"His Rest" Conclusion

 

     In natural terms, rest stills motion.  We normally sit or lie down when we rest in order to refresh ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally.

 

    The believer's spiritual rest, conversely, leads to activity.  The more we become aware that we live from the presence and dynamic working of God on our behalf, the more we find ourselves motivated to relate to Him in the conscious commitment of love, faith, submission, obedience, and the desire to communicate the Lord Jesus Christ to others.  We become inwardly active as the marvel of God's loving involvement stimulates us to respond in kind.  Indeed, love begets love, beginning with our heart from which the issues of life flow, and culminating in thoughts, attitudes, words and behaviors whereby we "walk, even as He walked" (I John 4:19).

 

    The spirit of the born again believer teems with the life of the risen Christ, as revealed by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  "I will dwell in them, and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).  Whether we experience the wonder and power of such truth depends to a great degree on whether we "enter into His rest" (Hebrews 3:18).  Believers "live by faith" (Romans 1:17).  We must therefore make paramount the matter of trusting our Lord, as defined by Scripture.  We rest to the degree we trust, and we "work the works of God" to the degree we believe the Word of God.  "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent" (John 6:29). 

 

    From the moment of our new birth, our spiritual enemies begin the attempt to divert us from the grace and truth that initially gives us life in Christ, and then perpetually fosters experience and expression of the amazing reality that God literally dwells in us by His Spirit.  Satan and his minions know better than do we the power of such "hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).  Savage and subtle attacks thus characterize our days as foes tempt us to neglect the rest that begins with the affirmation of Christ's dynamic presence, and leads to increasing experience thereof.  May we recognize the challenge, and then overcome it by trusting that the Lord Jesus is the center and circumference of our existence.  This is rest, the rest of being in Christ, and of Christ being in us.

 

"Return unto thy rest, o my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee."

(Psalm 116:7)