God will lead us to make decisions we would not make on our own. He will also lead us to go places we would not go on our own. When we live with an open posture, God surprises. And with God, we can learn to make wise decisions.

We live in a highly productive, highly stimulated, highly stressed culture and we all desire rest. But despite vacations, weekends, naps, hobbies and entertainment, I would contend that we never really get the rest that we are looking for. But true rest is only found in Jesus, because only He has the ability to make us ok. It was Him who stood in our place of judgment and it is Him who gives us His rightness and makes us okay.

So how do we get this rest? We hide ourselves in Jesus and God sees us as He sees His Son…Perfect…Ok. No matter how much we fail, no matter how much we succeed…our hope is always Jesus.

You can’t keep living your way and follow Jesus. Jesus will not only call you to things that challenge you as a whole, anything you grip will become the focus of what He asks for. Comparing your life with the world is missing the mark of life. It’s only in living with a new message in a new system will you discover the life that Jesus has called you to.

Jesus called Levi (Matthew) from the place He finds him. He tells Levi to follow Him from where he is. Jesus never asks him to change and clean up first. The same is true for us. Jesus calls us from where we are…He never asks us to clean up our messes first. He tells us to come as we are. He does this for us and also for our friends to see. He uses us and our disfunction to reach those around us. These are opportunities for us to reach others. Where we have been called out of and redeemed, is where God uses us to touch others most powerfully.

When the tension exists between what currently is and what will be, we wait and trust Christ.