Hebrews 4:1-13 - Jesus Brings a Better Sabbath Rest

Notes
Transcript
Pray
Pray
Father, thank you for your Word.
I pray that you would speak to us this morning.
Speak into our hearts and change us into the likeness of your Son by the power of your Holy Spirit.
I pray that you would show us the glory of Christ.
And I pray that you would help me to exalt him and not myself.
Help me get out of the way so that we can see Jesus.
It’s in his name I pray. Amen.
Intro
Intro
Alright, we are plugging away in our series through Hebrews.
We’ve been seeing how Jesus is the best messenger of God, the best prophet.
He’s better than the angels because he became a man to save mankind.
And within that argument we saw how he’s better than Adam as the head of redeemed humanity.
We saw how he’s better than the best human messenger of God, Moses.
And last week we saw how one of the ways Jesus is better than Moses is in the consequences for disregarding his message.
There is a similarity between the unbelief of the Israelites and unbelief in our own context.
The warning about unbelief still applies even to us.
And God uses these very real warnings to sovereignly keep us secure in our salvation in his Son, Jesus.
Now, we come to the conclusion of the comparison between Jesus and Moses in Hebrews 4:1-13, looking specifically at the rest the Israelites were barred from because of their unbelief and the better rest that Jesus brings.
This is a promise of rest, that’s often unbelievable.
We look around us at the struggle, the futility, the toil and hardship of life.
And we think, “Will I ever get to rest?”
Anyone who has ever cared for a baby, I’m sure you’ve thought this.
In the middle of the night trying to get your kid to fall back asleep so that you can, too.
“Will I ever get to rest?”
Or having assignment after assignment pile up at school one year after the next.
“Will I ever get to rest?”
Or the never ending inbox of problems and tasks to accomplish at work.
“Will I ever get to rest?”
Or the perpetual problems of finances, car maintenance, home maintenance, relationship maintenance, the list goes on and on.
“Will I ever get to rest?”
God’s Word says, yes!
He’s promised us rest, but we might not really believe it.
There may be a slight disconnect between what we know is true in God’s Word and what we expect to experience in life.
We tend to have a limited view of God’s promises, specifically his promise of rest.
Because of this tendency, God has shown us in Hebrews 4:1-13 exactly what his promise of rest entails, and it’s much greater than we may have originally thought.
Based on the rest David spoke of in Psalm 95, God’s rest is based on his rest after creation, it’s fulfilled in Christ, and we pursue it through his Word.
So, let’s look at this description of God’s rest one aspect at a time.
First, let’s look in verses 1-5 at how God’s rest is based on his rest after he created everything.
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.”
This explains how…
God’s Rest is Based on His Creation (1-5)
God’s Rest is Based on His Creation (1-5)
Verse 1 has another “therefore” just like we saw last week.
It’s another logical next step in the argument.
Jesus is better than Moses in his identity and actions.
Jesus’ message is better than Moses’ message, the warning that has been passed down through the ages from Moses to David to the author of Hebrews to us.
The warning to avoid unbelief, to trust God to do what he promised because he’s faithful.
Now, in our passage, we have the urgent application of the warning from Psalm 95.
Back in Hebrews 3:12-13 we were given an application to take care that we each don’t also have an evil and unbelieving heart and to exhort each other to avoid the deceitfulness of sin by reminding each other of the gospel.
But now we come to the consequence David described at the end of Psalm 95, and we’re given the application of what we are to do in light of that consequence.
The Israelites in Numbers 14 were prevented from entering the promised land, but David says in Psalm 95 that they were prevented from entering God’s rest.
And he clearly hinted that entrance into God’s rest was still available by calling his present audience to not harden their hearts so that they would be able to enter God’s rest hundreds of years after the example he referred to.
That’s why, in verse 1, the author of Hebrews says that the promise of entering God’s rest still stands.
That promise has not gone away.
It was never bound to the location and time of entering the promised land.
Although entering the promised land was a part of it as a sort of foreshadowing of the promised rest that God would give his people later.
So, while this promise still stands, let us fear.
It’s interesting that the author of Hebrews chose to use this word in particular, fear.
The Israelites doubted God’s character because of their fear, their fear of dying from thirst or by the sword.
They feared the giants in the land who they thought would kill them.
The presence of fear isn’t the issue.
The issue is the object of your fear.
Jesus mentioned this as recorded by both Matthew and Luke.
I’ll read the passage from Luke 12:4–7, Jesus said, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Fear has an aspect of submission.
When we fear being killed or harmed, we are submitting to the power of the thing we are afraid of.
But if that fear, that submission, is redirected to almighty sovereign God who loves and cares for us, then we don’t have to be afraid because he’s got us.
So, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear him, let us submit to his authority and sovereignty, let us trust that he’s got us.
Because if we don’t fear him, then we will fear our circumstances, and it may seem like we have failed to reach God’s rest.
Fear and faith go hand in hand.
What do I mean by that?
If we fear something, then we have a certain faith or belief that the threat it poses to us is real and imminent.
The Israelites believed that they would die of thirst if they didn’t get water, they believed that the giants in the promised land would kill them by the sword.
They believed that the threat from these things was greater than the threat of what would happen if they disobeyed God.
They were given good news from Joshua and Caleb, that the land was really good for producing food, and that the massive and strong enemies in the land were no match for almighty God, and that they would witness God’s power and love for them as he defeated these enemies for them.
And we’ve been given similar good news, that life in Christ is really good and he has defeated our greatest enemies, sin and death!
But their good news didn’t benefit them at all because they chose to believe the false bad news of the giant’s size and strength instead of believing the good news of God’s power and love.
The only ones who feared God instead of the giants were Caleb and Joshua, and the rest weren’t united with them in their faith.
And the only ones from that generation allowed to enter the promised land were Caleb and Joshua, the only ones who believed God’s promise.
Now, this specifically applies to all of God’s people from all ages because the promise of God’s rest isn’t just entrance into the promised land.
All who have believed God, all who have feared him rather than our circumstances, all who have submitted to his sovereignty rather than submitting to our fears.
All of us who do that enter God’s rest because God’s rest is much bigger than just the conquest of Canaan.
The author of Hebrews recalls again the last verse of Psalm 95, Psalm 95:11“Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.””
And based on the context, it seems like he’s highlighting the words “my rest.”
You see, the punishment for Israel’s doubt and disobedience was described differently in Moses’ account.
Moses very succinctly described God’s punishment for Israel’s failure to believe and failure to obey in Deuteronomy 1:34–35 ““And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers,”
God swore, he promised that they wouldn’t see THE LAND.
But David says that God swore in his wrath that they wouldn’t enter HIS REST, and the author of Hebrews explains exactly what David meant by God’s rest.
He refers to God’s works being finished from the foundation of the world.
Then he quotes from Genesis 2:2 how God rested from his creative work on the seventh day.
And then he directly ties the rest God enjoyed after creation with the rest David mentioned at the end of Psalm 95 which the Israelites were barred from entering.
So, what was David saying about God’s rest, and what is the author of Hebrews saying to us about God’s rest?
Let’s look for a moment at God’s rest from his creative works in Genesis 1:31–2:3 “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”
God’s rest is not like a break from work like a coffee break or a lunch break where the work has to be taken up again once your break is over.
It’s not like summer vacation that comes to an end after a few months, and school work has to be resumed.
It’s not like retirement where people seem to get busier once they stop working for a living.
God’s rest is ceasing from doing a particular work because that work is complete, and perfect, and satisfying.
And his rest is also complete, and perfect, and satisfying.
God’s rest is a rest of completion.
He had finished all of his work in creation,
So, he rested, he ceased from his creative work.
God’s rest is also a rest of perfection.
He looked at all he had created and declared it “very good.”
So, there was nothing to fix or tinker with, and he rested.
God’s rest is also a rest of satisfaction.
He was so satisfied with his work that he blessed the seventh day, the day he rested.
This satisfaction can be described as joy, or peace.
Shalom, life as God intended it to be.
David understood God’s punishment of disbelieving Israel to be much more severe than it might look at first.
They weren’t just prevented from entering the promised land.
They were prevented from entering God’s complete, perfect, and satisfying rest.
They were prevented from entering eternal life because of their unbelief.
So, God’s rest, the rest David wrote about in Psalm 95 is based on his creation, how he rested after he created everything.
Next, in verses 6-10, we’re going to see how that very same rest is fulfilled in Christ.
Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
It’s subtle, and I’ll explain it, but this shows how…
God’s Rest is Fulfilled in His Son (6-10)
God’s Rest is Fulfilled in His Son (6-10)
Verse 6 is very similar to verse 1, how God’s rest is still available to us.
But where verse 1 referred to God’s promise remaining, verse 6 talks about those who receive God’s promise of rest.
There are still those God intends to bring into his rest.
There are still people God is adding to the recipients of this promise.
And failure to enter God’s rest is a very real consequence today just like it was in Moses’ time and in David’s time.
We ought to fear God, to believe in his power and goodness, so that we won’t fail to enter his rest.
We ought to obey God and the good news we’ve received from him, so that we won’t fail to enter his rest like the Israelites did.
The good news from Psalm 95 is that God’s rest is still available if we don’t harden our heart in unbelief and disobedience.
David wrote Psalm 95 over 400 years after the events he was writing about happened.
But God appointed through him a certain day, today, to believe and obey God and enter his rest.
The author of Hebrews argues that if the rest David wrote about had actually been realized when Joshua brought God’s people into the promised land, then David wouldn’t have written Psalm 95 the way he did.
God spoke through David of a day, “today,” 400 years after Joshua led the people into the promised land, so the rest spoken of in Psalm 95 is something greater than entering the promised land.
This shows that God’s rest, which is based on his rest after creation, also remains far after the Israelites finally entered the promised land.
The rest David was talking about was something that had yet to be fulfilled.
It was available in David’s time, but it was still not yet fulfilled.
And in verse 9, the author of Hebrews concludes that even in his time, God’s rest was still available for God’s people.
And he calls it Sabbath rest.
God’s rest is Sabbath rest because it’s based on the rest he enjoyed on the seventh day after he created everything in six days.
The word Sabbath comes from the root Hebrew word meaning “rest,” so Sabbath rest is just restful rest.
But the Word Sabbath adopted some connotations over time in Israel’s culture.
God gave some very strict rules about what was to be done or not done on the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath.
But all of those rules were intended to compel God’s people to rely on him and to worship him and remember his works of creation.
God rested from his complete, perfect, and satisfying creative work, and he wanted his people to do the same.
He wanted his people to remember how he had made everything complete, and perfect, and satisfying for them.
So, he commanded them to keep the seventh day of the week free from work as a reminder of his goodness, his perfection, his provision, his glory.
But the Sabbath got twisted from its original purpose.
Where it was originally intended to be a joyful and peaceful respite from work to remember God’s glory, it had become a burden where people were afraid and confined and exhausted by the Sabbath looking to their own actions or inaction instead of looking to the glory of God.
Jesus commented on that very thing in the passage from Matthew chapters 11 and 12 that we read earlier in the service.
After proving to the Pharisees that what his disciples were doing was, in fact, not breaking the Sabbath as it was originally intended, he declared authoritatively, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
And the Sabbath rest Jesus brings is rest for our souls.
The author of Hebrews knew that David was referring to Sabbath rest, which is directly linked to God’s rest after creation.
But I think he also knew that the rest David was referring to would only be fulfilled in Christ.
Many of the Psalms are prophetic of the Messiah, the Christ.
Either the Psalmist speaking about the Messiah, or the Psalmist speaking for the Messiah.
And Psalm 95 is one that is speaking about the Messiah, specifically how the Messiah would fulfill the rest promised by God way back when he saved Israel from slavery in Egypt.
God promised to be with them and to give them rest in Exodus 33:14 “And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.””
And God did give them rest from their enemies for a while after they finally took the land, but his Sabbath rest was something greater than just a lack of oppression from enemies for a time.
Their Sabbath rest was supposed to be looking back at God’s creative power, his complete, perfect, and satisfying work of creation.
But God’s creation got messed up when mankind sinned.
And so, the Sabbath rest was also intended to look forward to how God would restore his creation to the complete, perfect, and satisfying thing it once was.
And he would do that through the Messiah, the Christ, his own Son, Jesus.
You see, there’s a parallel between God’s rest after creation and Jesus’ rest after redemption.
After creation, God looked at all he had made and declared it, “very good.”
It was complete, it was perfect, he was satisfied, nothing needed to be added or changed.
With Jesus’ last breath on the cross, as he accomplished redemption through his death on our behalf, he declared his work finished, complete, perfect, satisfactory.
He said, “It is finished.” (John 19:30)
After creation, God rested from his works.
And after redemption, Jesus ascended to heaven and sat down.
Psalm 110:1 “The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.””
After creation God didn’t stop working entirely, just the work of creation.
He still worked by sustaining his creation.
After redemption Jesus didn’t stop working entirely just the work of redemption through his one-time sacrifice for the sins of the world.
He keeps working by interceding on our behalf, sustaining our redemption, if you will.
And he’s the one who truly brings Sabbath rest as the lord of the Sabbath.
He’s the one we find our joy and peace in because he made peace between us and God by the blood of his cross.
He’s the one through whom God created everything in the first place, and he’s the one who is going to make all things new.
Only in Christ can we enjoy rest in God’s complete, perfect, and satisfying work.
That’s why verse 10 says that whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
When the author of Hebrews refers to our works, he’s not referring to our efforts to be saved, he’s referring to our efforts to trust God and obey him, our efforts to be like Jesus.
And we will never cease striving, working, struggling to trust God and obey him until we are freed from the presence of sin.
In Christ we’re free from the power and penalty of sin as soon as we put our faith in him.
But the presence of sin will only be gone once we are glorified in eternity with Jesus.
In Christ we’re adopted into God’s family, we’re God’s children, no longer slaves to sin.
But we aren’t quite glorified yet, we aren’t like Jesus yet, though we work to be like him every day, we work to purify ourselves like him.
1 John 3:2–3 says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he (Jesus) appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
The work we do as believers is not to save ourselves, it’s to be more and more like our savior.
And once we’re glorified with him we’ll be like him, so our work will cease, we’ll rest from that work because then we’ll be complete, perfect, and altogether satisfied in him.
As John described in Revelation 14:12–13 “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!””
So, God’s rest is based on his creation rest.
And as we just saw, it’s also fulfilled in his Son, Jesus who rested from his work at the cross by sitting down at the right hand of the majesty on high, and one day we’ll rest from our works by presently resting in his finished work.
Finally, in verses 11-13, we’re going to see exactly how we can enter into that rest through God’s Word.
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Here we have an explanation of how…
God’s Rest is Pursued through His Word (11-13)
God’s Rest is Pursued through His Word (11-13)
In verse 11 we get our second light command.
We had one all the way back in verse 1 which lightly commanded us to fear God.
Now we get another one, another light command to strive to enter God’s rest.
I call these light commands because they are more like really strong suggestions that include the author.
Instead of a strong command like, “thou shalt or thou shalt not,” its a strong suggestion or a light command saying, “let us, or let us not.”
It’s almost like pointing out what we ought to do or ought not to do instead of telling us what we must or must not do.
But the motivation to do or not do these commands or suggestions doesn’t come from the grammar, it comes from the benefits of obedience and the detriments of disobedience.
Let us strive to enter God’s rest.
Why?
Why would I do what is only suggested here?
Why would I go through all the effort if it’s not even a strong command?
Because the consequences are something you probably want to avoid.
The consequence for not striving to enter God’s rest is the same as the Israelites.
They fell to disobedience and their bodies fell in the wilderness, and they failed to enter God’s rest.
And our failure to strive to enter God’s rest will also result in our disobedience and being prevented from entering his rest in eternity.
So, strive, work hard every day toward the goal of entering God’s rest.
The author of Hebrews speaks about God’s rest as something we don’t quite have yet, that we have to strive to enter sometime in the future.
We can have a sense of God’s rest now as we find joy and peace in believing as Paul said in Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
That’s a sense of God’s rest in Christ we can have even now.
But fully entering God’s rest comes when we are glorified with him in eternity.
And we’ve got to hold on to our confidence, we’ve got to keep believing, we’ve got to keep striving to be like Jesus so that we can enter his rest.
Because if we give up and run away from Jesus in fear of our circumstances, then our faith in him was never real in the first place.
If our faith is real, then Jesus won’t let us run away from him completely.
I said this last week, and I’ll say it again.
Your salvation is not dependent on you, it’s dependent on Christ who holds us fast.
But our pursuit of him, our faithfulness, our grip on Jesus is indicative of his hold on us.
If you don’t pursue him, if you aren’t faithful to him, if you don’t maintain your grip on Jesus…
Then that simply indicates that you haven’t been saved yet.
I say “yet” because we should never abandon hope that a person will finally put their faith in Jesus and be saved.
So, the natural next question is how do we do that?
How do we hold onto Jesus, how do we strive to enter his rest?
Surely we can’t force ourselves to hold onto Jesus or enter his rest by sheer determination.
We saw last week how we are to examine our own hearts and exhort or encourage each other.
But again, we can’t just look at our heart or each other and will our hearts to soften or will our grip on Jesus to maintain.
The key to doing all this is God’s Word.
We hold onto Jesus by reading his Word, by hearing it preached, by studying it with fellow believers, by talking about it with everyone.
We strive to enter God’s rest by striving to be like Jesus, striving to have faith in him, striving to believe in him more than we fear our circumstances.
And we do all of that by reading about what Jesus is like, reading about his worthiness to put our faith in him, reading about his faithfulness to care for us in the midst of our difficult circumstances.
God’s Word is more than just information, it’s formation.
Reading these things with the Holy Spirit inside your heart changes you.
That’s what verses 12 and 13 are all about.
God’s Word is living and active.
It’s likened to a sword that is so sharp it can slice through and discern things that are normally indistinguishable.
It cuts open our hearts and lays them bare for God to see and for us to see as well.
Isaiah describes this same concept in Isaiah 55:10–11 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
God’s Word has a purpose, and God gave it to us to accomplish that purpose.
And the purpose of God’s Word is to produce faith in our hearts, faith in his Son, so that we will be saved from sin and death, and he get’s all the glory.
I think the author of Hebrews had a specific part of God’s Word in mind with this description.
Yes, it describes all of the Bible, but I think he was thinking specifically of the warning in Psalm 95.
This is why I think the warning at the end of Hebrews chapter 3, and in Psalm 95, and in Numbers 14, those warnings are not to explain doctrine as much as they are to produce in our hearts a particular result, to accomplish the purpose for which God sent it.
This warning is not supposed to be used to argue for or against the possibility of a believer losing their salvation.
It’s supposed to be believed, and applied for the purpose of making sure the true believer doesn’t lose their salvation.
God won’t let a true believer lose their salvation, and he uses this warning and others in his sovereignty to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Because God’s Word changes us, it’s living and active, it softens our heart if we believe, and it hardens our heart if we don’t.
It exposes our heart whether soft or hard, believing or unbelieving.
I’ll give a couple of examples from the Bible.
Moses heard God’s Word at the burning bush and his soft heart was softened even more and he believed God and obeyed what God told him to do, and God was glorified through the miracles he performed through Moses’ obedience.
Pharaoh heard God’s Word through Moses and his hard heart was hardened even more and he disbelieved God and refused to let God’s people go, and God was glorified through the miracles he performed because of Pharaoh’s stubbornness.
In both instances, God’s Word accomplished exactly what God wanted, and both instances resulted in God’s glory.
God’s Word accomplishes the purpose for which he sent it in each of our hearts.
Conclusion
Conclusion
So, we saw how God’s rest is based on his rest after creation, and it’s fulfilled in Jesus’ rest after redemption.
And we saw how it’s pursued as we come to God’s Word and our hearts are exposed as either believing or unbelieving, and if we believe then the Holy Spirit uses God’s Word to change us more and more into the likeness of Christ, and our faith is strengthened so that we will hold onto Jesus all the more.
It’s assumed that all of us want rest.
We want to be free from enemy attacks like the Israelites were for a time after taking the promised land.
We want to be free from the futility of work in this fallen world; one step forward, two steps back.
We want to be able to put our feet up and just relax.
And God’s rest is better than any of the rest we might enjoy in this life.
It’s better than rest in the promised land, better than rest in summer vacation, better than rest during a coffee break, better than rest in retirement.
It’s better because it’s complete rest, perfect rest, and satisfying rests because of the complete, perfect, and satisfying work of Christ both in creation, redemption, and when he comes back to make all things new.
We can have this complete, perfect, and satisfying rest simply by resting in Jesus’ finished work on the cross.
And his finished work on the cross is applied to us by faith and secured in our hearts as we let God’s Word work in our hearts.
So, if you want God’s rest, but you don’t have it yet, then put your faith in Jesus, God’s Son.
He became a man, died in your place, and rose from the dead so that you could be forgiven of your sin against God and enjoy eternal life with him, in his complete, perfect, and satisfying rest.
And all you have to do to apply his work to your account is to believe in him and submit to him as Lord.
Romans 10:9 says, “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
And if you already believe, if you already enjoy a measure of this rest even now, then let the warning of Psalm 95 resonate in your heart.
Let it do it’s work, the work God purposed for it to do.
Let it lay your heart open and exposed, so that you can be changed into the likeness of Christ.
All of God’s Word does this, not just this warning, because all of it points to the sufficiency of Christ.
So, read God’s Word often, listen to it read, and preached, share what you are reading with others.
Let all of God’s Word change you to look more and more like Jesus.
Because this is how Jesus holds you fast.
This is how God makes sure that you hold onto his Son, Jesus.
This is how God makes sure that you keep believing and obeying him.
This is how God makes sure that you enter his rest.
His complete, perfect, and satisfying rest.
His Sabbath rest in Christ that’s way better than any rest we could ever have in anything else.
Pray
Pray
Father, your Word is so amazing.
Your promises are awe inspiring.
Your works are jaw-dropping.
You love us so much that you’ve provided the way for us to enter your rest.
You’ve given us your Son, your Spirit, and your Word.
You’ve saved us, you’ve sealed us, and you’ve revealed yourself to us.
I pray that you would help us to understand your promises, your promise of rest in your Son, Jesus.
I pray that you would help us, compel us to strive to enter your rest through the way Jesus opened, the truth of your Word, and the life you’ve given us through your Spirit living inside of our hearts.
Please help us to be changed into the likeness of your Son from one degree of glory to the next as we encounter him in your Word and your Spirit uses it to work in our hearts.
Help us to have soft hearts to be softened even more by your Word.
Help us to not resist you.
Help us to obey your commands and trust your promises because you’re worthy and faithful.
We thank you and praise you in Jesus’ name. Amen.
