Rest in God

What is the rest of God?
How do we rest in God?

I have been fascinated with this topic since ministering it last year at Kemaman church.

God gave me further understanding of it this year during morning prayer. 

What is the rest of God?

There are 3 ways for us to rest in God:

1. Rest in the Word of God
2. Rest in the Work of Jesus on the Cross
3. Resting while walking with God

1. Resting in the Word of God.

The Word of God leads us to rest in God but 4 things must be settled before we can enter into the rest of the Word of God:

1. We must believe that it is available for us. This is a believer's rest and cannot be available for non-believers:

Hebs 4:9 "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God"

If you are not God's people, you have to start believing before you can enter into the rest of the Word of God.

2. We must stop struggling in our own flesh to work things out.

Hebs 4:10 "For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His"

This will require us to voice our prayers to God by intentionally releasing our prayer needs to God.

3. We must start being diligent in God's Word.

Indeed how can we rest in God's Word if we do not even know what is written in the Word. Get yourself a Bible memory app that can help you commit verses to memory.

Hebs 4:11 "Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience"

How to be diligent in God's Word? Study it, read it and memorize it!

4. We must start obeying the Word of God.

Hebs 4:12 "For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart"

2. Rest in the finished work of Jesus

Jesus finished His work on earth and rested. What did He finished or accomplished through His death for us?

He finished His work on the Cross by giving us a way to God via saving us from our sins which no one else can do.

He finished His work on the Cross by giving us a chance to make peace with God.

He finished His work on the Cross by giving us a chance to receive our healing and restoration of divine health.

Isa 54:5 "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed"

3. Resting while walking with God

Walking with God is not the physical activity that we do as in jogging or exercise. It is actually in a relationship with God which is restful and full of comfort, peace and joy. 

Gen 5:24 "And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him"

Hebs 11:5 "by faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death "and was not found, because God had taken him" for before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased God"

Quotations:

FB Meyer 

"To all of us Christ offers rest, not in the next life only, but also in this life. Rest from the weight of sin, from care and worry, from the load of daily anxiety and foreboding. The rest that arrives from handing over all our worries to Christ and receiving from Christ all we need. Have you entered into that experience?"

Watchman Nee

"Our rest lies in looking to the Lord, not to ourselves"

Andrew Murray

"Do not strive in your own strength"

Charles Swindoll

"In place of our exhaustion and spiritual fatigues, God will give us rest. All He asks is that we come to Him...that we spend a while thinking about Him, meditating on Him, talking to Him, listening in silence, occupying ourselves with Him - totally and thoroughly lost in the hiding place of His presence"