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VERSE I

REST
Is not laziness

It is trust

REST

Is not striving

It is “letting God”

REST

It is being still enough
to hear his still small voice

REST

Only possible, as I let go
of my agenda

REST
Is the opposite spirit of the world In which we live,

For It’s TRUST



VERSE TWO

(Trust that....)

God
can do what "He says" HE can do.


I can do
what "He says" I can do.

God....
is the One He says He is,

and He declares to be

"I AM”


and God has created me

so I am WHO
"He says" I am.

Therefore,

I REST

in the knowing that
He is the One

In Control
over all.

This is TRUST

This is rest.

Trust is Rest.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS...After you read this lesson, Click on PHOTOS, and look at the first one...and think of your heavenly father upholding YOU.


MUSIC TEACHER LESSON: TRUST IS REST

The Devil will try to bring all he can to disturb our rest…
Most unrest comes from unbelief….or from oppression from the Enemy.
Yet rest IS found in our Lord…if we will go to him.

Satan’s ways aren’t much more creative than they were back in Moses’ day
when, through Pharoah at that time, He was greatly oppressing the people of God.

He is using the SAME EXACT TACTIC TODAY in our lives.

Let’s take a look:

Exodus 5:5-8
5 Look how NUMEROUS the people of the land are already,” continued Pharaoh, “and yet you would give them REST from their labor?!” 6 That very day Pharaoh gave the taskmasters and foremen of the people this order: 7 “You shall no longer supply the people with straw for their brick making as you have previously done. Let them go and gather straw themselves! 8 Yet you shall levy upon them the same quota of bricks as they have previously made. DO NOT REDUCE IT. THEY ARE LAZY; that is why they are crying, ‘Let us go to offer sacrifice to our God.’ 9 INCREASE THE WORK FOR THE MEN, so that they keep their mind ON IT and pay no attention to lying words.”

Friends, Pharaoh is a picture of how Satan would lie TO YOU… and get you spread so thin, so focused on the WORK and the BUSYNESS of your daily BUSINESS that you would neglect the TIME WITH and DEVOTION TO GOD …in terms of intimacy with him and helping others with love in a practical way. If SATAN can keep you “distracted” and “multiply” your daily pursuits then you’ll have no time for God. And this heavy oppression you don’t even get a blessing from!! Note, the same quota was levied though the labor was multiplied. Satan can spread you so thin that REST will become impossible to you. REST in God’s words, TRUST in his provision, protection, deliverance, and redemption.

How does he do this? He lies by saying you’re LAZY if you take a few moments to be with the Lord. He lies and says you’re not WORKING HARD ENOUGH in the things of man or in the things of God. He lies by saying there is no hope for change…no relief from your distress.

REST is trust….not in yourself…
or in what You Do…
but in God and what He has done.

Satan, through Pharaoh, attacked God’s people with the following premeditated agendas:
-To take away their trust in their God
-To remove any faith that “they were delivered”
-To cause them to “moan and groan” under the oppression
-To make them work HARDER without any additional benefit to that harder work
-To make them insensitive to even HOPE of God’s deliverance
-To weary them and tire them so much that they were numb, yet kept busy…
-To take away their health…and yes, to take away their wealth

- Do you feel under these attacks ever? THEN “SEE” and “HEAR” THE GOOD NEWS…
Satan (Pharaoh) was “threatened” by their numbers… so he had to have a TACTIC to DIFFUSE THEM. Why, if they combined in hope and faith and love, imagine what they could do?

If they entered into rest of the Lord, believed in their deliverance, imagine what a threat they would pose to his kingdom! Why was he opposed to their “rest from their labors?”…. because then they could concentrate on and worship their powerful God, that’s why!!!

SATAN’S OPPRESSION WAS WORKING… BUT THEN MOSES WENT TO GOD

Now, let’s take a look at God’s response (Exodus 6:1-9)
1 Then the LORD answered Moses, “NOW YOU SHALL SEE WHAT I WILL DO to Pharaoh. Forced by my mighty hand, he will send them away; compelled by my outstretched arm, he will drive them from his land.” 2 God also said to Moses, “I AM THE LORD. 3 As God the Almighty I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but my name, LORD, I did not make known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they were living as aliens. 5 And NOW that I HAVE HEARD THE GROANING of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are treating as slaves, I AM MINDFUL of my covenant. 6 Therefore, say to the Israelites: I AM THE LORD. I WILL FREE YOU from the forced labor of the Egyptians and WILL DELIVER YOU from their slavery. I WILL RESCUE YOU by my outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I WILL TAKE YOU as my own people, and you shall have me as your God. You will know that I, the LORD, am YOUR God WHEN I FREE YOU from the labor of the Egyptians 8 and bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I WILL GIVE IT TO YOU as your own possession—I, the LORD!”

PLEASE NOTE THE PEOPLE’S RESPONSE:

9 But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to him because of their dejection and hard slavery.

This too may be the response of many of you when you read this.

NOW... Take a look at the capital lettered words in God’s response above…

Guess what?

He understands and can deliver you, even if you find it hard to receive. Just believe. Oppression may be heavy upon you… BUT GOD is able to free you. If you feel prompted, call or email someone to intercede for you.

Notice the I WILLs in GOD'S response. Do you see that it isn’t dependent upon you?

Christ IS our deliverer. He came to destroy the works of the devil, and oppression and unrest are of the devil. If you simply LET CHRIST IN to your circumstances, He will be your deliverer, even as he is your savior from sin. The Israelites were already GOD’S PEOPLE and so are you if you are in Christ. YET they needed also to be brought out of their bondage to Egypt (the World System they were enslaved by), as you too need to be.

If you are overworked, overstressed, overextended, overscheduled, overwrought, and feel like you’re almost over the edge….look up. Your redemption draweth nigh. Your deliverer is at hand. He hears even the moanings of your heart, and the groans that your words cannot utter. If you are one of his chosen people, “an Israelite-a believer”…one in covenant through faith in Jesus Christ… realize that your covenant has good and precious promises attached to it. One is FREEDOM and the other is INHERITANCE. And they spell out REST! TRUST is all you need. Trust in HIS WORD and IN HIM. This is FAITH.

Believing God can do as He says he can do… as he did for his people when he took them out of Egypt…and then into their promised land.

Believing you can do what He says you can do (in other words, who you ARE in Christ…and what that means is possible for you to rest in.)

ITS ABOUT HIS HAND and HIS OUTSTRETCHED ARM ----
ITS ABOUT HIS LOVE and HIS COMMITMENT TO YOU----
YOU LOVE HIM – FOR HE FIRST LOVED YOU.
YOU MUST PREPARE TO RECEIVE IF YOU’RE ASKING FOR DELIVERANCE AND REST
YOU MUST DRAW NEAR …THAT’S ALL.
REST IS FAITH. FAITH IS REST… IN HIM

ALERT:
While God is in the process of setting you free, it may SEEM that you are getting even heavier oppressed, and that your painful experience is being magnified, but that’s actually how it is before you are set free. Let’s say you have anger inside…as you continually go to God about it, you may notice it flaring more and more often, filling you with such frustration and more anger cause you can’t seem to lick it…. But let me tell you…keep giving it to the Lord, for if you keep turning from it, and keep renouncing it, it has to go, for GOD will DELIVER YOU from it. Same is true of any issue you are struggling with. Part of the good news is that we have the promise of REST given us by God.

REST COMES FROM BELIEVING.

For further reading and to touch on an even deeper revelation of the Rest that is available to believers read Hebrews 4.

**The words of this song…though simple…if you go through them over and over … carry deep truth. IF YOU WILL APPLY THEM, GOD WILL BRING YOU REST. I have not yet attained it, but it is getting easier and easier as I’m giving the Lord my trust and letting go of my own agendas. It often seems that the oppression is worsening as I’m coming into the reality of God’s rest, but herein is my own faith tried. Will I continue to trust? Oh YES! I desire that sweet rest that is available to me---and to you.