This week I’ve needed to make an effort to rest.
Somehow my husband came down with a summer cold and though I really tried to avoid getting it, I was unsuccessful. All week long I’ve been dragging around the house, sneezing and sniffling. My body has felt very tired. So I’ve gone to bed early. I’ve slept in a little longer in the morning. All to obtain rest.
An Oxymoron to Ponder
All this working to get rest got me thinking about a verse in Hebrews that has always seemed like an oxymoron to me:
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. Hebrews 4:11
Make every effort to enter rest? Work hard to rest? Strive to rest?
What does that mean?
A passage from Jane Rubiettas’ book, Resting Place, helped me understand it a little better.
“Our fear factor kicks in when we consider going without work, when we contemplate actually viewing God as our Shepherd, who longs to lead us beside waters of rest, who eagerly anticipates restoring our soul, who wants nothing more than to have us lie down in green pastures. Fear looms larger, more real on the horizon of our mind than faith and reduces us to primal survival instincts: I must take care of myself. I’m my own bottom line. God doesn’t love me. God won’t care for me,”
What she is saying is that the reason we continually need to make an effort to rest is that it goes against our natural tendencies to believe that God has our back. We think we have to keep working. Because salvation can’t possibly so easy. Because God won’t really provide everything I need.
The bottom line is–a lack of rest demonstrates a lack of trust in God.
Wow.
Make an Effort to Enter God’s Rest
This new insight makes me realize that the reason I continually need to make an effort to enter God’s rest is that I need to push back my natural tendency to think that if I did just a little more I’d be more successful. God wants us to enjoy our work, but He also wants us to rest in Him, in His provision, in His love.
Satan will always try to get us to doubt God’s love for me. He will whisper that I need to work a little harder to get God to like me more. My human nature will always believe that it all depends on me.
But God invites us to rest in His sufficiency. God promises to fulfill all my needs.
To rest in His love. He whispers His love in His Word
To rest in the fact that there is nothing I can do to make Him love me more than He already does. The Father demonstrated His love for me, by sending Jesus to take the punishment I deserved.
Next step: Today make an effort to rest. When you find yourself working harder, pushing faster in order to impress others or God, remember that God invites you to rest in His love.