The multitude of blessings from God’s grace does give us cause to stop our striving after the worthless things of this world. We must strive after the treasure that is Christ. We must have the Psalmist passion in Ps 42 “As a deer longs for the flowing stream so my soul longs for you, O God.” I believe our need is to be in the Word of God so that we can know God more fully. That striving leads to a life that is worthy. Paul’s own striving was to “know God and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings” (Phil 3:10) and though he hadn’t attained, he kept reaching for more. In the text Andy used, Paul prays for the Ephesians believers to grow in knowing God. Ephesians 1:16-17 (ESV)16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Paul will pray the same for the Colossian church as well. At least the first step is always to know Christ, behold his glory and see Him as the treasure that He is to us especially as we seek to grasp the fulness of His grace so freely bestowed in the Gospel.
As for sleep, Psalms 127:2 does tell us that “He gives his beloved sleep”. C.J. Mahaney says it takes humility to recognize our limitations and need to receive sleep as a gift from the Lord. Impatience and anger can be exagerated by the lack of sleep. More work in less time can be done by those who are well rested. But with all these benefits we must not give into laziness. It is to the sluggard, scripture says, too much sleep will lead to poverty (Proverbs 6:4-10).
I was blessed by Andy’s message and the question and answer time. I pray we all know and enjoy the many blessings that are ours in the Gospel especially the treasure who is Jesus Christ the Beloved.
