Rest.
There's something about it that my human heart constantly wants to fight.
Two days ago I worked at both of my jobs and stayed an extra hour at one of them, making it a 12 hour work day. For some people that's normal but I was real real tired at the end of that day. I needed some rest. That night, I was drawn to read Hebrew 4:8 right before bed. It made some sense but not total sense.
Yesterday, I didn't have to work AT ALL and it was wonderful. Probably about 10 times throughout the day of hanging out at home though, I found myself thinking, "Oh, I could go and do _____". And every time I stopped and fought that thought with the decision to just rest.
Yesterday, I decided to read all of Hebrews 4. And do you know, it's all about rest!
I've never understood this verse like this until now, and the fact that it's such a big deal.
Now, by "rest" the author didn't mean "laziness". Those are two very different things.
This "rest" the verse talks about is the kind of rest that only comes when we acknowledge God as God, who gave us great grace, came to earth as Jesus, and did all the work to save us. As a matter of fact, His last words before dying were, "It is finished.". If I'm not resting in that, I'm really saying that I don't actually believe that He finished it.
It is our human tendency to be lazy sometimes, yes. But it is not our tendency to rest in the finished work of Jesus.
Laziness doesn't bring about this rest and works don't bring our salvation; however, we do have to strive to enter this rest. What a wonderful commission, so contrary to our human nature.
Jesus' main beef wasn't with the adulteresses, the tax collectors, or even the criminals that he was crucified next to - it was with the self-righteous Pharisees who thought that by doing and being good enough, they could earn their salvation.
The disobedience isn't so much in failing to uphold the law, but in not resting in the fact that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The resting isn't easy, we have to strive to enter it. But when we do, we can rest in what God did for us and that, "It is finished.".
There's something about it that my human heart constantly wants to fight.
Two days ago I worked at both of my jobs and stayed an extra hour at one of them, making it a 12 hour work day. For some people that's normal but I was real real tired at the end of that day. I needed some rest. That night, I was drawn to read Hebrew 4:8 right before bed. It made some sense but not total sense.
Yesterday, I didn't have to work AT ALL and it was wonderful. Probably about 10 times throughout the day of hanging out at home though, I found myself thinking, "Oh, I could go and do _____". And every time I stopped and fought that thought with the decision to just rest.
Yesterday, I decided to read all of Hebrews 4. And do you know, it's all about rest!
"For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his."
Hebrews 4:10
I've never understood this verse like this until now, and the fact that it's such a big deal.
Now, by "rest" the author didn't mean "laziness". Those are two very different things.
This "rest" the verse talks about is the kind of rest that only comes when we acknowledge God as God, who gave us great grace, came to earth as Jesus, and did all the work to save us. As a matter of fact, His last words before dying were, "It is finished.". If I'm not resting in that, I'm really saying that I don't actually believe that He finished it.
It is our human tendency to be lazy sometimes, yes. But it is not our tendency to rest in the finished work of Jesus.
"Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience."
Hebrews 4:11
Laziness doesn't bring about this rest and works don't bring our salvation; however, we do have to strive to enter this rest. What a wonderful commission, so contrary to our human nature.
Jesus' main beef wasn't with the adulteresses, the tax collectors, or even the criminals that he was crucified next to - it was with the self-righteous Pharisees who thought that by doing and being good enough, they could earn their salvation.
The disobedience isn't so much in failing to uphold the law, but in not resting in the fact that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The resting isn't easy, we have to strive to enter it. But when we do, we can rest in what God did for us and that, "It is finished.".