It Takes Work to Rest!

 We are still talking about rest. About the kind of rest that only God can give. The Israelites that did make it over in the Promise Land felt like they had totally found that rest, yet there was another rest that they had not yet achieved:

"…here is still a full and complete "rest" waiting for believers to experience. ¹⁰ As we enter into God’s faith-rest life we cease from our own works, just as God celebrates his finished works and rests in them. ¹¹ So then we must give our all and be eager to experience this faith-rest life, so that no one falls short by following the same pattern of doubt and unbelief. Hebrews 4:10b-11 (TPT)

There are times when it seems as if all  is going well. We’re on the top of the world. What we hoped for, worked for, prayed for finally came into fruition. Maybe we talk to ourselves, maybe we talk to God – we say, "right here, no more, don’t pass go, do’t collect two hundred dollars.. Let’s stay right here!" How many of you know there is no such thing as "staying right here". The earth travels 19,200 miles each day, 584 million miles each year. You’re on the earth and moving with it! Just as sure as the sun is going to rise up in the east and set in the west, so the earth is going to move.

Just as trouble don’t last always, neither does sunshine and balmy breezes. We are going to have both. Yet, the secret to good living is obtaining rest in God. It is that place where we cease from our labor and allow Him to work. It is that place of trust where we know that "all things work together for our good," so we don’t fret the small stuff because all of it is really small stuff!

Now it may seem as if I am talking all big and bad like I have mastered this thing. I am sorry to report that I am still in the struggle mode. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I completely rest in God, sometimes I spend far too much time fretting. Yet, the times of one or the other is getting shorter, where I am learning there is no use trying to figure everyone out, God is much better at it than I am."There is a rest for the people of God, but we have to ‘labor’ to enter into that rest." And I confess sometimes that is hard work!

Maria