Entering His Rest

Quiet confidence and peace in the midst of a tornado of stress – that's what resting in the Lord means. Hebrews 3 and 4 talk about entering into God's rest. The author makes the point that not entering into God's rest is tied to unbelief and disobedience, which he uses synonymously (see verses 3:18, 3:19, and 4:6).

Unbelief and disobedience (a.k.a. sin), go hand in hand. When we don't believe God, we do what we want. We try to fulfill ourselves and protect ourselves. Neither works – causing more stress and hardship than we tried to avoid by doing it our way in the first place. And trying to do it our way is anything but restful.

We can only enter his rest – that is, possess that quiet confidence and inner peace that displaces worry and anxiety in the midst of chaos – when we walk in both faith and obedience (a.k.a. holiness, a.k.a. integrity).

Both. It's not enough to just believe. We have to walk it out with obedience. That's the point of James 2. We can't enter his rest, or even say we believe in him, if we're sleeping with our girlfriend/boyfriend or fiancee, for example.

Truly believing in Jesus means having private intimacy with him. Out of that flows faith – we believe him. And out of that flows obedience because we want to please our lover whom we trust. And out that flows his rest – quiet confidence when the world is falling apart around us. It's a great way to live.