Category: Devotion of the Day

TRYING TO REST

Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest.
Hebrews 4:11

We do not labor to rest. That is a contradiction. We labor to enter into rest, we make it our resolute purpose, we go about it in dead earnest. But when we have ceased from our works and entered, then we rest. We make an effort to reach a vacation spot but after we arrive we rest. The Saviour invites us to His rest, and we are not to live in a tense strain, holding on to it for dear life for fear “it” will slip from us. We do not keep Him, He keeps us. We are His guest, not His host, we sit at His table and we need never go away.

The rest of the Christian is not a pose of faith rigidly fixed and maintained. It is not something we screw ourselves up to, it is the very opposite of all strenuous effort. We labor to enter in, we earnestly commit all in a positive, definite, businesslike way. Then the responsibility is His to keep what we have committed; we have simply to abide. Like some vacationists, we exhaust ourselves trying to rest! Let go and let God!

BELIEVING IS OBEYING

And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
I John 3:23

It is often overlooked that God commands us to believe. He does not merely invite or urge, He commands it. Living in unbelief or uncertainty is outright disobedience. We do not honor God by indecision and doubt. It is faith that pleases Him. We ought to come to Christ immediately and trust Him and never waver, because He has bidden us come and believe and we can do anything we ought to do. He inclines us to come by His Spirit, for certainly neither the flesh nor the devil ever impelled a man toward Christ. You may be sure that He is working in you to will and do of His good pleasure, and if you will to obey Him by believing as best you know how, you may be certain He will not cast you out.

It is simple obedience to believe. Therefore “repent ye and believe the gospel.” “God commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” “And this is his commandment, that we should believe.”