This morning we continue our series, “Grace that is Simply Amazing” by continuing with our mini-series entitled, “Grace Based Success (Prosperity)”. Last week I introduced you to a passage in Hebrews 4 (verses 1-11) and I started teaching you about God’s rest. We have worked our way through the passage. Today we look at the last verse. I will share the verse with you in two versions:
Amplified Bible
Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell].
Easy-To-Read-Version
So let us try as hard as we can to enter God’s place of rest. We must try hard so that none of us will be lost by following the example of those who refused to obey God.
After painting a vivid picture of the supernatural rest the Father freely makes available for us – and after driving home the point that the Israelites failed to enter into that rest and that many modern day believers make the same mistake – the writer of Hebrews tells us to exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest. Other transitions say: “make every effort,” “keep at it,” and “be completely diligent.” I believe the point is clear and that is that we will NOT be able to enter into and remain in this type of rest without effort. We must purpose on purpose to strive after, enter into, and remain in God’s rest. If we slack off, even for a day or so, the enemy can quickly get us out of God’s rest and back into fear, doubt, unbelief, worry, and all sorts of anxiety.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things:
1. You won’t ENTER INTO God’s rest unless you do so on purpose. You will not simply wake up one day and find yourself completely free of worry, stress, and unnecessary strain. You won’t ‘just happen’ to find yourself totally relying on God and not your ability. No, if you are going to enjoy divine rest you are going to have to know it has been made available by God’s grace and you will have to pursue it and lay hold of it with your faith. Stop being passive. God is not going to force you to be blessed. God will not impose impose His best upon your life. God wants you to enter in and enjoy His rest, but He is looking for you to submit to the process. Success in life, which can come when you enter into God rest, will not require more trying on your part. It will require more dying. Die to self and enter into God’s rest.
2. You won’t REMAIN IN God’s rest unless you do so on purpose. Once you have made the effort to lay hold of the divine rest the Father has made available to you, then you must also make the effort to remain there. If you are not careful, both satan and your old nature will get you out of God’s rest. Let me address both…
a. Satan will do his best to keep you outside of God’s rest. Make no mistake, we do have an adversary and he is not happy if you are happy. The enemy and his minions will do all they can to get your OUT of God’s rest and INTO fear, doubt, unbelief, worry, stress, struggle, and strain. So once you are IN God’s rest you have to strive to remain there. When negative thoughts come, take control of them quickly and remind yourself of who you are in Christ, of the blessing the Father wants you to richly enjoy, and of the rest that you have been enjoying. Once you have tasted of this rest you will never want to be without it!
b. Your mind must be renewed. While satan will do his best to get you OUT of God’s rest, the reality is that everything is not satan. If your mind is not renewed to think God’s way, then your un-renewed mind can be as damaging as satan himself. This is why the Bible urges us to be deprogrammed and then reprogrammed to think the way God thinks. Once your mind is renewed and your heart is conditioned to experience and expect divine rest, then it will be a lot harder for satan to get in and more importantly, you won’t be defeating yourself with your old thoughts.
3. Work on NOT working. The writer of Hebrews teaches you to labor, to work hard on NOT working; on NOT relying on your strength, your ability or human effort. I know this can sometimes be hard, because many Christians are much more apt to rely on themselves than God. But you must make every effort to rely on God, to enter into His rest, and to resist every urge to stress-out over things you should be trusting God for.
I will stop here and we will discuss this further tomorrow.
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for teaching me about Your grace and for making it clear to me that Your divine rest is available. Prior to coming to You I grew up learning that I needed to be independant. I was taught to rely on myself. I developed over the years to the point where I felt proud that I could do things on my own. Then I was Born-Again and Your Word taught me another way. Your Word has taught me to totally rely on You. Your Word is teaching me that You already planned for my existence, that You prepared for my arrival, that You setup everything I need for success in this world, and that You did it because You love me. Your grace is amazing and You are now teaching me to simply access Your grace with my faith. You don’t want me to live my life totally relying on me, my ability or my strength. You know that if I live that way, it will lead to a life of stress, struggle and strain. You offer me a better way. You offer me Your REST by Your grace. So Father, my work is now focused on NOT working (with my ability alone). I make every effort to enter into Your rest and once I am there, I remain there by faith. I resist every temptation to fall back into fear, doubt, worry, unbelief, stress, struggle and strife. I submit unto You, I resist satan, and he flees from me. I also submit myself to the process of mind renewal, so that I don’t defeat myself with my own thoughts. I think the way You think, rest the way You rest, and enjoy the life that Christ Jesus died to give me. I experience divine rest today and for the rest of my life! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
