The Backdrop
Have you ever been in a situation in which the harder you try the more you fail? Maybe it was dieting; meeting homework deadlines; trying to stop one of those habitual, nagging sins; or maybe you came home from a youth group retreat or missions trip fired up finally to have regular quiet time—that lasted about three days. These kinds of results can be demoralizing. It might even make us ask, “Why try?”

Here’s a word: Rest.

Let Jesus do the trying.

Here’s why: Did you know how much activity is going on in our bodies when we sleep? While our minds are disengaged and we’re resting, our muscles are repairing, our cells are reproducing, our tissues are restoring. Medical folks who track this stuff tell us that every tissue in the body is renewed faster during sleep than at any time when we are awake. In fact, some regeneration occurs only when we sleep!

We can apply this to our spiritual lives, too. The trick is to disengage our trying in order to let Jesus do the repairing and restoring while we rest. It actually may be easier than we think.

Here’s how:

The What
Read the passages below from your Bible or from an online source such as BibleGateway.com. As you read, look for anything Jesus, God and/or the Holy Spirit are doing on our insides. In fact, you may want to print these passages and draw a symbol of some sort around everything related to the work happening to our insides.

2 Corinthians 3:18
2 Corinthians 4:14-16
Ephesians 2:22
Philippians 1:3-6
Hebrews 12:2

The So What
As you can see from these verses, something is going on inside of you whether you know it. In fact, if you want to get detailed, take a minute to make a list of all the things you see in these passages that are happening to you internally.

This is an amazing batch of truth. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are like a three-Man work crew in our souls, working their magic of renewal and transformation; and they’re doing this without us lifting a finger. Sometimes we simply need to rest in that truth.

Our physical bodies must have rest. We can diet, exercise and eat right; but if we don’t sleep, those activities won’t have a chance to take effect. You wonder if the same might be true of our walk with God. We can be busy with ministry activities, church obligations, Bible study and devotions. However, if we don’t take time to rest, we don’t give God a chance to do His work, which is far greater than any work we can accomplish ourselves.

Seal the Deal
Try this experiment: Got a sinful habit you’re trying to break or a bad attitude you’re trying to adjust? Rather than trying to beat it back from the outside with only accountability, discipline, goal setting, etc. (which are all good and can be helpful), try beating it back from the inside. Get obsessed with reminding yourself of everything God is doing to you on the inside. Use the list you made from these verses to create wallpaper for your smartphone or print the list on sheets of paper and tape them where you’ll see them several times a day.

Then rest. Trust. Take time to allow this renewal and transformation to take place. When you are being tempted, resolutely tell the temptation the truth of what is happening to you on the inside.