We remain in chains in our hovel. We have no idea how bound we are. Truly, as the Lord said, we are "wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked." Yet we cling fiercely to our rags, hoping that God will not disturb us too much.

If we could only see ourselves! Here we are in our tarpaper shack. We have a pig and two goats in the house with us. A few scrawny chickens are pecking in the yard. We are clothed in rags, sharing a few cobs of corn with the animals.

This is how the wealthiest of us looks in the sight of Heaven.

The King sends His ambassador to our door. The purple rug is unrolled. The trumpeters announce the presence of the royal messenger. The ambassador knocks on the door of our house and invites us to come to the palace as a son and heir of the King. The angels watch hopefully to see what our response will be.

But we look at our cracked windows, our pig, goats, and chickens, our sagging front door, and we think, "How can I leave all of this? This is what I am used to. This is my home. I do not trust this ambassador. Maybe I will lose my shack and my animals."

This is a true picture of the person who is trying to decide whether or not to abandon his or her own life and trust Christ for all things—wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

I knew a man who had a sewer business. The call of God was strong on him. I encouraged him to launch out and do what God was requesting. His response was, "What will I do with my shovels?"

We do not stop and reason that all we possess, every relationship, thing, and circumstance was given to us by the Lord. He can remove any part of them at any time with or without our permission. But He prefers that for our sake we gladly return to God that which really belongs to God and not to us, including our own life!

God's desire is to set us free in the only way in which we can be set free—that is, by encouraging us to cease from our own works that we might enter His rest.

The Lord Jesus Christ always delights to do God's will. The greatest good that will ever come to us, the highest height we will ever reach, is that place in Christ where our will has become one with God's will, where we delight to do His will.

God is working in us both to will and to do what pleases Him. We will have a much more enjoyable existence if we cease from our own works and look to the Lord for every thought we think, every word we speak, and every action we perform. (from Pressing Into God's Rest)