His Place of Rest

"But every day is now meant to be the Sabbath."

IT'S TO YOUR benefit to rest. We seek rest, all of humanity searching for that place of life where work comes to fulfillment and there's nothing to do but sit and soak. Some find it in entertainment, sports, music, and other forms of creativity. Some find it in intellectual studies, the learning of languages and cultures, the search for historical values. There are those who turn to godless meditation. No god exists but the living God, the God of Israel. He alone is peace of mind.

Psalm 91 is rest. Here, we are promised full and complete protection from every form of calamity, man-made, natural, supernatural. We need never leave home and worry about anything. But here's the truth of it —unless, we confess it and believe it, we are open to whatever comes.

God is good and kind and gentle. Never worried, never distressed. Even when He sent Jesus to the earth, knowing that beautiful Jewish baby boy would grow up and hang on a cruel cross, He was not fearful or even angry. He'd planned that moment. He planned the redemption of mankind when He sat down on day seven to rest. The Sabbath was made FOR man because it would be the day of Jesus' Resurrection. And Jesus' Resurrection would bring permanent rest just as He'd promised in Psalm 91 and many other psalms. Just as He'd promised Israel.

“And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:” (Mark 2:27)

Israel chose disobedience. Here are the words of Hebrews 4, that they COULD HAVE rested. God provided their escape from Egypt with great provisions and wealth. He fed them with manna from heaven and water while living in the midst of the desert. Their clothes and shoes did not even wear out. Yet, they chose the desires of their mind and their selfish flesh instead of trusting God, who had so proven Himself to them, and did not believe what God had spoken. When facing the land He'd promised them for many generations, they saw fear and shouted failure. As a result, they died in the desert.

The rest God had promised them, the success and peace they could have enjoyed, was then extended to future peoples who would take hold of it. It was extended to us.

“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as [happened] in the rebellion [of Israel] and their provocation and embitterment [of Me] in the day of testing in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried [My patience] and tested [My forbearance] and found I stood their test, and they saw My works for forty years.” (Hebrews 3:7-9 AMPC)

Philippians 4:7 says in prayer we obtain a quiet mind and peaceful thoughts. By taking a seat with our Father, and giving Him our needs, we enter into His rest. In our thanksgiving is rest. Verse 8 goes on to say what we think on assures us of it. And these words there aren't just us dreaming of clouds and flowers but are our thoughts about other people. Like Jesus, we choose not to think of that man as a no-good tax collector but a generous man who paid everyone back fourfold. Those men He ate dinner with weren't sinners any longer, but children, hungry for truth. For rest is found only in the sacrifice He'd come to earth to do. The Sabbath was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Jews, Jesus' ancestry, couldn't see it. But every day is now meant to be the Sabbath. Today, we worship. Today we trust Him who is so trustworthy, and from His place of rest, where His mercy has replaced His anger, He blesses.

Our needs have been supplied: from the cleansing of our heart, to our change of thought patterns, to our physical needs. Forever, for us, is rest. Not only as heaven in our future, where death is no more and we live in abundance of life, but as heaven on earth. Here, the will of God is done in just the same manner as heaven. This is magnitude. His generosity to us is just as great. But also His grace gives us the same method as is in heaven. We trust Him in that manner. We love others in that manner. And live here until we are satisfied, long lives in safety and plenty. Rested when we finally go home, leaving behind us a legacy of peace for our children and our children’s children.

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)

“Peace is my bequest to you, and the peace which I will give you is mine to give; I do not give peace as the world gives it. Do not let your heart be distressed, or play the coward.” (John 14:27 Knox)

“So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the [true] people of God;” (Hebrews 4:9 AMPC)

Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com