Enter Into God’s Rest: What’s the Secret?
“And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief” Hebrews 3: 18, 19.
This chapter in Hebrews is talking about a rest for the people of God. The writer is using the wilderness experience of the ancient Israelites to encourage his readers not to make the same mistakes. Because there is a rest available for all believers today.
To read the entire passage for context, click here.
It Takes Effort to Enter into God’s Rest
The wilderness experience requires exertion because we have to believe God’s promise in the face of contradictory evidence (Exodus 15: 22- 18: 27).
It’s hard mental work to believe for a land flowing with milk and honey when you’re wandering around aimlessly in a dead, dry, barren desert that can’t even sustain life.
It requires that we discipline our thoughts and choose to believe what we can’t see and have no evidence of. In fact, the evidence we do have suggests the opposite of what we’re believing for.
Once we make it to our promise land, we can rest from this hard work because the promise is fulfilled. And it doesn’t take any effort to believe what we see and are experiencing.
There is Only One Way to Get to that Place of Rest
But the only way we get to this place of rest is by effort and exertion.
This same principle of exertion to get rest is true of overcoming sin as well. When we’re first trying to overcome some sin issue, it’s hard work. Resisting a temptation that you’re in the habit of giving in to is a laborious task.
But the good news is every time we resist the temptation it’s a little less intense and comes a little less often. Until eventually it doesn’t come at all. And we’ve entered rest in that area.
Exertion Leads to Rest
The rest from temptation is the promise we clung to while we were resisting it. It’s what we held on to when we were experiencing constant death to sin, needs and self in the wilderness.
Believing God’s word in the face of contradictory evidence is the narrow path of affliction, trouble and suffering tribulation that leads to life (Mathew 7: 13, 14).
It’s the exertion that leads to rest.
To read another post related to Enter into God’s Rest: What’s the Secret, see Entering God’s Rest Requires a Fight.