Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell]. Hebrews 4:11(AMPC)
Our first day as the human race was the day of rest. Man was created on the sixth day, the last day of creation. Adam’s first day was the seventh day, when God was celebrating His rest from all his work.
Man’s first day was the day of rest. This clearly demonstrates that the life of our design is not hustling but rather the rest life or the life of rest.
We were made for rest. By rest we don’t mean inactivity or being motionless. We are not referring to doing nothing, being idle or lazy.
There are many people who are idle, doing nothing but who are the most tired, burnt out restless, troubled ones. Rest here means peace of mind or spirit. It means free from anxiety, fear, and confusion. There are people who are as busy as a bee, very energetic and active who are altogether at rest.
No one was ever with so full a schedule as Jesus, no one so energetic and active. In only three and a half years He accomplished things which if all of them were to be written in books the whole world wouldn’t be big enough to accommodate the books. Yet Jesus was totally at rest.
God is at rest. He is in an eternal state of peace of mind or spirit. Nothing disturbs, troubles, agitates or alarms Him. He’s free from anxiety, fear or confusion. The God who upholds, sustains and directs all creation is not worried about anything.
This is what He desires for all of us whom He made in His image and likeness. He has invited us and made it possible for us to join Him in His rest.
How do we enter into God’s rest? Believe, believe, believe.
Hebrews 4:3(AMPC) For we who have believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied on God) do enter that rest, in accordance with His declaration that those [who did not believe] should not enter when He said, As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest; and this He said although [His] works had been completed and prepared [and waiting for all who would believe] from the foundation of the world.
The scripture has helped us to know that God’s rest is accessed, experienced and enjoyed by believing. This means trusting in and relying on God. When you rest in a chair you are trusting and relying on it to support your entire weight.
We enter God’s rest by rolling onto Him and letting Him carry all our cares and burdens that are weighing us down.
Therefore, talking to God about what’s troubling us is practicing rest. Thanking God for helping us in every challenge is engaging rest. Refusing to worry, or keeping anxious thoughts out of our mind is acting in rest. Setting our minds on things that are positive is aggressive rest. Enter His rest today.