How I Found Rest in Jesus

HOW I FOUND REST IN JESUS

Quotable Quote: “When I focus on me, I become miserable, because I never measure up. But, praise God, that is the point! While I don’t measure up, He does!”

My wife and I went to another church yesterday in order to avoid an ugly situation with an individual related to us. We will return to our church. Yet, we had a good experience yesterday. It was a typical evangelical contemporary worship service with good music and fine preaching. We were blessed. But, I also had a powerful personal insight.

In my last post I shared that the unique thing John Calvin did was to advance the idea that the believer could know with assurance that he/she would persevere in the faith. The consensus view before the Reformation was that no one but God could know the future with assurance. My point is not to debate this issue; rather, it is to talk about the impact of Calvin’s idea.

After Calvin, increasingly Protestant Christians moved away from an outward sacramental religion toward greater inward self-examination. For the Catholic Christian, the question in regard to one’s salvation has to do with being in a state of grace as determined by the church’s mediation of the sacraments. For Protestants, the question of salvation became the examination of the one’s own belief–am I or am I not a true believer? If a Protestant can determine that they are a true believer, then he/she can be assured that they will persevere and go to heaven. The sacraments and the church only validate, but are not determinative in relation to one’s salvation.

The Pietistic movement within Protestantism is sort of self-examination on steroids. Pietism originated as a reform movement within Lutheranism but it has had a profound impact on most Protestants, particularly evangelicals and Pentecostals. It emphasized the importance of individual piety and living a vigorous Christian life. Again, the focus is primarily upon one’s self and not “externals”.

Much of this is good. But, like any good thing, it can be taken too far. With all the self examination of “how am I doing,” it is easy to lose sight of one incredibly important thing–Jesus. It is Jesus who is our salvation and not us.

Prof. Philippe Carey tells the story of what Luther often did to minister to people at their death bed. If the person was fearful and unsure of their salvation, Luther would hold a crucifix before the dying person and say something like, “Of course you are not worthy, but it is not about you, it is Christ who saves us, cling to Him and His cross–cling to Him!” I love that story.

Back to the church service. I am a Protestant Evangelical with a strong Pietistic heritage. Yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice how much of that good service was oriented toward the individual. The music, the message, the lyrics, the whole orientation of the service pulled me toward myself. It pulled me to myself, except for one thing. That one thing was communion. Suddenly, during prayer at communion I had a profound experience. I stopped thinking about myself.

Corrie Ten Boom said, “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest.” During communion prayer, I became depressed looking within. Then I suddenly realized that communion isn’t about me, it is about Jesus. Jesus is my salvation. I stopped worrying about, “how am I doing?” I started pouring out gratitude to the Lord for all that He is and all that He has done. When I focus on me, I become miserable, because I never measure up. But, praise God, that is the point! While I don’t measure up, He does! In that moment I had a paradigm shift. For once, I really saw the bread and cup as something “given for me.” Suddenly, my miserable inadequacy didn’t matter. All that mattered was Jesus. I guess you might say I stopped being a good Pietist and started being a better Christian. I found myself at rest in Him.