Hebrews 4:9-11
“So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.”

We live in a fast paced society with little time to rest and relax, where there are many demands placed upon us that are often overwhelming. There never seems to be enough hours in a day or enough days in the week to accomplish all that we must accomplish, let alone space on our calendars. We have resorted to working for the weekend, waiting with great anticipation for that moment when we can stop and get a little rest. Yet even here our weekends are scheduled with lists that must be accomplished, so even the little time off that we have is consumed by our many responsibilities. Before we know it, Monday has come again and we start the same process over in a never ending cycle called the rat race! I have to question “is this really the life that God intended for His children?” Somehow I don’t believe that this is what God had in mind when He created the first man and woman. I think God intended for us to enjoy life and not just endure it, to thrive and not just survive. Life was meant to be a wonderful, an eternal existence walking with the Lord in the cool of the evening. Our work in His garden was intended to bring satisfaction as we toiled in things that had real significance. Yet through the fall we went from the blissful and blessed life to the miserable and more life. Today we need more than just physical rest we need a spiritual one. Hebrews 4:9-11reminds us that “there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest.” When you look around it becomes obvious that God’s people are not always resting in The Lord. It seems that there are many who are always laboring in an attempt to prove their own self-worthiness to be called a Child of God. Hebrews 1:3 says that “when he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.” We need to be reminded that Jesus completed His work of Redemption and Salvation and entered into a place of rest. Because Jesus has completed the work of our salvation, we too can enter into that rest following Him. Hebrews 8:1 puts it this way: “Here is the main point we have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven.” Why are so many today missing the main point, why do we feel that we must try so hard to be a Christian? The ironic thing is that trying to do something to be a Christian does not give me or anyone any indication that we are “at rest” in Jesus. The problem is that we are still “trying” to do something that we can’t finish. We are back on the crazy cycle that never ends only this time we have traded races and now we are running the religious rat race. So I what to ask you a few personal, probing questions that I hope you will take time to reflect on:
When will you ever be good enough?
At what point in your life will you feel that you have done enough to be called holy?
How many prayers must you pray and for how many hours?
How many sacrifices must you make before you will feel that you have paid enough?
How many things must be removed from your life before you will consider yourself perfect in the sight of God?
The truth is this kind of perfection cannot be purchased or earned through self-sacrifice. When we realize that Jesus has done it all and that there is nothing we can do to earn anymore than what Jesus has already given us then we will start to learn to “rest” in His salvation. No one can remove the responsibilities of your job, home and family or remove the amount of work and effort that must be done in order to provide for these things. We all have toil in this life for we are living under the effects of sin yet even with the worlds demands there is hope. There is rest found in the results of the resurrection, Jesus not only bore our sin but He promised never to give us more than we can bear. We can run to our Heavenly Father in our moments of frustration and feelings of depression and He will hear our cry and make a way where there is no way. Jesus’ presence in our lives brings both peace and power. We can rest because He has got this. When we proclaim that Jesus has done it all it means there is nothing left over for us to do but rest in His power and provision. We sing that Jesus paid it but strive like we are, so instead of resting we are rushing. If you are saved then sin does not need to have power over you and you can live a sanctified life. Sure sin abounds and it is easy to become a victim of our own desires, to be drawn away, but we have an advocate with the Father and we can be forgiven. Repentance leads to rest, turning from sin and back to the Savior always brings sweet rest. Yet for many there is no resting in Jesus, we are constantly attempting to do the work, wearing ourselves out physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually because we can never find the place of rest. Its not about your results its about the Redeemer, it’s time to stop running and start resting. Jeremiah 50:6-7 says “My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they sinned against the Lord, their verdant pasture, the Lord, the hope of their ancestors.” Today many Christians are living as though they were lost sheep. They are sheep, part of God’s family, but they don’t know that they are safe in the arms of the Great Shepherd and they are constantly looking for a place to rest but never finding one. Why is it that so many never learn to rest in the salvation that Jesus has given to us? Why are we always under condemnation and never feel that we are good enough? Is this the product of our modern day ministry, where people feel pressurized to perform? Yes there is work that needs to be done in my life for me to be more like Jesus, but that “work” is not what saves me or condemns me. The truth is that if we really want to reflect our Redeemer more then we need to start resting in the Savior not striving. There can be no rest for those sheep who are always working in an attempt to earn the love of their shepherd. The shepherd has already shown us His unconditional love through His sacrifice on the cross. Just as the shepherd provides a place of safety and rest inside the sheepfold, Jesus has provided a place of safety and rest for his people. Our rest is secured, God isn’t going to kick us out of the fold every time we make a mistake or do something wrong. Our Great Shepherd loves us, we are bought with His own blood and that was no cheap price for Him to pay. Yet how quickly we forget that Jesus paid it all and that there is nothing we can pay to make our salvation any surer or to make the Lord love us more. “Whoever found them devoured them” Those who have run from God are fair game and instead of rest they experience ruin. Satan will do everything he can to try and stop God’s lost sheep from ever find their way back home into His rest. He brings accusations of unfaithfulness, telling us how unfit we are to be called a Christian, and in so doing, justifying why we should never come back to God. Don’t allow the Devil to lie to you and convince you that you can never be “good enough” Mistakes or not, we are still God’s people and God desires for us to come back and rest in His place of safety. If you have lost that place of rest then come back to the Redeemer, today its time to get back to the resting place.

Psalm 62:1-2 My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”

As David wrote this Psalm He was dealing with the rebellion of his son, Absalom who was trying to take over the kingdom. This was a pit experience, a low place in his life, the king running for his life from his own son, yet we see his attitude anchored in the Almighty not his terrible situation. Davids focus was on his Father, and because God was his defense he was not destroyed. David speaks of that sweet soul rest that is found only in Christ regardless of the circumstances. He could rest because he was in the refuge of the Redeemer. So often we focus on the forces against us and our own failure instead of the Father yet when we remember His hand of power we too can hold on because we know help is on the way. If you have ever worried, and I know just like me there have probably been plenty of worry warts in your walk, then you know that nothing wears us out more than worry. Worry leaves us worked up and worn down and the only antidote I know to worry is worship. Yet true worship finds itself resting in the Redeemer not the results. So many of us try to worship God by wrestling in prayer for the results, missing the Redeemer and consequently the rest. We pray for God to change this or heal that, for Him to fix this or remove that, but rest is not found in the results it is found in the Redeemer alone. David didn’t just rest he rested in God alone because rest is found in the Redeemer alone. Trust in anything other than Christ is a counterfeit trust. Only a confident trust in Christ will allow your soul to find rest in the trouble and turmoil.
David understood that God alone is the Rock, our only real refuge, He is our only security in an unsafe world. God alone is our salvation, our only deliverer, not possessions or people. So often we try to trust in money and material things instead of the Messiah but God alone is our fortress He is our only security in the storm. Resting in our Savior allows us to be steadfast and stable regardless of the situation. Today we need to remember that the Redeemer is not just a good shelter in the storm He is the only secure shelter. The word rest in this verse refers to a quiet waiting on God. When we are worried and worked up it seems that the last thing we want to do is wait, yet its in the waiting that we learn to depend on Him alone to deliver. Often instead of quiet waiting in the presence of the Father our lives are characterized by a frantic restlessness. We see waiting as a waste yet its in the waiting that our soul gets to stop and experience that peace place of rest. Isaiah 40:31 says that those who “WAIT” upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Do you worry or wait? Our Redeemer is our only source of real rest and Isaiah paints for us the incredible contrast between trusting in Christ verses circumstance. One is worn out filled with worry the other soars effortlessly on wings like an eagle. Rest involves a renewal of strength, real rest, what I have come to call Redeemer rest, allows us to run and not grow weary, to walk without fainting and falling, even to soar on wings. Trusting in our circumstances leads to us crashing, but trusting in Christ allows us to continue regardless of the circumstance. Today what is your reality, worn or wings? Turning to Christ, resting in Him regardless of the circumstance results in a confident trust in the trials. Our Redeemer is our Rock and our Refuge, that inaccessible place to problems, our refuge and release from the worry. Yet so often we chose to surround ourselves with our own solutions instead of spending time with the Savior. We choose the struggle instead of the still calm of Christ. I love the words to the hymn “lead me to the Rock” it says, “…when my heart is overwhelmed… lead me to the rock, lead me to the rock that’s higher than I.” Let me remind all of us and especially those in spiritual leadership that we will all be overwhelmed during various stages of our lives. Even you the super spiritual leader, there will be situations in this life that will reveal that your not the super pastor you might think you are. As I write this devotion I am sitting on the beach listing to the endless crash of the waves. Those relentless waves of water, receding only to come rushing back again and again. At first they seem inviting even invigorating, but those beautiful blue waters can be deceptively deep, as we find ourselves being pulled further out in their powerful undertow. Only to be overwhelmed, surged over in the strong surf. We struggle with each pounding wave, pulling and pushing us under, swallowing and submerging us. Maybe today you find yourself engulfed inundated in emotional confusion, sinking in the hurts and disappointment, deadlines, financial burdens, illness. It seems like the endless waves just keep coming, crashing into you, unrelenting, one trial after another. In the currents of our circumstances we fight, we strategize, we cry and at times we want to give up. In our crushing circumstances when we feel overwhelmed and overcome, God has a place that He wants to lead us to. You don’t have to sink in the sea of your circumstance, when the pressure seems to much to bear, when you’re far out and floundering remember that your Father is there. It is the reassuring rest of our Rock and Redeemer that rescues us from the relentless rip tides of life. Maybe today you need to stop struggling and simply sing “lead me to the rock” the Rock that is higher than me. Today are you resting in the refuge of your Redeemer?