November 2 - God’s Word and Our Rest
Entering into God’s rest is the ultimate goal of every Christian and a promise that still stands for us today. We must approach this rest with fear and trembling lest we fail to reach it. As unbelief caused the Israelites to lose their rest in God, faith in the message of the good news enables us to enter that rest. It is not just listening to the Word of God, it is to believe and do what God says in order to enter. Just like God rested on the seventh day from all his works, we are to rest from all our works in order to enter into the same Sabbath rest.
God’s works were finished from the foundation of the world and we must also rest from our own works. To have God’s rest is to take what God has done for us instead of striving to do it on our own. It is a liberating thought that we do not have to do anything to enter the rest. Salvation is not only by faith and not by works, our Christian life must also operate on the same principle. Many believers are trying hard to please God by doing and not by resting. Most of us are so busy doing God’s work that God does not have any part in our lives.
The key to living in God’s rest is to take what God has already done and claim it as ours. In our salvation, we take what Jesus had done on the cross as our own. For healing, we claim the atonement of Christ for our mortal bodies. In being filled by the Holy Spirit, we accept what God has given. We cannot manufacture anything other than taking what God has already provided and promised. This is the true meaning of rest. Any disobedience and unbelief would disqualify us from obtaining God’s fullness for our lives.
It is simply trusting and obeying, just like what an old hymn says, for there is no other way to find this rest. We must submit to God’s mind and God’s will in order to receive all the inheritance of God. That is the reason why the Word of God is like a two-edged sword, cutting into the division of soul and spirit, allowing us to discern the thoughts and intentions of the mind. Once we check with the Word of God, we can tell whether our thoughts are in line with God’s. When we choose God’s way instead of ours, we end the inner struggles and are at rest.
The Word of God makes a cut between our human spirit and our human soul, telling us what is from the Spirit who indwells in our spirit or from our own flesh and soul. Most of us think that our soul is our spirit and we operate our lives by our thinking, feeling and decision-making. It is not to make up our own mind but to have the mind of Christ in us. Our job is to find out what God thinks and then think in the same way. Are you at rest this very moment? Let the Word of God cut into your spirit and soul now and discern what is from God. Obey and you will have rest in God.
Ps 119:89-96 Ezek 3:16-6:14 Heb 4:1-16 Prov 26:27