Out of rest comes our best. And when we are at rest in our God given created self, content and accepting of who we are and how we are made, we realize our best, the best version of ourselves.For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

The payment that comes due in each of us when we disobey God,s heart and make selfish choices is decline, loss, death. The outcome is erosion, decay, brokenness, emotional, physical and spiritual dysfunction. But the opposite is also true. When we accept Jesus as our Savior and start to live in his free gift of eternal life, joy and rest, wholeness and healing set in and the reversal of decline begins. He is removing the calcification of sin and redeeming us so we might realize the best version he planned. He created you with gifts, abilities, style and personality, and his design is for you to be your most true created self. This brings honor to the maker. The designer’s pleasure is realized in the creation’s fulfillment. Early church fathers penned these words: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. You and I truly glorify God by enjoying him, by being in a healthy functioning relationship of life and contentment. Living in rest and being happy in our own skin displays his beauty and reveals his grace and redemptive powers for others to see.

In 1981 the Best Picture of that year was based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics, Eric Liddell a devoted Christian and Harold Abrahams. Eric was committed to fulfilling his call as a missionary, but as he comes to know himself and his God given gifts and abilities, he comes to accept that to be true to himself and his Savior he is meant to compete, to run. He said, “When I run, I feel His pleasure.”

God has designed you to feel his pleasure in the very way you were made and being true to yourself. Ask the Holy Spirit to continue to reveal his work in you. Don’t live up to someone’s else view or version of you. Find God’s version and live your best, at rest.

Q: Who have you tried to live up to or for and you know it’s not really you?

Q: How have you seen God redeem even some of the mistakes you have made?