God has already prepared a rest for His people. It is a place that is entered into through believing: believing God’s word and promise to us through His Son Jesus, i.e. the Good News. “For we who have believed enter that rest…” [Hebrews 4:2-3]. Our “work” now is to “believe in Him Whom He (God) has sent” [John 6:28-29]. That is how we enter God’s rest. Is it that easy to do? By no means—it is very challenging to our works-oriented sin-nature. Most of the time we must strive to get there. But again scripture makes very clear what the goal of that striving is to be: “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest…” [Hebrews 4:11]. We do not “strive to rest,” we “strive to enter.” The distinction is important.
If we strive to rest, that rest becomes something we can make happen. It becomes a product of our own working. When we strive to enter, however, we participate in something that already exists, something that someone else has produced. That rest already exists; it’s God’s rest. It is a rest in which we cease from our labors and efforts to please God through our own good works, and rest in the forgiveness and salvation He has provided through Jesus Christ. “So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the [true] people of God…Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves]…” [Hebrews 4:9,11; AMP].
It is an ongoing and continuous battle to enter that rest. “In returning [to Me] and resting [in Me] you shall be saved; in quietness and in [trusting] confidence shall be your strength” [Isaiah 30:15; AMP]. We say that we accept the forgiveness and grace freely given to us through Christ Jesus but then we turn around and work at somehow proving ourselves worthy of receiving it. It is a poorly disguised attempt by our sin nature to re-assert control of our life by circumventing our total dependence on the mercy and grace of God. Whenever we find ourselves at that place of negotiating control between God and our fleshly nature, it is wise to let the Apostle Paul’s words challenge us again: “Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the [Holy] Spirit as the result of obeying the Law and doing its works, or was it by hearing [the message of the Gospel] and believing [it]? Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun [your new life spiritually] with the [Holy] Spirit, are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the flesh?” [Galatians 3:2-3; AMP].
Devotional writer Oswald Chambers shares these insights on entering God’s rest through Jesus: “The questions that matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by the words—“Come unto Me” [Matthew 11:28]. Not—Do this, or don’t do that; but—“Come unto Me…” Watch the stubbornness of your heart, you will do anything rather than the one simple childlike thing—“Come unto Me…” The last thing we do is to come; but everyone who does come knows that that second the supernatural rush of the life of God invades him instantly…”
Chambers continues: “Nothing is so important as to keep right spiritually. The great solution is the simple one—‘Come unto Me.’ The depth of our reality, intellectually, morally, and spiritually, is tested by these words… Jesus says, ‘Come unto Me and I will give you rest,’ i.e. Christ-consciousness will take the place of self-consciousness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest, the rest of the perfection of activity that is never conscious of itself… Just as long as you have the tiniest bit of spiritual impertinence, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do a big thing, and all He is telling you to do is to ‘come.’ ‘Come unto Me.’”
Are you striving to rest or striving to enter God’s rest? Are you working hard at creating a sense of peace and well-being of your own making, under your own control; or are you right now making a conscious decision to once again cast yourself completely upon the mercy and grace of God in Jesus Christ—just as you did at the beginning of your journey with Him? Here is some good news: God has scheduled an appointment with you for entering His rest! Your appointment is TODAY. “Since therefore it remains for some to enter it (His rest)…again He appoints a certain day, ‘Today’… ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts’ … So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works… Let us therefore strive to enter that rest…” [Hebrews 4:4-11; ESV]. TODAY is your day to hear His voice, and enter His rest—and every TODAY to come!
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