True Rest Pt. 2

True rest isn't just about physical rest---although that's rated pretty high in my books!  (So much so that I'm really hoping that we get to sleep in heaven!)  But true rest also has to involve spiritual rest.  And, I believe, the spiritual rest actually leads to great physical rest.

Galatians 3 says that God didn't save me from the curse of sin, fill me with the Holy Spirit, and then say, "Now, go and live perfectly and measure up to the law!"  No!  He saved me by faith in the PROMISE of Christ.  He filled us with the Spirit so we could walk by faith.

I've spent many years trying to measure up to the law.  In fact, I've added a few of my own--just to keep me from sin.  No wonder I was exhausted!  I am a child of promise..a child of the supernatural.  If I submit to the law, I fall away from grace.

Instead, through the Holy Spirit's help, by faith, I wait for the good and the blessing which causes me to hope.  I must walk by faith through love.  This pleases God and draws me into freedom and rest.  The law leads to strife but the Spirit leads to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Can I do those things on my own?  Absolutely.  I can love on my own, exhibit patience on my own, and eek out some self-control, too.  But when I do it on my own, it's exhausting.  And when I do it on my own, I'm doing it through the flesh.

Hebrews 4 tells us that we have to appropriate this rest.  Just as God rested on the 7th day from His labor (of creation), we are to enter that sabbath rest--and quit laboring on our own.  I have to laugh because we're told to "be zealous, exert ourselves, strive diligently to enter that rest."  It's that important.  But once we enter that rest, we find that the Holy Spirit does all of the "work."  He causes us to be full of love, joy, peace, etc.  So it seems it's work to enter that rest...but once we get there..watch out!  It becomes a supernatural work of God.  The best kind of rest---True Rest!