Our human life is not always satisfying, and our environment is not always gratifying. Both James and Peter acknowledged that our Christian life is altogether a life of trials (James 1:2; 1 Pet. 4:12). God did not promise that we Christians will have everything to our satisfaction on earth. In fact, if we read the Bible carefully, we shall see that there are three kinds of labor in human life: the labor to be a good person, the labor of anxiety, and the labor of suffering. In fact, we are in captivity, we are under slavery. We've lost God as our possession.
However, if we want to be truly free and able to enjoy God as our possession, we must receive the Lord Jesus as the real jubilee in us. When we hear the gospel, we hear the jubilee. Once we repent and believe into the Lord, jubilee enters into us. From then on, at any time and in any matter, in dealing with anyone or anything, if we live by Christ, Christ is our jubilee.
Sometimes we may have the painful experience of putting Christ aside and thus losing God temporarily. Once we have lost God, we have sold ourselves and become slaves again. However, once we begin anew to enjoy the Lord Jesus, we have God and we enjoy freedom. At this time, within us everything is to our heart's satisfaction, and the jubilee is in us. We are happy and rejoicing, we prosper, and we live long. This is the meaning of jubilee.
Yes, everything is to our satisfaction but not the things themselves; rather, our satisfaction is in God. If we do not have God, nothing is to our satisfaction. Whether or not something is to our satisfaction does not depend on the environment; it depends on whether or not God is there. Without God, even if all things go smoothly, they are not to our satisfaction. But once we have God, even if things do not go smoothly, they are still to our satisfaction.
In fact, it is not outward persons, matters, or things but Christ within us who enables us to be calm and free of worries as we face all kinds of situations. When we take Christ in every situation, He becomes the primary factor and center in us to lead us and overrule all the troubles of human life.
We need the inner acknowledgement that our possession is God, and our freedom comes from the enjoyment of God; freedom means release, to be freed from all bondage, all heavy burden, all oppression, and all enslavement.
Lesson: Take Christ as our enjoyment, satisfaction, and rest (Matt. 11:28).
(Taken from The Jubilee)
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