The Reading Plan is designed to guide you through daily scriptures and reflections, helping you deepen your understanding and strengthen your faith. Simply follow the daily readings provided, meditate on the scripture, and reflect on how it applies to your life. You can revisit previous days or jump ahead to future readings at your own pace. Stay consistent, and watch your spiritual growth unfold as you engage with the Word daily.
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- Resting in the Finished Works
5Day Reading Plan
Resting in the Finished Works
- Grace
Creflo Dollar
Jesus’ finished works took care of everything in life that concerns us. When we forget the implications of what He did, we complicate our lives by trying to do what has already been done. This is because we have a mistaken concept of faith. It is good to have faith in Jesus, but our own faith is flawed and imperfect; we need His perfect and fully developed faith.
How to Use the Reading Plan:
About the Author:
Creflo Dollar serves as the Senior Pastor of World Changers Church International in College Park, Georgia. He has authored transformative books like Radical Life of Grace and Why I Hate Religion. His award-winning television broadcast, Changing Your World, reaches nearly 1 billion homes globally.
Day 1The Rest That Jesus Made Available to Us
Believers operate in a culture of worry, anxiety, and stress. If we’re not careful, the prevailing mindset that says we must work hard and do good things if we want to get good things from God will cause us to spin our wheels needlessly. However, Jesus’ finished works took care of everything in life that concerns us. We therefore don’t have to complicate our lives by trying to do what has already been done.
Too many Christians either forget or don’t know this, and get caught in the “do-over” mentality. Jesus did everything that needed to be done, and only had to do it once. Just before He died on the cross, His declaration that “It is finished” summed it all up. Christ was offered once for all time to take away our sins.
Faith in this truth eliminates any perceived need to add to what Jesus did. However, we’ll never reach that point with our own imperfect, flawed faith; we need His perfect, fully complete faith. The righteousness of God is by the faith of Jesus Christ. We’re justified by His faith, not by anything we do.
Old-Testament law was all about constantly working and performing through self-effort, which was exhausting. Most of the world still thinks like this, but God wants more for us. When we’re tired and burned out on religion, spending time with Him gives us a real rest. He promises that wherever we go, His presence also goes, and He’ll give us rest.
Jesus is enough. He’s our New-Testament Sabbath rest. God is satisfied to have all His fullness living in Christ. Genuine belief in what He did for us simplifies our Christian walk and lets us rest in the realm of His finished works.
Scriptures:
John 19:30
Hebrews 9:27, NLT
Romans 3:22
Galatians 2:16
Matthew 11:28-30, MSG
Exodus 33:14
Colossians 1:19, TPT
To learn more about the rest available to believers through Jesus, check out Life Saver Sermon Notes: The Rest Edition or the Victory through Rest 3-message series.
Day 2We Can Rest in Jesus’ Finished Works
The external environment in which we live is one of constant striving and continual self-effort to get into heaven. We’re surrounded by people who subscribe to the mindset that says we must keep laboring in life, as long as we’re doing something to try to please God. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do what pleases God, but the motives behind what we do matter greatly to Him. Resting in what Jesus already did for us while we go about our daily lives keeps us from a fear-based mindset and gives us peace.
Jesus did everything necessary—including giving His life—for our salvation, and we don’t have to add anything to it. Full confidence in this spares us from feeling like we have to do what’s already finished. This kind of faith is a challenge for us, which is why we need to lean on Jesus’ faith, not ours. For believers, the life we now live in the flesh we live by the faith of the Son of God.
The kind of faith that gives us rest comes from Christ, not from ourselves. He’s the author and finisher of our faith. There’s only one Lord and one faith; with Jesus living in us, His perfect, finished faith has become ours. Remembering that “our” faith is a gift from God prevents confusion on this point.
Paul had to emphasize this when ministering to the Jews, who were trained in the law but unfamiliar with grace. He wrote that all who’d entered into God’s rest had rested from their labors the way that God did after creating the world. Jesus was the Sabbath-rest referred to in the Old Testament.
Jesus Himself is now our rest. He’s already pleased with us when we trust Him. Through Him, our rest permanently resides in us.
Scriptures:
Galatians 2:20
Hebrews 12:2
Ephesians 4:5
Hebrews 4:10, NLT
Exodus 2:8-11
Hebrews 4:9, NIV
To learn more about the rest available to believers through Jesus, check out Life Saver Sermon Notes: The Rest Edition or the Victory through Rest 3-message series.
Day 3The Link Between Rest and Peace
Rest is something we can never seem to get enough of. Our environment bombards us with unspoken messages to stay on the go, until we feel guilty for slowing down to refocus. This wears us out, both physically and spiritually. Studying God’s Word shows us the importance of rest.
Being “on the go” is defined as having a lot of high-spirited energy and movement. There’s nothing wrong with moving and staying active, as long as we don’t go overboard. If we’re too busy to think, we can miss important cues God wants to give us as we go through life. He tells us to be still and know that He is God.
Rest not only refers to peaceful sleep, but also to peace of mind. Most people pursue it, but it can’t be found outside of Christ. Resting in the Lord chases away anxiety. It’s useless to anxiously work from early morning to late night; God gives rest to His loved ones.
The kind of rest we need comes only from God. When we’re tired, worn out, and burned out, Jesus asks us to come to Him. Accepting the invitation to come away with Him and keeping company with Him shows us how to take a real rest.
Complete faith in what Christ did for us on the cross lets us rest peacefully in the realm of His finished works. He’s the author and finisher of our faith; looking to Him lets us rest. The knowledge that we’re the righteousness of God comes by the faith of Jesus Christ. Rest—and faith—are both gifts from God.
There’s always a rest for God’s people. When He finished creating the earth and the heavens, He ceased from His works; we must do the same. Diligence in this area keeps us from useless labor.
Scriptures:
Psalm 46:10
Psalm 127:2, NLT
Matthew 11:28-30, MSG
Hebrews 12:2
Romans 3:22
Hebrews 4:9-11
To learn more about the rest available to believers through Jesus, check out Life Saver Sermon Notes: The Rest Edition or the Victory through Rest 3-message series.
Day 4Jesus: Our Rest and Our Peace
To properly understand the subtle nuances and spirit in which the New Testament was written, we must read it in its original translation. Westerners who study and try to interpret the Bible are at a disadvantage, because it was written in the Greek and Hebrew languages. These differ greatly from the English language; sometimes there’s no English word to precisely describe something widely understood in the original translation. We pick up on God’s meaning by reading through the lens of the finished works of Jesus.
Whether we rest or engage in empty works depends on our understanding of the Bible. When Jesus said to go and teach all nations, what we hear is the Great Commission. However, the Greek translation of the word “go” means to pursue one’s journey; it’s a participle that means “going.”
Another example is when Jesus was on the cross and prayed, “Father, forgive them.” The Greek translation of “forgive” is “forgiven.” This is further emphasized when Jesus said just before He died, “It is finished.” According to this, we’ve already been forgiven, and therefore don’t have to beg God to do something that’s already done.
This includes our deliverance and salvation—they’re also finished. Christ has truly set us free; by grace, we’ve been saved through faith. We’ve been made righteous before God; He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. It’s significant that these Scriptures are in the past tense.
Religion traps us into endless works by telling us that we must add to what Jesus already completed. Simplifying and going back to the basics, however, strips away everything God didn’t say. The details matter and mustn’t get lost in translation. Knowing that what Jesus did for us is irreversible gives us rest and peace.
Scriptures:
Matthew 28:19
Luke 23:34
John 19:30
Galatians 5:1, NLT
Ephesians 2:8, 9, NKJV
Romans 3:24, NLT
To learn more about the rest available to believers through Jesus, check out Life Saver Sermon Notes: The Rest Edition or the Victory through Rest 3-message series.
Day 5Resting in What Jesus Did for Us
Rest is vital for us to function as living, breathing human beings. This applies to the physical as well as the spiritual realm. We’re all familiar with working on something and feeling like we can’t rest until the job is done. As believers, we can rest in Jesus’ finished works because He did all the hard labor involved in obtaining salvation for us.
We find this rest by believing that everything has already been completed. This kind of faith can’t be manufactured by self-effort; it’s a gift from God, who gave each of us the same measure of faith. Relying on His perfect and complete faith is essential because our own imperfect, incomplete faith can let fear creep in. This was what happened when the disciples were in the boat while Jesus rested; they became fearful when a storm hit.
Rest and peace go together. When Jesus told the storm, “Peace, be still,” the storm had to obey because He communicated His peace to it. We have the same authority to calm the storms in our lives because He shared it with us. All authority in heaven and on earth was given to Jesus; He, in turn, gave us authority to tread on serpents and scorpions without anything being able to hurt us.
Fear is the opposite of faith; faith in God’s love for us gives us peace and rest and drives out all fear. There’s no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. We have God’s promise that not only can we lay down in peace and sleep, but also that He’ll give us rest from our labors when we come to Him. God gives rest to His beloved ones; this is something we can be genuinely thankful for.
Scriptures:
Romans 12:3
Mark 4:35-41
Matthew 28:18, NKJV
Luke 10:19, NKJV
1 John 4:18
Psalm 4:8
Matthew 11:28
Psalm 127:2, NLT
To learn more about the rest available to believers through Jesus, check out Life Saver Sermon Notes: The Rest Edition or the Victory through Rest 3-message series.
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