The things we invest our energies and resources into really matter. These things impact and influence the quality of our lives in a major way. Whatever we invest in has a return, and it will either add something useful to our destinies in the Will of God, or it will take away from us in ways that cause us to miss out on blessings. At some point, we will need to pause and take an inventory of this. We’ll need to look at our lives and be brutally honest about whether there’s a positive payoff from our relationships, aspirations, and activities. The barometer for measuring this is whether we’re entering into a state of God’s rest, because this is His standard for a quality existence. If we don’t have it, we might be missing the mark when it comes to pleasing Him.
God created humanity according to His divine design. One aspect of the human body is that it requires rest to function. Without rest, all sorts of problems and health issues arise; and in effect the body will begin to shut down in attempt to force us to recognize what it needs. Our powerful, all-knowing, and loving Creator could have created us in such a way that we wouldn’t need to rest. He could have made us capable of staying awake 24 hours every day, but He didn’t. He didn’t create us to be robots, but to have a sense of completion, satisfaction, and rejuvenation.
Genesis 2:1-3(NLT) states, “1 So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. 2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.” God is establishing a precedent that rest is important. He rested when everything was complete. He looked at His creation and saw that it was good and unquestionably perfect in every way. He finished His work and rested.
Now when it comes to our everyday lives, you and I have responsibilities. For some of us 24 hours doesn’t seem to be enough time to rest and accomplish everything we’d like. Well, God is God! And here we see the humongous difference between His level of detail and perfection and ours. We can’t get everything accomplished. HE did! He completed all that He set out to do. He’s letting us know that although we may busy ourselves doing a whole lot of things, we still must rest. He commands it!
John 4:24 tells us that God is Spirit. He doesn’t require rest in the physical way that we do, but He’s allowing us to see that rest is a component to His plan, and it gives Him pleasure to give rest to His people. It is a time to stop working, and most importantly, it is a time to reflect on the finished work of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The rest that God has demanded us to take isn’t a secondary or peripheral leisure, it is one of His requirements for all believers.
God created humanity to be children; His sons and daughters. No matter our ages, we are children, and this is all we can ever be. It is up to us which god we will call ‘father’. Either we will choose Heavenly Father, the God of love, power, light, liberty and life; or we will choose satan, the father of lies, deceit, death, darkness, and bondage. There is no such thing as remaining in-between or neutral. God designed the universe in such a way that it will not respond to such ambivalence, and we will find ourselves continually dissatisfied with life if that is our stance. Jesus Christ said that we will choose which master we will follow, and we will love one and hate the other. A non-choice is a choice to follow the devil. If we choose Heavenly Father, we must obey His Word. He said in Exodus 20:2-4(NLT), “2 I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. 3 “You must not have any other god but me. 4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.”
God commanded in Exodus 20:8-11(NLT), “8Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.”
All of us require recalibration. Sometimes we think we’re on the right track in life when really we are headed for a train wreck. We don’t take the time to press-in to God and disconnect from the outside world. We need to focus our minds on Him through the Lord Jesus Christ and cut-off all other influences and distractions. Hebrews 4:6(NLT) says, “So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God.” Even in earlier biblical periods, some people became so preoccupied with their own agendas that they abandoned God’s commandment of rest and meditation on Him. They missed Him! And therefore, missed the opportunities for blessings. Don’t let this happen to your life. There’s a work that the precious Holy Spirit will do internally, and we desperately need it. Take the time to rest in the Lord, focus on His goodness, and delight yourself in Him. It will do extraordinary things for your life. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Enter Into God’s Rest” written by JMack, theChristianMan.com© 2019. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.