How to rest

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

“The most dangerous thing an old man faces, is still thinking he is a young man” (author unknown). That is probably the most accurate statement to describe myself, and many of my peers at this stage of life, many of us in seemingly a transition stage of life. My thirties and forties did not phase me, yet my fifties have kicked me in the teeth. I know not if it is the weakened physical capacities or the slipping mental abilities that bother and worry me more. I have peaked, and am headed down the backside of life, yet I do not, nor will not give into that ideal without a fight. I am a danger to myself, yet in the back of my mind looms how tired I am, how I desire to rest as this chapter speaks about. Rest is a deep word in scripture, many meanings, yet a root of them is surrendering to God. We rebel in our flesh as I described, and we war in our spirit to work out our salvation, instead of resting in the faith of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews was written to the Jews, who God had rescued from slavery, told them of a Promised Land he would give them, and for forty years they roamed in the desert in rebellion. Their faith was such a roller-coaster that an entire generation did not enter the land God promised. When you begin to study this chapter of Hebrews it speaks of the rest by God’s example here, and hints to the eternal rest in Heaven to those who believe. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. There was a reason God gave us the Sabbath example in creation, to show us our need for rest for our time here. The eternal rest is a place of peace our limited minds cannot fathom, eternal paradise with it’s Creator. Religious duty dominated the minds of the Jews, rest seemed so hard for them to attain.

Our world puts stresses on us to a level we were not designed for. We do not know how to rest, and the phones we have in our hands all day are warping our minds into split-second needs and false satisfactions; we are never at rest. Their accessibility and ability has been pulled into the work environment, being expected to be available 24hrs a day for any work responsibility. Our children’s generation will suffer the most, their minds from young ages now only able to handle seconds of attention, before changed their attention to the next thing in line. They will become much more tired, much earlier in life, their thirties will feel like their fifties. How will they rest……

I truly believe time cultivated in a written Bible, a copy you turn one page at a time, produces a soul rest your heart desires. God’s Word speaks to you when you slow down and take time to read it, resting in the assurances he has given you.