Welcome to a year of reading Richard Sibbes together! The reading plan for the entire year can be accessed here. I encourage you to stick with us, allow yourself time to read, and soak in the riches of this gifted and prolific Puritan preacher. You will be edified and encouraged.

If you have trouble with how Sibbes used words, check out the Lexicons of Early Modern English for definitions from the period.

Summary/Engagement

Imagine winning the lottery. Say, $250 million. What a feeling that might be! No more debt or scraping by. The relief of having all your children’s education expenses paid for. Heck, I can’t imagine just having all their food paid for. Now, imagine trying to earn it instead of receiving it gladly. How could you earn it? It’s a ridiculous sum of money that none of us have the ability to earn and the thought of trying is ridiculous.

Why do we try to earn favor from God? Why do we try to do his work for him instead of receiving what he has done?

“Let us do our work, and leave God to do his own. Diligence and trust in him is only ours, the rest of the burden is his.”

I wonder sometimes if we just don’t like the idea of God having to do work on our behalf. Let’s be forthright; God has done and is doing all the heavy lifting. He made the universe and all that is in it. He made the Earth and filled it with life. He made us. We sinned and separated ourselves from him. We broke covenant with God, not he with us. Yet he sent his Son to live the obedient life we couldn’t live, to die the death we deserved, and who was resurrected on the third day in victory over sin and death.

It wasn’t you or I up on that cross in Israel, but it should be. That is precisely where we deserve to be. He bore the burden of the cross, the wrath of God, and death itself. He bore the incomprehensible weight of sin in his body on the tree. (1 Peter 2:24) What does he ask in return? Obedience. Our work is to obey him. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3) 

Application / Further Discussion

Moving past obedience to attempting to do God’s work is exhausting. How’s it working for you? It doesn’t work for me. We try to force the hand of God and grab and take and do far more than he has provided for us. We want more money, more influence, more… you get the picture. We want all these things from God rather than God himself who provides all things.  Christ said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

We don’t trust God because we don’t obey God. In fact, the act of trusting him is an act of obedience. We weren’t called to be successful, to be rich, to be super Christians, or to be great at everything. We were called to obey God, primarily by believing in and confessing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Do you want to know God’s will for your life? “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20) That is God’s will for your life, without exception.

We’re complicating the simple because we’re scared to obey, or just flat disobedient. Friends, trust him. Your sinful nature will fight you every step of the way. God doesn’t give you everything you need ahead of time to accomplish what he has called you to. He wants your faith and trust in him to provide all that you need. Your calling and election are sure. Christ has won the day. We have been blessed in Christ “with every spiritual blessing.” (Ephesians 1:3) What are you afraid of?

“All our sufficiency for every calling is from God.”

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Last week, we read chapters 21-27 of The Soul’s Conflict.

Next week, we’ll read chapters 28-34 of The Soul’s Conflict, which will finish it.