SITTING IN A CHAIR
There are moments when the Lord invites us into a quiet room of faith where the noise of our own striving must fall silent. Trusting Jesus is like sitting in a chair. You rest because the chair holds you. You lean because it is strong. You cease from effort because the work is already done. So it is with Christ. He calls us to stop propping ourselves up with our own righteousness and lean entirely upon Him who is our life. The Bible speaks with a clear and tender voice. “Come to Me all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28) and “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27).
When a man sits in a chair he does not test the structure with long explanations. He simply commits himself to it. The weight of his body becomes the silent testimony that he trusts its strength. Saving faith is this act of entrusting the whole weight of your soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31), because “the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer” (Psalm 18:2). Our trust does not create His strength, it simply surrenders to it.
A chair does not require perfection of posture. It only receives the one who comes. So Christ receives the weary and the wounded. He gathers the brokenhearted into His embrace. The sinner who feels unworthy may sit down in the mercy of the Savior whose blood has made the way. Jesus declares that “the one who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). The miracle is not that we hold Christ but that Christ holds us.
There is also a quiet confidence that grows as we rest in Him. A person who trusts a chair does not live in anxiety about falling. In the same way the Christian learns to rest his conscience, his future and his eternity upon the risen Lord. We lean upon His promises. We abide in His presence. We trust His heart when we cannot see His hand. “Commit your way to the Lord trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:5). “Casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
At last, resting in Christ becomes a way of life. Not laziness but surrender. Not passivity but peace. We walk with Him because we have first rested upon Him. We obey because we trust. We endure because His grace is enough. And every day we sit again in the strong mercy of Jesus who upholds all things by the word of His power. “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Indeed, “the just shall live by faith” (Hebrews 10:38).
BDD
