God wants us to rest with Him. He sent Jesus to make that possible. Yet so often, the only people keeping us from truly resting is ourselves!
It’s always been like that. After all that God did to rescue Israel from slavery and lead them to rest, only their own unbelieving hearts could be blamed for their persistent refusal to enter His rest (cf. Heb. 3:15-19). Yet, God is so good, even their failures can help lead us to rest with Him. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did…they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the age has come” (1 Cor. 10:6, 11). Now that Jesus has come – and we have come to Him – we can learn from Him how to live and find rest (cf. Matt. 11:28-30).
In fact, Hebrews 3:7-4:13 spells out specific actions that will lead us to rest:
Take care of your heart (Heb. 3:12). A lot of Israel’s issues came from an “evil, unbelieving heart.” If we want to rest, we need a daily, operational trust that God cares about and will provide for us. That must be our motivation in everything – just like it was for Jesus.
Exhort one another (Heb. 3:13). Speaking of motivation, people in a sinful world need lots of encouragement to enter God’s rest. What Jesus is trying to teach us is so different, “the deceitfulness of sin” can easily harden us, locking us in to restless, worldly ways of living. We need encouragement – both receiving and giving it – if we are to experience God’s rest.
Share in Christ (Heb. 3:14). As Christians, at some point we were confident enough in Jesus to be united with Him in baptism. Finding rest requires holding on to that confidence, trusting that the more we become like Him, the better everything will be.
Strive to Rest (Heb. 4:11). That might sound like a contradiction. Yet, we’re all striving for something: what if instead of striving for the things the world obsesses over, nothing was more important to us than resting with God? Resting with God today: no matter what the day holds, our goal is to see what God does and praise Him for it. Resting with God forever, when the painful, temporary things of this life pass away and all that is left is what is eternal.
When, like Jesus, that is our outlook, it changes everything. Then we can rest.
Are you tired? Learn from Jesus how to rest, and you will be restored. This is your invitation to find Rest and Restoration.