Restful Living
Welcome to this new day that brings with it new opportunities! It’s Thursday and I am so glad to have this time with you to encourage your joy!
Throughout the world there is a common occurrence that excites those who labor during the week. It is called the weekend off. It is a day or couple days off at the end of a workweek. That glorious opportunity to rest from the work week! Scripture speaks about this idea of rest in two very different ways in the context of two very different covenants.
Under the Old Covenant Israel looked forward to their day of rest. It was their way of acknowledging that God rested from His labor in creating things on the seventh day and therefore they too took a rest to honor God as creator of all things.
Under the New Covenant we read the following: Hebrews 3:10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
This is speaking of working to be made righteous or to maintain righteousness before God. This is speaking of a gift that is given to us through Jesus. We now can rest from laboring to be accepted, forgiven, righteous or loved. It is a free gift by grace through faith. It is not of works otherwise you would be able to boast of how you achieved it.
We do not work to obtain or maintain fellowship with God, we simply put our trust in Jesus to enjoy the fruits of it. It is by means of believing that we receive the benefits afforded us through the obedience of Jesus at the cross. I know our faith will produce actions in life. But we should never forget that our actions are meant to springboard off of our faith, not the other way around.
To miss this amazing promise of rest is like being on a gerbil wheel always running but never really going anywhere. That my friend is not your inheritance in Christ. I encourage you today to ask the Holy Spirit to teach you what it means to rest in Christ and to once again enjoy belonging to Him. I promise it will not make you less productive or effective.
