Rest… I have always just thought it is one of God’s better ideas! I mean think about it – every day we stop – climb into our beds and sleep for 7 or 8 hours.  I think that is so wonderful.  I mean I suppose God could have designed us to run for a week on a night’s sleep… but no every day our body just sends us a message.. time to rest…!! I just love it!!
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews tells us to, “enter into the rest..”.  It is a bit of a weird phrase isn’t it, when did you last tell someone you were ‘entering into the rest’?  But it is a phrase that captures something, because of course it is one thing to have ‘time off’, — it is another thing to be able to ‘enter into the rest.’ Too often we have ‘time off’ but we are just plain restless!

There are probably three things that prevent us ‘Entering into the Rest’.  One — relationship problems — with a friend, family member, work colleague will get us churned up on the inside and prevent us from relaxing. Only way forward here is to go, in humility and sort it out. You’ll come away dancing on your toes — and you will be able to relax.

Anxiety about the future is the second thing that will kill rest. Concerns about finances, job security or health can start to dominate our thinking. The scripture counsels us to give our worries, our concerns, our burdens over to the Lord. Park it with him. Let him know you are trusting him for the future. His promise is that He will be with us.

The third thing that prevents us ‘entering the rest’ is wrong doing.  We’ve done something that we shouldn’t have done. We’ve blown it. We have gone down some wrong path. Inside we feel shame & guilt. St James has some advice for us he says, ‘Confess your sins’ brutal huh! Take responsibility, ask for forgiveness, get right with God — and watch the burden disappear off your shoulders. this is key… and then you can enter into the rest.

So don’t let a broken relationship, fear for the future, or undealt with sin rob you of true rest – take a step today to sort it out.

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