“So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today.” -Hebrews 4:7 NLT
What do you rest in? This is a question that I have really been having to focus on and search inside of me to answer. One of the biggest things God has been showing me throughout my time on the race and before coming on the race is how important it is to rest in Him and just to be still in His presence. I have to admit this has been something that is hard for me because sometimes I just want someone there physically to rest on, someone I can see and touch. But time after time God has shown me how He can be that I just have to take off the blinders and truly focus on Him.
Lately I have been going through a study on Hebrews and the author was talking about what she rests in; ‘I’m learning that all too often I put my value in the work of my hands or the imaginary commandments I keep.’ So when she asked the readers the question ‘What do you rest in?’ I started to think about it. What do I rest in or another way of looking at this question is what do I put my worth in? God has really been showing me how much I have been putting my worth and peace of mind in things of the world and not of Him, like how others view me, am I disappointing my parents, family, or friends, what have I truly accomplished, how successful I am, my outer appearance and always having everything together, so on and on.
As God is growing me in the truths that He has for me, He is also showing me how important spending time with Him is and resting in Him, which is also believing the promises that God has made to us, I am truly rested and at peace of mind. I need to fight for the time to be still in His presence because during these times I am learning more about who He is and what He has for me. As Jesus Calling said today in my devotion, ‘As the Holy Spirit controls your mind and actions more fully, you become free in Me.You are increasingly released to become the one I created you to be. I can do My best handiwork when you sit in the stillness of My Presence, focusing you entire being on Me. Let my thoughts burst freely upon your abundant life. Don’t worry about what is one the road up ahead. I want you to find your security in knowing Me, the One who died to set you free.’
During my time this morning I re-read Hebrews 4 and I love what my Bible pointed out, ‘In this passage rest refers to a belief in Jesus, whose death makes forgiveness possible. Some of the Jewish Christians who received this letter may have been on the verge of turning back from their promised rest in Christ, just as the people in Moses’ day turned back from the Promised Land. In both cases, the difficulties of the present moment overshadowed the reality of God’s promise. Therefore, the people stopped believing that God was able to fulfill his promises. When we trust our own efforts instead of Christ, we too are in danger of turing back. Are you resting the belief that God will keep his promises?’ Am I able to rest in the belief that God will keep his promises??? You would think that I would be able to say yes but this has been struggle of mine. While on the race teammates and squamates have heard my fears and they keep telling me Psalm 37:4, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.” And in my Bible right next to this verse I have written ‘a promise from God’ and ‘He puts those desires in our hearts.’ And it is finally starting to sink in that the desires I have in my heart are things that God has put there and that He would not give me those desires if He was not planning to give them to me and I need to trust and rest in His Presence and be patient because only He knows when these desires will come to past and during the times we are waiting is when He is shaping us for that desire to come to past.
God has also shown me that during this time that I set aside for Him alone is such a special time because during this time He is energizing and lightening me to what He has in store for me that day or week or month or year or five years down the road. In this time of communing with Him I able to transfer my heavy burdens to His strong shoulders and walking in the freedom that He has given me. I am longer bound to the old me or what I have once done, they no longer define who I am. This time I spend with God is a time that is essential for unscrambling my thoughts and smoothing out the day before me. I tend to overthink everything and sometimes I wish I could just shut my brain off because it is always going but I have found that when I spend this time with God and focus on Him and what He wants to show me, my mind is clear and everything seems to flow so much smoothly in there. Also ‘he understands my weakness, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.’
I will leave you with this from the end of my She Reads Truth devotion for Hebrews:
‘The rest God calls us into is restorative and real. He invites us to claim His redeeming love over any anxiety about our mess and feelings of failure. The work of your hands is not what defines you. You live by HIS grace, HIS story and HIS redeeming love. This truth is all you need to claim when the voices of the Enemy drift in with “one more thing” you need to have or do to be enough. He has already assigned you more worth than you could ever create or accumulate!‘
