Hmm…. It’s funny that I ended up with this verse, and not even on purpose.

I just happen to be reading a book, and the first word of the title refers to this exact verse. The word is “Sit”. In that one little word, there lies a world of depth and power! Am I being over dramatic?
Well let’s see.

One of the biggest struggles in my life was my constant “trying” to be what I knew a Christian should be. I was trying to run the race, fight the fight!

But day after day, month after month, I failed. Confession, I didn’t have the mildest temper in the world, (I still don’t sometimes), but there were so many days where I would purpose to try harder than ever not to yell at anyone, or argue, or be disrespectful, but, nothing changed. (Bet you didn’t see that coming. 😉

So as I got older I got more discouraged, till I was seriously sick of all this failure.

……Enter the truth found in our verse.

The verses leading up to this one lay an amazing foundation and each one had a part in changing my heart. They all talk about us being dead in sins, walking after the prince of the power of the air, fulfilling the lusts of our flesh and of our mind. That all applied to me. Then, as Charity pointed out in verse 4, two incredible words appear: But God. Those two words launched me into a new look at life. Then God keeps going, He quickens us, makes us alive by His grace; and then comes verse 6. The whole amazing concept found in this one word, “sit” gives a picture of what life in Christ is to be. This verse showed me that before I can “DO” anything for God, for His kingdom, even for others, I have to be able to rest in what He has already done for me.

A lot of my life was spent in fear, regret, apprehension and vain striving because I thought I only got to sit in that heavenly place if I ran hard enough, walked far enough, DID enough. But as Watchman Nee, the author of the book I’m reading, said so perfectly:

“…Christianity begins not with a big DO, but with a big DONE.”

I sit as a forgiven, redeemed, and blessed child of God, because Jesus did something. It didn’t take even a pinky’s twitch of my own effort.

One of the most amazing revelations for me was that it’s a good thing it’s about what Jesus did, because I’d NEVER have gotten there if it relied on me. I think that’s what true humility understands. Pride says “But there MUST be something I can do to help get me there!” Humility and true worship says, “There is NOTHING I can do to be worthy of such a place, so I will spend my time exalting the goodness of the One who did all that was needed to bring me there.”

Now, here are two things that kept me from enjoying this truth for a long time.
• Rights and sins I wasn’t willing to give up, (you can’t enjoy sitting and resting next to Christ when you’re harboring things you know break His heart) and secondly

• Lack of faith. (I just didn’t know how all these promises worked, and so  I didn’t believe them.)

Ok…. this is random, but maybe it’ll help us understand what I mean by “faith”. When I was younger, (I won’t say when because it wasn’t as long ago as it should have been) I came upon an unsolvable and absolutely ridiculous claim in my math book. Those idiots said that -3 x -3 equaled the very same number as 3×3, which as you mathematicians know, would be 9. To my logical and superior brain, that was THE stupidest thing I had ever heard! How on earth, or wherever math facts were thought up, could two negative numbers, that DIDN’T even EXIST, when multiplied, equal the very same REAL number, as two actual positive numbers??
It took my dad some serious explaining (using candy, or money, some such easily understandable example) before I agreed to join my beliefs with such a questionable theory.

I treated truths, like the one in our verse, the same way. It may say that God has done all that, but it didn’t make sense, and I didn’t feel that way, so I just couldn’t believe it; and I suffered for it.

But, when people started explaining His words to me, (not usually with candy or money this time) and when God, in His patience, showed me His word in new ways, I began choosing to believe what He said, regardless of whether it made sense, or matched my feelings. I could feel like -3x-3 shouldn’t equal 9, but the truth was the truth no matter what I felt in my 17 year old mind. (…Hee hee, just kidding, I WAS younger than THAT.) Eventually though, I chose to believe the truth no matter what I thought or how I felt.

We’re meditating and memorizing this whole chapter because it builds the truth, it gives us a battering ram that grows stronger with each verse, and eventually it will crash down the gates to the fortresses of lies, doubts, and failures, that the devil has gleefully built in our hearts.

Wow, that was a TON of rambling and I don’t even know if it made sense, but there you go. 🙂

Anyhow, go away from this rejoicing that, though you and I were unworthy, God stepped in and for no reason other than His goodness, He placed us in His presence right next to Jesus, so we could begin to know the incredible life that He offers us. A life that begins with resting in what He has done.

Think about that good and long, and see if it doesn’t start changing things.

“And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:” Ephesians 2:6

 

 ~Laura