Often when we as believers are in a state of transition, God calls us to rest. We should always be able to rest in God, but sometimes when we come out of hard places, trials, or tribulations the after affect of the experience makes it hard to rest.
Rest means according to Google Definition:
- Cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength.
- Be placed or supported so as to stay in a specified position.
- Be based on or grounded in; depend on. Place hope, trust, or confidence on or in.
I believe that God deals with us according to different times and seasons in our lives. Sometimes when it is time to go to a new season we may tend to struggle with what is going on, and because of that struggle, God again requires us to enter into his rest.
There was once a season for the children of Israel to dwell in Egypt. It was God’s will to place Joseph there to save many people alive. However, after that season was up, the Hebrew people endured hard bondage. When the time approached for the Hebrews to leave the bondage became even harder to the point where it seemed nearly impossible to continue to carry on in the state that things had been.
We see this due to the fact that when Moses and Aaron approached the Pharoah in regards to letting the Hebrews go into the wilderness to worship their God, the Pharoah became angry refusing to give the Hebrews rest. Instead, he required them to do more work–fetching their own straw to make the same amount of bricks (Exodus 5:5-9)
Sometimes before we get ready to go to the next level of life that God is calling us to, the devil will try to make it harder for us to break our spirits, but God uses that same hardship to make us stronger and to build our trust in him.
During the uncomfortable process of transition, there can be a temptation to complain, and to long to stay in the same place because it was easier, or to get into self-pity. This is the place where the Word of God in us really gets tested, and we have to buckle down grabbing a hold to the Word of God as never before. We have to grab a hold to the Word of God more in this process because our faith comes from the Word of God, and having faith is how we enter into God’s rest.
For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world .Hebrews 4:3
So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest. The children of Israel had been in transition in the desert. They did not know how the Lord would complete the promise of bringing them into the land of promise, nor how they would survive the dessert. They were in a position where all they could do was to depend on God. Let’s not forget that a part of the rest that God calls us to is simply depending on him, and believing in him when we do not know how things will turn out like God has promised. God requires us to call to memory the many things that he has done prior to our current moment of transition. That is what God’s people did not do in the wilderness, but instead they allowed their hearts to become hardened and turned away from God.
We should be careful not to follow that same example in transition. Instead we should take the opportunity to rest.
Truly resting in God is to depend on God.
Stay tuned to read part two of “What it Means to Rest in the Lord” on next week.
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