Skip to main content

Your ‘Work’ Is To Enter His Rest




A baby learns to sit first before he starts to stand and walk. The Christian life also begins with sitting. God “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). How well we walk after that depends on how well we sit and rest in the finished work of Christ.

The promised land was a land of rest where God promised His people “large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant” (Deuteronomy 6:10–11).

 
But for 40 years, God’s people wandered in the wilderness because they refused to believe that God had given them a land where everything had been prepared—the work was finished. They could not believe that God had given them a land full of good things to enjoy, a land which just flowed with His abundant supply.
Today, there are believers who still cannot believe that the work of Jesus is truly complete and finished. They are trying to complete a completed work, finish a finished work and defeat a defeated devil.

There are believers today who are always working and trying to produce their healing, success and victory. God wants us to stop trying and start trusting in His love for us. He wants us to stop working and struggling, and start resting and believing in His grace toward us.

The only “work” left for us to do today is to enter His rest. We are to labor every day to enter His rest. We are to rest inwardly and believe that the work is done because it is a finished work, and trust in God’s undeserved favor toward us. We are to rest in Jesus our true ark, who will carry us through tempestuous waters.

So today, “if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…be diligent to enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:7, 11). Let’s enter His rest. Let’s enjoy sitting together with Christ in the heavenly places, then we will run and not be weary (see Isaiah 40:31)!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is Coronavirus One of the Plagues in the Book of Revelation?

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks you have probably seen, heard, and read about the coronavirus that is disrupting life all over the globe. And it is quite likely that it has had a direct impact on you, even if you have not yet gotten sick from it. Social distancing has become a new by-word in the past few days. The banning of large gatherings, including churches, and the closing of many establishments where people gather are common. Empty shelves at the grocery store are a normal sight. And there is the expectation that things will get worse before they begin to improve. Many people automatically look to connect any large-scale disaster to Revelation and see in it a sign of the end. But should we? This article will look at this virus and its relationship to Revelation. And then at how, as Christians, we should respond to it. What Is This Coronavirus? There seems to be a lot of confusion about this virus, starting with its name. Cor...

Prayer’s Exclamation Point

Prayer is a response to promises, that is, to the assurances of God’s future grace. Prayer is drawing on the account where God has deposited all his stores of future grace. Prayer is not hoping in the dark that there might be a God of good intentions out there. Prayer banks on the promise of God, and goes to the bank every day and draws on stores of future grace needed for that day. Don’t miss the connection between the two halves of this great verse. Notice the “that is why”: “All the promises of God are Yes in Christ.  That is why  (therefore) we pray Amen through him, to God’s glory.” To make sure we see it, let’s turn the two halves around: When we pray, we say Amen to God through Christ,  because  God has said a decisive Amen to all his promises in Christ. Prayer is the confident plea for God to make good on his promises of future grace — for Christ’s sake. Prayer links our faith in future grace with the foundation of it all, Jesus Chr...

Building Boldness from the Verse "God Has Not Given Us a Spirit of Fear"

When you look in the dictionary the word fear has two main definitions: A distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, threat or evil whether the threat is real or imagined; and a reverential awe, as in the fear of the Lord.  With this in mind, what does the verse “God has not given us a spirit of fear” mean? Let’s start by looking at the whole verse which is found in 2 Timothy 1:7: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” The New King James says it this way – “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Based on the definition of the word, it can’t mean reverential awe because that wouldn’t make sense. Clearly fear means something else so let’s dig deeper to understand what it means. Let’s also consider the proper response we should have to fear. Photo credit: Unsplash/Aziz Acharki ...