Rest in the Bible is NOT sitting down, taking a nap, or a vacation. It is absence of worry, anxiety, pressure, and stress. Hurry and busy-ness are badges of success in our culture (“If you’re not ultra-busy, you must be lazy!”), but they run contrary to the those that have partaken of the Divine Nature (2 Pet 1:4).
Many… to be successful and admired… “redeem the time” (A spiritual rationalization)… “strike while the iron is hot”, get to work early… stay late… micro-manage… fake delegate… and take work home. They pack their schedule full of meetings, serve on boards, and have meetings about meetings about eternally meaningless things. Truth be told their internal RPMs stay at around 7,000 while putting before people a facade of confidence and having it all together. But…
Those who do those things do them out of abject fear! Fear of failing. Fear of what people think. Fear of losing their lifestyle. Fear of not being thought a “somebody.” Fear of losing… whatever. NOTE: In Rev 21:8 the fearful/cowardly are first on the list of those eternally separated from God. Hmmm…
There is ONE thing that is of eternal importance, your relationship with God through Jesus. When you stand before Jesus, nothing else will matter! One blessing of being in a healthy growing relationship with God through Jesus is REST… SOUL rest. Rest that is constant… pervasive… absolute… and complete. The kind that destroys anxiety and worry… marked by pervading peace that surpasses all human understanding. Consider…
Mt 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Mark 6:31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” NIV
Heb 4:3 For we who have believed enter that rest… 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest…
This examination of rest will continue tomorrow… God willing.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks