Last year I had a "stress test" to see how my heart was functioning under physical stress. God has a stress test too! He allows, even engineers, pressures in your life to see how your 'heart' will respond.
Jesus said “"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens…and you will find rest for your souls” (Mat 11:28-29 NLT).
In Revelation 14:13, John says "blessed are the DEAD who DIE in the Lord from now on...so that they may rest from their labors". As you live as one who has died with Jesus you will find rest from the stress of living inthis world. But as long as you are living by your own will power, you will not be able to find God’s rest.
When a person dies, we say that person has “entered his final rest.” Our death with Jesus has brought us into a state of rest just as much as if we had died physically. But while we remain alive to self-sufficiency or self-reliance, there can be no such rest.
And worse, until we have died to our self-life, we are not living by His life! Paul says: “Consider yourself dead to sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus” (Ro. 6:11). Being alive to God means living by His strength—not your own.
When it is “no longer I who live, but Christ [is living] in me” (Gal. 2:20), I have entered His rest.
Greg,
ReplyDeleteMaybe one of the reasons "rest" is so hard to do is because it is not so much a cessation of activity as it is an activity of "being"--e.g., "Be still and know..." This somehow doesn't translate easily into our "works-based" theologies and culture.
Stan
Stan
Cessation of activity and cessation of self-effort are too often confused as the same thing. Of course they are not. Entering into the Sabbath Rest (Hebrews 4) is the most wonderful teaching, but very misunderstood. Oh, that we could understand the ASCENDED Jesus in His finished work!
ReplyDeleteGreg,
ReplyDeleteThe writer of Hebrews twice referred to the ASCENDED Jesus's work when he said:
"...when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." Heb 1:3-4,NKJV
and
Heb 10:12-14
12 "But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." NKJV
Apparently "sitting down" for a time is a better picture of the rest in Hebrews rather than "laying down!"
Stan
Greg,
ReplyDeleteI have a question. My nephew will be entering high school this Fall. He has the opportunity to attend a very good public school and a great chance at going to a good college afterwards. I'm encouraging him to do this. Is it wrong to tell him, "you need to put in effort, be determined, and focused?" How can I translate this principal under these circumstances?
Thank you,
Anau
Hi Anau
ReplyDeleteNo one can really grow unless they are 'in motion.' We move out, maybe in our own strength without being aware of it. As Holy Spirit convicts us of our self-effort, we learn to live by His life. It's a life long process. But I would never tell anyone that resting in the Lord, or living by His life, means we do nothing. Hebrews 6:1 says we are to 'move' on to maturity.