A rest for God’s people

We are pilgrims in a hostile world, one where people live by grabbing, not giving. People live with the attitude that if you don’t get your share of what’s there, someone else will take it, leaving you with nothing. Everything depends upon you – not His sovereign protection or care. Does this kind of thinking describe everyone? Not really.

There is rest for the child of God, says the writer of the book of Hebrews. One must enter into that rest and leave his anxious striving behind him, something that few of us taste and experience. God Himself rested after the work of creation. Then the writer talks of a rest that God intended for Israel, one that was to be enjoyed when they crossed the Jordan and entered the Promised Land; but they never attained this. Unbelief kept them from entering into that rest. Then the writer says there is rest for you, as God’s child, one that can surround you, no matter what happens in our world.

Most of the time we forget some important things such as these:

 1. Nothing can happen to you as God’s child apart from God’s will.

 2. God has made specific promises of protection and care for His own.

 3. While you are not exempted from the challenges of life, you are promised that the Shepherd of your soul will walk with you through the dark valley.

 4. You have an eternal home in heaven, one that our Lord has gone to prepare.

Everything isn’t dependent upon you. It is dependent upon what Christ did, something He transfers to your account, giving you the spiritual resources you need to relax, and live, and rest.