The Rest of God (Part III)

While the Bible does not speak about stress, it addresses anxiety and burdens of life. Some stress is generated by lack of prioritization in life. Nowadays, everything seems to have equal importance, which raises the level of stress. We overcommit our time and finances, and that adds to our level of stress. We generally do not look down upon stress because it is culturally perceived to be associated with success. However, the Lord sees it differently. He expects His people to enter His rest.

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.  For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; Hebrews 4:1-4

There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.  For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Hebrews 4:9-10

Rest requires faith. One of the great blessings of our relationship with the Lord is the privilege of having God’s rest. The message of the Gospel is about entering God’s rest. Rest is one of the benefits of our salvation. The Lord told His people that rest was available to them. However, people chose not to enter His rest because they did not believe the Lord. They thought that they have to do works to be accepted by God. God considers it disobedience when people choose not to enter His rest.

There are Christians who have come from works denominations or backgrounds, and it is very difficult for them to believe that they can just receive the love of God without having to work towards it. God has works for us to do, but they are done on the foundation of rest and acceptance. It is not about striving or trying to earn God’s favor. 

Without the rest of God in our lives, we will return to our old nature trying to make things happen through self-effort. We will become performance driven and assume that everything depends on our actions. It will be difficult to surrender our will to the Lord because we would feel responsible for making things happen. If we don’t have the rest of God, we will begin to lose His joy as well. The rest of God keeps us in tune with His ways and His will. Without His rest, we are operating with our soul and our senses. When was the last time you heard a message about restlessness being considered disobedience!?