Friday, July 16, 2010

Entering His Rest



When I watch the sky fill with color, I feel small in a good way. Bent rays twisted through the atmosphere create masterful evening canopies under which I rest, mindful of our Creator.

It's easy to rest by the ocean under a brilliant sky. It's another thing to enter His rest during the day to day toil we live as life.

At one point this summer, I told God if He would just do such and such, I could rest. And I needed rest. My body was stressed enough. Due to recent physical limitations, it made sense to me that God would want to decrease my stress level in the ways I desired most.

He offered a simple reply, "Enter my rest now."

"There remains then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest..." (Heb. 4:9-11 NIV)

The Message translation states earlier in Hebrews 4, "If we believe, though, we'll experience the state of resting. But not if we don't have faith."

I've stood at this cross road before, the place where I can stew over uncertainty or rest in the reality of God, my Savior, my Lord. It's never easy. But the option is real. We can enter His rest. Trust in His goodness. Watch Him provide.

Or pick our nails.

I long to enter His rest.