Did Someone Say Rest?
“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. ”
I was lacking in ideas for a topic this week. I asked God to reveal to me what I should talk about. We should always be careful what we ask for.
And so, of course, here I am typing this up on approximately 3.5 hours of sleep. It was a rough night in the Hughley household followed by an early morning infusion appointment, and looking forward, there's little time for rest today. Isn't that the way it seems to work, though, that our worst sleep nights come before busy days?
And as much as it would be gratifying to type out how frustrated I am and how slow my mind and body are running, I understand that God uses anything and everything to provide us with new insight and revelation...
First, let me preface by saying that yes, I am talking about two significantly different types of rest. This morning, I just so happened to have the song There Remaineth a Rest in my head when I stumbled out of bed, so here we are. The kind of rest I, personally, am desperately seeking in this moment is sleep - a break, lying my head down, blocking everything else out for an amount of time. The rest - Sabbath rest - that we will be discussing for the remainder of this post is both the reprieve we find in Heaven and the rest that God took on the seventh day after his six days of creation.
I'm grateful there is a way to ensure that we receive peaceful, God-given rest instead of continually laboring. So if you could briefly indulge me, I would like to talk about that kind of rest. I'll try to be a little less "fire and brimstone" and a little more "hey ya’ll, let's get to the promise together."
“Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. ”
So, how do we attain this rest that has remained for us? Verse three in Hebrews 4 makes it clear: “Now we who have believed enter that rest.” That means, when we hear the Gospel, we must believe it. But it goes beyond just believing. There has to be faith and trust involved. Paul (who was most likely the author of the book of Hebrews), uses the example of the Israelites in the wilderness. Although they believed in God and knew they were his chosen people, they did not trust in His promise to bring them into the promised land. The Israelites were not only disobedient on a number of occasions, but also repeatedly acted out of fear and disappointment, rather than leaning on faith and trusting God’s word.
We too have tendencies to act out of our feelings, typically those of anger, frustration, disappointment, and yes - exhaustion - instead of relying on our faith. And this is why verse one says “let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.” How can we prevent ourselves from falling short? John Piper’s comments on this topic say we need to “Pay close attention to what you’ve heard (Hebrews 2:1); don’t neglect your great salvation (Hebrews 2:3); consider Jesus (Hebrews 3:1); do not harden your hearts (Hebrews 3:8); take care against an unbelieving heart (Hebrews 3:12); exhort one another every day against the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:14); and fear the unbelief that will keep you from your promised rest (Hebrews 4:1).”
I know, it’s easier said than done. But we HAVE TO strive for this. There is an awesome rest waiting for us when our work on Earth is done. And that work doesn’t just comprise of how we treat others, what ministry we serve in, or our careers. The work includes our internal transformation - the building of our faith and solidifying of our trust in God. We need to do more than just believe. Especially for those of us with chronic illnesses, we need to be extra careful that our conditions aren’t negatively affecting our faith. We may feel like the Israelites in the wilderness, but we cannot act like they did. They did not receive the rest God prepared for them, because they allowed their circumstances to overshadow Him.
John Piper goes on to say in his commentary, “The Christian life is a life of day-by-day, hour-by-hour trust in the promises of God to help us and guide us and take care of us and forgive us and bring us into a future of holiness and joy that will satisfy our hearts infinitely more than if we forsake Him and put our trust in ourselves or in the promises of this world. And that day-by-day, hour-by-hour trust in God’s promises is not automatic. It is the result of daily diligence and it’s the result of proper fear.” I believe that if we break our lives down to hourly segments, just as he does, we put ourselves in positions to receive the rest that God has prepared for us. During our Earthly lives, we have chance after chance to get the sleep our bodies need. Our spirits, however, receive only one opportunity to receive eternal rest. Let’s be diligent in becoming holy and upright, and careful of our hearts’ conditions. He loves us enough to make His rest available to us, let’s love Him enough to make the efforts to obtain it.