The Rest of God
God has provided a rest for the people He made. This is the rest: to stop striving for destiny, provision, purpose, and security, and instead to trust God.
The fruit of entering into this rest is to have the grace, or power, to seek first the kingdom and let everything else be added to your life, as God decides the right timing and measure for us to receive provision, purpose, security, and a fulfillment of the dream He placed in each human heart (destiny).
The rest God wants to give requires the choice, made in faith, to believe that He is good. Essential to this faith is a simple understanding that we didn't make ourselves. The fact that God made us, if He is good, implies He will provide for us. He is good. The smallest amount of love, joy, peace, patience and kindness in the world shows that He is good...otherwise none of these would ever be felt. Creation declares God is good.
The fact that there are places of lack in the world is a direct result of mankind turning from God's partnership. Mankind said "no thanks" to the leadership of the maker and provider. There was no lack before the fall of mankind.
At the prompting of Satan, mankind looks at lack and pain and thinks to himself that God is not reliable, if he even exists...not realizing that the lack and pain are a direct result of mankind turning from God, and not vice versa.
It is the epitomy of arrogance for someone that can't make the next heartbeat happen, or make his lungs fill with air one more time, to think that anything else that he needs is within his own power to obtain. But this is the problem godless man faces: at some point the one who makes the heart beat and lungs fill will stop and then call that man to acccount for whether or not he humbled himself and realized God wasn't the problem, man was.
If I am willing to trust God, I can enter the rest He has provided. It cost Him His only conceived son. He is serious about me letting His son get the glory for my rest. For the price to be so high, to reject the gift is severe. I can claim to follow Jesus but yet never actually open the gift of trusting the Father. Following Jesus IS trusting the Father. That is what Jesus did. That is the rest.
Fears and false responsibilities war against this trust...this rest. To enter in to the rest requires I humble myself and see that I lack the basics of success...beginning with the ability to make my own body live. I don't own the air I breathe. I can't will my heart to beat. God has blessed me with a mind, synapses that fire, nerves that feel, a heart that loves...
If I can embrace my need, then I can eradicate my shame. Shame is only possible when I don't celebrate my weakness. The rest of God is a rest from shame. Embracing my need is the beginning of losing my shame.
I was made to need God. I was intentionally designed to need the one who designed me.
Resisting this truth leaves most of the world worn out from striving to stay alive, striving for meaning, striving for success ... Striving to do what only God can do. This is the opposite of the rest God is holding open for anyone who wants it. He will only let the door to rest be open for a little while.
There is quickly coming a time when the door to rest will close. Part of hell is living without the rest...much more so than now.
The most important part of combating the restlessness of fallen man's existence is faith: believing God rewards those who simply try to trust Him. This is how faith grows. I simply, in humility, see my need and then believe He made me to meet my need...I let myself believe that my maker is good.
Jesus is the one who makes this possible. He fully entered into the rest of God. His life wasn't easier than anyone else's...His source of insight, revelation, and power was greater, because He let it be. He let himself fully need the Father. He fully remained in the the Father, the One who conceived Him. The rest of the Lord isn't circumstantial...it is eternal...bigger than any circumstance.
John 15:10“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
John 5:19 — Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
Jesus paid for the rest with an infinitely rested life, and leads anyone willing into the same rest...not to make life easy, but to make us more alive...overflowing with all we need, as we need it.
A river is on demand. Jesus' rest is like a river...always flowing, always fresh, never lacking, but, too big to be contained, stored up, or saved. The entering in to the rest is like letting a river carry you...you trust God to take you where you are supposed to be and to provide for you all along the way.
This was the rest God invited Israel into as He took them out of slavery in Egypt. The desert trip was the river of rest, but they wouldn't enter in...it cost them the destination of resting.
Right now, if you hear this word, enter into His rest. Time is running out to learn to rest in the Lord:
Hebrews 3:7Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
8Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
9Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
10Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.’
11So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
12Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
13but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,
15while it is said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?
17Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
18And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?
19So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Hebrews 4:1Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
2For 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.
3For 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.
4For 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”;
5and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”
6Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,
7again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.”
8For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.
9There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
10For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
11Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
12For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The fruit of entering into this rest is to have the grace, or power, to seek first the kingdom and let everything else be added to your life, as God decides the right timing and measure for us to receive provision, purpose, security, and a fulfillment of the dream He placed in each human heart (destiny).
The rest God wants to give requires the choice, made in faith, to believe that He is good. Essential to this faith is a simple understanding that we didn't make ourselves. The fact that God made us, if He is good, implies He will provide for us. He is good. The smallest amount of love, joy, peace, patience and kindness in the world shows that He is good...otherwise none of these would ever be felt. Creation declares God is good.
The fact that there are places of lack in the world is a direct result of mankind turning from God's partnership. Mankind said "no thanks" to the leadership of the maker and provider. There was no lack before the fall of mankind.
At the prompting of Satan, mankind looks at lack and pain and thinks to himself that God is not reliable, if he even exists...not realizing that the lack and pain are a direct result of mankind turning from God, and not vice versa.
It is the epitomy of arrogance for someone that can't make the next heartbeat happen, or make his lungs fill with air one more time, to think that anything else that he needs is within his own power to obtain. But this is the problem godless man faces: at some point the one who makes the heart beat and lungs fill will stop and then call that man to acccount for whether or not he humbled himself and realized God wasn't the problem, man was.
If I am willing to trust God, I can enter the rest He has provided. It cost Him His only conceived son. He is serious about me letting His son get the glory for my rest. For the price to be so high, to reject the gift is severe. I can claim to follow Jesus but yet never actually open the gift of trusting the Father. Following Jesus IS trusting the Father. That is what Jesus did. That is the rest.
Fears and false responsibilities war against this trust...this rest. To enter in to the rest requires I humble myself and see that I lack the basics of success...beginning with the ability to make my own body live. I don't own the air I breathe. I can't will my heart to beat. God has blessed me with a mind, synapses that fire, nerves that feel, a heart that loves...
If I can embrace my need, then I can eradicate my shame. Shame is only possible when I don't celebrate my weakness. The rest of God is a rest from shame. Embracing my need is the beginning of losing my shame.
I was made to need God. I was intentionally designed to need the one who designed me.
Resisting this truth leaves most of the world worn out from striving to stay alive, striving for meaning, striving for success ... Striving to do what only God can do. This is the opposite of the rest God is holding open for anyone who wants it. He will only let the door to rest be open for a little while.
There is quickly coming a time when the door to rest will close. Part of hell is living without the rest...much more so than now.
The most important part of combating the restlessness of fallen man's existence is faith: believing God rewards those who simply try to trust Him. This is how faith grows. I simply, in humility, see my need and then believe He made me to meet my need...I let myself believe that my maker is good.
Jesus is the one who makes this possible. He fully entered into the rest of God. His life wasn't easier than anyone else's...His source of insight, revelation, and power was greater, because He let it be. He let himself fully need the Father. He fully remained in the the Father, the One who conceived Him. The rest of the Lord isn't circumstantial...it is eternal...bigger than any circumstance.
John 15:10“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
John 5:19 — Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
Jesus paid for the rest with an infinitely rested life, and leads anyone willing into the same rest...not to make life easy, but to make us more alive...overflowing with all we need, as we need it.
A river is on demand. Jesus' rest is like a river...always flowing, always fresh, never lacking, but, too big to be contained, stored up, or saved. The entering in to the rest is like letting a river carry you...you trust God to take you where you are supposed to be and to provide for you all along the way.
This was the rest God invited Israel into as He took them out of slavery in Egypt. The desert trip was the river of rest, but they wouldn't enter in...it cost them the destination of resting.
Right now, if you hear this word, enter into His rest. Time is running out to learn to rest in the Lord:
Hebrews 3:7Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
8Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
9Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
10Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.’
11So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
12Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
13but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,
15while it is said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?
17Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
18And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?
19So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Hebrews 4:1Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
2For 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.
3For 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.
4For 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”;
5and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”
6Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,
7again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.”
8For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.
9There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
10For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
11Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
12For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Comments
Post a Comment
I appreciate your comments.