Rest.

Rest.  It’s a physical and emotional requirement for all humans.  And not just from a secular point of view.  God proved the importance of rest when he led by example and rested on the 7^th day after creating the world.  Multiple times in the New Testament we see Jesus removing himself from the crowds so he could refresh and rejuvenate himself (get some rest!). Our souls are hard-wired to need rest as well but because we spend so much time focused on trying to earn God’s favor – trying to measure up - we rarely receive the rest we require.  The weight of our personal, social and religious obligations keep us on a type of performance treadmill that often becomes too much to bear (as I referenced in a recent devotion).  And why is it too much to bear?  Because there’s no way we can ever meet the requirement; no way to ever measure up.  We need something beyond ourselves to satisfy God’s divine tape measure.

Enter Jesus.  He was perfectly obedient for us so that, no matter how good or bad we perform, we’re in.  Good day or bad day, he satisfied the requirements we put on ourselves.  He made it so that we are “just-as-if-we’d-never-sinned” (justified).

Do you get it?  God sees you as already “measured up” (because Jesus “measured up” for you).  And when you function as a person who has already measured up, you do things out of love, not obligation.  This, and only this, will provide the perfect rest you desperately need and earnestly long for.