Day 9 - Rest

Day 9 - Rest

Hebrews 4:9-12 (TLB)
9 So there is a full complete rest still waiting for the people of God.
10 Christ has already entered there. He is resting from his work, just as God did after the creation.
11 Let us do our best to go into that place of rest, too, being careful not to disobey God as the children of Israel did, thus failing to get in.
12 For whatever God says to us is full of living power: it is sharper than the sharpest dagger, cutting swift and deep into our innermost thoughts and desires with all their parts, exposing us for what we really are.

     What has driven the development of technologies, devices, and machines to ever-increasing levels has been taking care of the difficulties in doing everyday things in people’s lives, so they can rest on what someone else has already labored over. People love acquiring some new way of not having to do something themselves and will pay for it. Vehicles for travel, computers with endless apps and software for being creative, wireless everything for communication, instant information access, Siri, and Alexa, etc., etc., etc. – all are produced with extreme effort to ensure the end user no longer has to expend nearly as much energy to do what they do. They can just rest on what has already been done for them. They can rest from having to check spelling and grammar, remember special dates and appointments, and even drive a car clear across the country. Someone has already done it for them. They only need to rest in what’s already been done. Once they possess one of these amazing widgets, it makes no sense to keep expending efforts like before, unless they just need the exercise. Also, their own efforts usually fall far short of the quality, speed, and effectiveness of what someone has already done for them. Better to just let go of their own works and rest in what someone has already done.

     What Jesus came to provide for us so powerfully and effectively is a way to righteousness that replaces our own inept efforts.  All of our attempts at living a blessed, abundant, and successful life can exhaust and overwhelm us. What ends up happening with these endless efforts is the stealing and loss of what was truly desired - life. Our efforts will fall far short of producing true life. They will only require more and more effort. By receiving and abiding in Christ, we can rest from our own works by activating all He’s already done for us by faith. As long as we depend on our own expended energies to please God and others, we’ll just be ineffectively exhausting our resources. To believe in God, though, and His wondrous work in Christ is to enter into a rest where everything we might attempt He’s already done to perfection. In this time of spending time with Him instead of other cravings, there can be intentional entering into rest from superfluous efforts. While cutting off other cravings of the flesh, we can also cut off dependence on the works of the flesh. ‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Everything the Word says He has done for us provides an entrance into rest that requires letting go of our own efforts. Once this is known and activated, there’s no going back to our own labors. We just – rest.

Meditation

Fasting:

"I do not allow my heart to be driven by affection for things of this world, but set it securely on love of the Father and its path to true life.” 
John 12:25, 1 John 2:15

Praise:

"In the exalting of God my heart will be stilled from all anxiety, safely knowing that He makes all earthly threats to be nothing and He will be honored throughout the whole world."
Psalm 46:8-11

Identity:

"God’s love is abiding in me and I am perfected in that love to know that as He is, so am I in this world."
1 John 4:16-17

Understanding:

"I have received the Spirit of God that I may know the things that are freely given to me by God."
1 Corinthians 2:12-14 

Wholeness:

"Because I have made the Lord my dwelling place, no evil will overtake me nor plague come near."
Psalm 91:9-10

Provision:

"In Christ all the promises of provision, health and protection are mine as I’m established in His holiness."
Deuteronomy 28:1-14, 2 Corinthians 1:20

Song: (Click to Hear)

"There Is A Rest"