Resting Place

Heb 4:1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest,' " although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works"; 5 and again in this place: "They shall not enter My rest." 6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, "Today," after such a long time, as it has been said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts." 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

“Resting” is an interesting concept. Obviously, everyone needs it. You can’t go for too long without it.

The really curious part is how ‘resting’ recharges our batteries? Renews our strength. How does that work? How is that all I have to do is lay down for a bit – say 8 hours – and all of the sudden I’m as good a new?

When I was in college, part of my fraternity initiation was to be kept awake for 5 straight days, from Monday through Friday. The guy who designed our initiation had been a POW in Viet Nam, and he designed our initiation to incorporate sleep deprivation because he saw how powerful an influence it was. Being kept from sleep for an extended period of time makes you real loopy, and your brain stops functioning properly. It gets hard to think straight, and your body gets fuzzy and weak.

When you’ve been away from physical rest for a long enough period of time, you find yourself absolutely craving it, imagining it, practically dying for it. “I need rest!”

The same is true in the spiritual realm. God has designed us to require rest, both physically and spiritually.

In the same way physical rest is only found in sleep, spiritual rest is only found in Jesus. There is no other name under heaven which is given by which men may have rest. Don’t harden your heart to this fact – delight in it!

How wonderful it is at the end of a long exhausting day to climb into bed and just drift away! Equally wonderful is how at the end of a life-long tiresome search we can open our hearts to Christ and receive the eternal rest we have been seeking.

-  Pastor Bill