When To Rest

Hebrews 4:10–11
10… 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…

After a long hard day at work we go home, not to rest, but with more work to do. Then we go to bed and start the same process all over again the next day. This instills in us a work load grind habit of “do it yourself” mentality, brought about by the sweat of our brow part of the curse Jesus came to deliver us from. (Genesis 3:19) When we read all the things that are ours thru Jesus, sometimes we carry over our “do it yourself” mentality, trying to make the promises of God happen in our life by our efforts, instead of God providing for us His promises. When Jesus said “It is Finished”, He did the works and finished the works, so that the benefits would be ours through His works. We should not labor to bring about God’s promises, our labor should be to enter into His rest, resting in His finished results, not laboring to help Him keep His promises.

Have a Seat and Rest

When we are born again, we are raised up and seated in the heavens with Christ Jesus, we are not standing, but sitting in a position of rest. (Ephesians 2:4-5) Having been a person who worked his way through life, it is difficult for me to picture myself sitting back, resting and receiving.
I have always worked to receive, and not working to receive the blessings of God is a challenge for me. That is why there is a labor for us to do, we are to labor to enter into His rest and cease from our works. It takes a certain learned faith, learned by the art of repetition, to rest in the promises of God. This becomes our labor of entering into Gods rest, having faith in His promises.

For example; we read in God’s word, that by the stripes on Jesus back we are healed, without further study, stripes on someones back making us well makes no sense at all. But when we study to learn what this saying means, we find this is referring to a beating Jesus took as a sacrificial means to end our suffering. He exchanges His suffering for our healing, so that if we are sick, we can be made well through trusting in Jesus. (1 Peter 2:24, Isaiah 53:4-5) This is our labor to do, to study to learn the significance of this promise, accept it, and rest in the blessings that it is ours through inheritance.

(Our Work | Learning Gods Word) + Rest In Promises = Receiving

When we read how God owns everything, the earth and the entire universe, and that we have been made joint heirs with Jesus in these things, we see how miraculous healing, prosperity, success and victory from our creator would not be a hard thing for Him to give to us. We have to trust that God is good, and His intentions for man-kind, from the beginning, were always good.

God’s word is living and powerful, and has a way of dividing our thoughts and intents of our heart. When we line up our thoughts and intentions with Gods word, we can receive from His throne of Grace, as we behold the Glory of Jesus the son of God and hold fast to our confession of faith. (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Beloved, labor to enter into God’s rest with Him, cease from your own works and know that the finished promises in the Bible are yours to enjoy. As you rest, trusting in God to bring to pass His word in your life.