Striving to receive God’s rest

Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. Hebrews 4:8-11 NLT

From the text, the writer of Hebrews continues to develop his point that rest remains. Though the promise was given in the past during the period of the Old Testament, but because of the coming of Christ, He will lead the people that trusted Him as Lord and Savior to the place of real rest. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the one who began our salvation and will complete it in His return. “God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation” (Hebrews 2:10). When we place our faith in Christ and we stop trusting our effort to produce works that we thought will save us, we will desire to serve the Lord. The assurance that we are now in Christ and we do not labor anymore to earn our salvation, we find the joy of giving ourselves to His service for we know that our deeds will be rewarded. “Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!” (Revelation 14:13). This is why as the writer of Hebrews says, “let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall” (Hebrews 4:11). Therefore, let us be sure that we have placed our faith in Christ and believed Him that He is our Savior and the source of real rest. Then, let us grow in our faith in Him so that even when we are in the midst of the storm or in the rough seas, we will remain strong for we know that God is with us to provide us rest. Included in the rest that God promised those who trusted Him are the blessings that accompany faith. Through faith in God, we experience joy, peace, and fellowship with our Lord and Savior and that is what rest is all about. Our experience of rest is not complete until we see Him face to face in His return.

Blessings,