Today’s Scripture: Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Hebrews 4:11 ESV
The writer of Hebrews encourages us to rest in our faith. If we believe the promise of God and the grace of Jesus we can rest in that. So, what is the “same sort of disobedience” we fall into like those in the desert under Moses that Hebrews is referring to? Do we take matters into our own hands? Do we really believe?
God was angered by those in the desert because they did not believe. He had spoken and promised them the land but the people doubted when they looked to using their own strength. Do we do the same thing? Do we say we believe but live our lives every day as if it is up to us?
We have a choice today. We can choose to have confidence and rejoice in the hope of Jesus as in Hebrews 3:6 and find rest in this confidence or we can put things in our own hands. If we have faith that God rested because everything was complete then nothing we can do will add to that. Believe it.
Today’s Prayer: Heavenly Father thank you for making everything complete. You said it was good and You built me. Your word Father has pierced my soul and I will hold firmly to Your word. Thank You for Jesus who understands my weaknesses and gave me grace. With this grace I confidently approach Your throne and believe. Help me to maintain my faith until the end. Amen
Tom Raines
Christian Affirmations 4 Life
Tom, thanks for sharing this. Resting in our faith is a great word for today.
Faith is a strange thing. Most of us would say we walk in faith, however, when the rubber hits the road we start using all our experience, knowledge, feeling, and advice from the worldly view. Most of the time we resort to every thing available and when all else fails we reach up to God and want him to get us out of our mess. Why is it that we humans have such a hard time walking in faith for when we look back we see where God was leading us. I want to walk in faith. My pastor told a story about a man who was in the ocean drowning. The crowds just kept yelling to the lifeguard to go in a get the man. Finally, it seemed that the man had used all his strength and the lifeguard went in a pulled him out. The crowd asked the lifeguard why he did not go get the man. The lifeguard said, I had to let him spend all his energy and resources other wise he would have have not allowed me to bring him in. Once he gave in then I could lead him to shore. We pull against God trying to do things our way and if we would just rest in faith, God could orchestrate our lives in our best interest.
Thanks Patsy, great analogy! Why do we do that? We fight and fight and do all we can before turning it over. God promises us rest if we will truly trust and believe Him!
I’m so encouraged! I just posted about Jesus being the only true rest for our souls.
A quote I will never forget from my pastor “Your greatest sin, is not the abortion that you’ve asked forgiveness for, or the adultery, or whatever it is in your life, that keeps hounding you, your greatest sin is not that! You’re greatest sin is not believing God’s word, when God says you’re forgiven! You’re greatest sin is unbelief… You want to repent of something friend? Stop repenting of sins that you’ve already repented of, and repent of your unbelief”.
He wasn’t teaching about a hierarchy of sins, he was teaching about how we simply don’t believe God’s word that Jesus paid the price for us in full. Period.
I love seeing posts and replys like this one. 🙂
Thank you Andy for dropping by and sharing your pastor’s message. Oddly enough in my quiet time this morning, God was communicating that very thing again today about be faithful in the little things. Do we (I) show my belief and my faith today in the small decisions and the large. Is He my all or just something that would be nice to dao. LORD, I do repent of my unbelief, help me to live by faith in all things today and perservere through the consequences of my lack of faith! Thanks Andy!
Wednesday is a great day for rest! Oh, who am I kidding…every day is a great day for The LORD’s rest!
Thanks Tom!
Thanks Brother!