhaling "WH,"
every moment
of every day,
All I do now
is rest.
Hebrews 4:9-10
*From
Praying Grace,
by David Holland |
