A man once told me, “Strive to enter rest.” I didn’t understand that. He was referring to Hebrews 4:11.
How can you strive to enter rest? Doesn’t that cancel rest out, if you have to work to get it?
This past month, I finally got it. Mainly because I’ve had to live it, get my own experience.
You see, a victory doesn’t come without a fight…peace doesn’t come without war…and rest doesn’t come but through toil. Rest takes work!
- Jesus’ life was work – tempted, beaten up, bloodied, injured so badly you couldn’t recognize him – all of that, to gain rest at the resurrection.
- Getting an A on a test, doesn’t come without the pain of memorization, study, focus, sacrifices, mental energy.
- Winning a sports championship doesn’t come without practice, injuries, mistakes, and hundreds if not thousands of hours of play.
- Healthy relationships don’t come without sacrifices, long talks, fun experiences, time and energy.
I now see what God meant by saying we must strive to enter rest.
(Vulnerability time)
I’ve had a tough few years recently. I deeply wanted the pain to be over with. I wished I could wave a magic wand and poof; I feel fine again. But that didn’t happen.
Over the past year I have worked my butt off to do all I could in my heart to be at peace with several people and situations. Even pain with God. I didn’t want to do the work, but I new it was needed.
After 6 years of serving in missional leadership around the world, at the very last minute, God has finally brought the healing I’ve been seeking for so long from wounds experienced along that path. This past month I have not rested at all. Nope! Not in the traditional sense of getting good sleep, sipping a cold drink on the beach, and eating grapes while listening to the waves crash on the sand.
I have needed to work at relationships, resolve unforgiveness, pray with brothers and sisters, and do a whole lot of work to clear the heart so it could enter rest. I now see, how this whole ‘rest’ thing takes a ton of work!
But I can gratefully and humbly say – oh how it is worth it. The painful strides towards peace have miraculously resulted in an inner rest.
So I encourage you this day, to examine if and where some work is needing to be done, so that you can enter into your rest.
I have had a wonderful and unforgettable journey around the world, but it didn’t come without some bruises and scars, mostly internal. And those wounds needed tending to.
There is no formula. Let me caution you against trying to manufacture an outcome. The best way I know how to work on wounds, is to expose them to God. Simply but sincerely confessing to God where your heart needs attention to, and asking Him what steps He would like you to take to get you in a better place.
Our ultimate example is Jesus. He did all that he could to work his whole life for us. To live sinless, and suffer for us, so that we could enter that same eternal rest. He went first, to the work of the cross, and then to the heavenly rest. We now get to follow – picking up our cross and then receiving our resurrection. But our ‘resurrections’ in life can’t come without the crosses. Let’s be people of courage, and pickup our crosses, and persevere to our rest.
I have a little place inside of me that can now say the striving for rest is worth it.
Another man once said, “Never trust a man without a limp.” I think he was on to something.
Now somebody throw me a grape!
“For we do not grieve as others do who have no hope…we believe…” 1 Thes. 4:12
