Labor to Rest

“Let us therefore strive (labor) to enter that rest…” Hebrews 4:11

Sounds like a paradox, doesn’t it?  If you’re laboring you’re not at rest, right? Well, the kind of laboring I’m talking about here certainly isn’t childbirth!  This kind of labor involves renewing your mind to the truth of the gospel.   It involves taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and what He accomplished at the cross for all who believe.  This is the labor of entering into God’s rest.

What is God’s rest?  Hebrews 10:10 states, “whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His.” (emphasis mine)  Do you realize that God actually wants us to rest from our works.  Our dead works, that is.  In fact, God wants us to move on from the baby things such as repenting from dead works.  Hebrews 6:1, “therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works…”  Dead works are the things we do in our flesh to try to please God.  Christ has acutally become the sacrifice, once and for all time, to cleanse our conscience in this area (see Heb. 9:14).  So we see that we are supposed to move on from dead works and enter into God’s rest.  How do we do that?

By God’s grace, of course!  By God’s grace through faith, we can have relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  When that happens, we’re “in Christ”, and God sees and relates to us just as He does with Jesus.  Therefore, we don’t have to do anything to please God because He’s already pleased with us.  This frees us up to live a life at rest in our relationship with  God.

Let me put it to you this way:  Maybe you really wanted your mom or dad to be pleased with you when you were a kid, so you did things that you thought would please them.  Maybe you cleaned up your room every day, or did the dishes, or whatever else you can think of.  That’s a normal, human way we relate to each other.  We tend to carry that mentality over into our relationship with God (or lack thereof).  But God is different!  So we end up doing all kind of “things” (dead works) to please God or make ourselves feel righteous.  The truth is, Christ died to make you righteous and nothing you can do will make you more (or less) righteous, except believing (or not believing) on Christ’s finished work at the cross!  Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (emphasis mine)  Knowing and believing this truth produces freedom in your life.  Your conscience is free to believe you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor 5:21)  You are free to respond to the Lord and serve out of a pure heart of love, knowing He’s already pleased with you.

So lay down your dead works and labor to enter into God’s rest!  What are you waiting for???

image: Seavit Keawtavee/freedigitalphotos.net

The Heart Established by Grace

I've recently realized just how important it is to be established in the grace of God.  Hebrews 13:9 states, "Do not be lead away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened (established in some translations) by grace, not by foods which have not benefited to those devoted to them."  (emphasis mine)

It IS good for our hearts to be established by grace.  There is such freedom in knowing that God is pleased with you, simply because you're in Christ.  The following has been taken directly from Joseph Prince's book Destined to Reign daily devotional, January 22 entry:

God does not want your heart full of worries and fears, tossed and turned by every challenge that comes your way.  He wants your heart at rest and established by His grace toward you.

But when you think that the breakthroughs to your challenge depend on your ability to obey God, then your heart will not be at rest.  It will be full of worries and anxieties.  Why?  Because you can never obey God perfectly.

But when you depend on God's grace, that is, His undeserved, unmerited favor, the opposite happens - your heart becomes established.  When you know that the only thing that qualifies you to receve God's blessings is faith in the finished work of Christ, your heart becomes established.  Then, you will walk without the fear of your troubles swallowing you up.  You will walk with full assurance that His blessings will be manifested in your life.

My friend, God wants your heart established, knowing that His righteousess, healing, protection and prosperity are yours - all paid for by Jesus' finished work at the cross.  God's blessings are sure in your life because they are not dependent on your ability to keep His laws, but Jesus' perfect obedience......today, under the new covenant, your sins no longer disqualify you because God Himself has said, "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." (Hebrews 8:12)

So let your heart be established by God's grace.  Because of His grace, you have full access to His blessings.  You no longer have to worry about whether you are good enough.  You can stand firm on the promises made in His Word and enjoy His blessings today because Jesus has paid the price.  Your part is only to believe and receive! "

I hope you take the time to get established by His grace.  God IS pleased with you, regardless of whether or not you've read your bible faithfully (or fill in the blank with the work of your choice).  Although reading the bible is essential in our walk with the Lord, it isn't a requirement for God being pleased with us.  Accepting Christ's finished work has made God pleased with us, and that will never change.  Praise God!

I have found in my own life that once I really got more established by His grace, the more I wanted to read the Word, etc.  Titus 2:11, 12 states that "The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and wordly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in the present age."  How awesome that God's grace is what teaches us to "live right".  We don't have to live right in order for God to like us.  We just need to believe in the finished work of Jesus!

image: Luigi Diamanti/freedigitalphotos.net

the Word that made spring

The long dark night of winter's grip has almost ceased and passed

The dawn of spring, the dawn of sun is come to earth at last

To awaken sleeping soil with it's warmth and with it's light

To fill the earth with energy, with strength, and with might

We too are filled with energy to walk the plan divine

Laid out for all so long ago, the Maker's plan to shine

Good riddance winter's long dark night, whose days are in the past

We turn our faces toward the light and to Your Word hold fast

Your Word never changes, it forever stays the same

You have in fact exalted Your Word above Your name

Your Word went forth before all time and birthed all that we're seeing

Sun, moon, soil and seasons: Your Word brought these to being

As surely as the seasons pass from winter into spring

So it is with Your Word, and to Your Word we cling!

image: Simon Howden/freedigitalphotos.net