That Thing You Do: Day 3

Hebrews 4:1-13 "The Promise of REST"

GOD's REST

"a promise remains of entering His rest...." 

No man can save himself. No human can earn his/her way to heaven through good works. No one can work enough, earn enough, ever BE enough to enter heaven by their own will simply because no one is worthy to. You're not. I'm not. No one is. 

But Christ took all our sin with Him and died on the cross for you and me. So not by works, but by His grace! ONLY by His grace.

People tend to tire themselves and strive just so they get a sure flight to heaven. But the thing is, you don't have to strive! Once you've accepted Christ as Lord & Savior, your flight to heaven can never be delayed, cancelled, postponed and can't even be interrupted by Habagats! ;) 

In one sense, to receive salvation means to stop relying on one's works and rest securely on what Christ has done. Also, in another sense, the works of the believer done in the Lord embody the completeness and fulfillment that come only from entering God's rest. 

We'll never really understand why we need REST until we understand the condition of our hearts..

NOTHING IS HIDDEN FROM GOD. You can hide it from your family or your friends but you can never hide anything from God. 

Just a few months ago, the Lord opened my eyes to a sin i've been tolerating in my life for over a year. I hid it from my family, from my friends (in church most especially) and from everyone else for that matter.. Why? Because i knew it just wasn't right.

I realized how terrified i was had i failed to keep it from them. I didn't want them to judge me or think wrongly of me. So i hid it. I was so concerned about what other people would say about me that I failed to "concern" myself with what my God thinks about me. I had never felt so distant from Him in my life. 

Right then and there, I broke down and asked God for forgiveness. You see, most of the time, when we do things we know are wrong, we hide from the world because, as painful as it is for me to say this, we acknowledge the world more than we acknowledge God... most of the time. 

But i hope you remember this.... that this isn't something we should be scared about. Actually, it's something we CAN rejoice about! God knows. God sees. And God loves you & me! And He wants us to come to Him boldly, with nothing holding us back. 

Jesus can sympathize with the weaknesses of His people. He knows by experience all their trials and temptations. He came to seek & save, to pursue & to love us. He came for you and me. 

But most importantly, 

He came to give you REST.