Faith - Hebrews

5-25-06

God rested on the seventh day. He ceased all His work. 'Rested' is the absence of work or struggle. Webster's has a lot to say about rest including: peace, ease, and refreshment as produced by sleep, refreshing ease or inactivity after work or exertion, a period or occasion of inactivity, relief from anything distressing or disturbing, annoying, tiring, etc., peace of mind, mental and emotional calm, tranquility, absence of motion, state of being still, etc.

We enter that rest when we quit working or struggling as when we quit trying to get to Heaven on our own merits. Pray enough, believe enough, do enough, impress God enough. Busy, busy, busy, . . .

When you have faith, or rather, when you use your faith, you are acknowledging that God did everything and there is no need for you to add to that. He has done it, He is doing it, and He will always continue to do it. He will take care of everything you pray for, everything you have no words for, all your needs, all my needs, all their needs, everything. Therefore, there is no more struggle, No worry, no anxiety, no work, no struggle.

God delights in me. And because of Jesus Christ I have faith. He gave it to me because He did it all and fulfilled it all. And when He was done, He sat down at the right hand of the Father. Jesus rested.

Faith is resting from our own efforts and accepting what He has already done and what He has promised. Therefore, faith is the substance (reality) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Because Christ died on the cross, forgiving all my sins, healing all my diseases, and removing the separation between God and myself, I have peace with God and can rest. Enter into His rest and faith is the evidence. It is the evidence of our salvation, the evidence of our adoption, the evidence of the presence of God in our lives. Faith is that rest. It tells God and everyone, 'Yes, I believe Jesus did it all!' And you stop trying to re-do God's work.

That is why a lack of faith is sin, because it is unbelief in God's provision, unbelief in His love, unbelief in Him. We choose not to believe, we choose not to rest, and we choose not to accept the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross. It's like spitting His face. It's insulting Him. We choose to trust something else, anything else, but Jesus. It could be works, study, traditions, rules and regulations, etc. Because if we choose not to trust Jesus, then our enemy can step in with his deceptions. He keeps us from the truth of the simplicity in Christ. He will burden you down with worry, work, and depression because it is a hopeless path. His yoke is heavy but Jesus' yoke is light.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NKJV) "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Faith is rest because we realize we no longer have to struggle to be good enough. Christ did it all! And that brings the joy! That brings the praise!

On the seventh day, God rested. He blessed the seventh day and called it holy. It is one of the first lessons in the Bible. He created, He called it good, and then He rested. He was exercising His faith that what He created was very good and would continue on.

God rested on the seventh day and called it the Sabbath. We are to keep the Sabbath holy, to rest every 7 days as a symbol of the rest He has given us for all the time. It commemorates what He has done, is doing, and will continue to do. Thereby He created faith. Faith commemorates all that God has done and it is holy! You could say that faith is that Sabbath rest, keep it holy.

God wants me to know I struggle too much. When I don't rest in Him, it brings on the depression. That is the sin, the lack of faith! The unrealistic expectations I place on myself! I must simply, completely, submit to God. Be faith-full. Be quiet and know that He is God. Rest. Quiet. Simple. Trust.

God was physically in the desert with the Israelites and yet all they did was grumble and complain. They could see God's presence and yet they doubted Him, they doubted that He'd take care of them. Unbelief. And they could not enter into His rest because of it, unbelief. Only Joshua and Caleb trusted God and they entered in even though they saw the same giants. Entertain 'what-ifs' and it will destroy your faith. God always accomplishes what He starts and He's not going to fail with you.

God is sooooooo good! All the time! Praise the Name of the LORD and His Christ for His mercies endure forever!

I think I will just climb up in His lap and take a nap. Just like the tea commercial, I'll fall backwards into the pool of His love! Be happy! Christ is mine, and I am His! He is my all in all!

OH, THE JOY!!!!

Hebrews 4:4 (NKJV) "For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: 'and God rested on the seventh day from all His works'. "

Hebrews 1:3 (NKJV) "...who being the brightness of His glory and express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high..."

1 Peter 2:24 (NKJV) "Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might life for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed."

2 Corinthians 11:3 (NKJV) "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

2 Timothy 1:12 (NKJV) "I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day."

Romans 4:3, 13 (NKJV) "For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted (imputed, credited) to him for righteousness.' ...For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith."

Hebrews 3:12-14 (NKJV) "Beware brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the Living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called 'Today', lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end."

Hebrews 4:10 (NKJV) "For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His."

Hebrews 4:14-16 (NKJV) "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Hebrews 10:37-38 (NKJV) "For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him."
1 Peter 5:6-7 (NKJV) "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NKJV) "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness'. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

Psalm 46:10-11 (NKJV) "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge."

Psalm 37:3-8 (NKJV) "Trust in the LORD, and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on His Faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him, do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath, do not worry--it only causes harm."