Sacred Rest

We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
— Romans 8:37

Self-improvement is big business. Who doesn’t want to improve? We hope to become fitter, healthier, wiser, and more loving. We want to be more successful in business and more present in our daily lives. We try so hard to be good. The question is, how good is good enough?

Most of us end up exhausting ourselves in the quest for ever-elusive “balance.” But many self-help gurus hide the hard truth that we will never attain it on our own. Today’s verse reveals the key: we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

The victory over sin — and all our other weaknesses — is through Christ.

The Christian life is not a self-improvement course, so you can stop trying to be good enough and rest. Jesus has done all the work for you. He offers to take every scrap of your sin, put it on Himself, take the penalty you deserve, and give you His righteousness in return. If you have received His gift of salvation, when God looks at you He sees Christ’s perfection — period. Your failures were pardoned at the cross.

You must admit, the offer of salvation He holds out is too good to pass up!

Once you receive Christ’s righteousness, you are invited to live in rest and freedom. If guilt or shame arises, just remind yourself Jesus has already declared you “not guilty.” You do not need to pay again for your sins, which Jesus already paid for once and for all. Just turn from them and toward Him.

When temptations and trials come, know that you can overwhelmingly conquer through Him. When you feel weak or unable to move forward, you can continue through Him. Jesus said,

My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.

So like Paul we can “boast all the more gladly about [our] weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on [us]” (2 Corinthians 12:9). How’s that for self-improvement?

Lord, I try everything to avoid being weak. But I don’t want to miss out on experiencing Your power at work in me when I have reached the limit of my sufficiency. Weak people need You. I desperately need You. I can’t be a conqueror without You.

Excerpted from Sacred Rest by Cheryl Wunderlich.