All who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God
did after creating the world. (Hebrews 4:10 NLT)
Christ is God's Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath. When we enter by faith into Christ's righteousness, we enter into God's rest. It is a tremendous power.... The Lord says, in quite simple language, "If only you will trust Me, and
trust My provision, and stop worrying, stop fretting, stop being anxious; if you
will but believe Me, I have the ground upon which I could meet all your need; I
am no longer without ground. There was a time when I had not the ground upon
which to do anything with you, and for you, but now you are on the ground of
Christ, the ground which I have provided; if only you will trust Me, if only you
will rest in Me to bring you through, you will be saved from so much of this
weakness, and fret, and anxiety!" Worry is a destroying thing. Back of a lot that
we suffer in body, and in mind, there is so often a secret, hidden restlessness,
something deep down in our subconscious being of a fret, an anxiety, something
that is not rest. It takes many forms. Sometimes over a concern of the Lord's we
feel that, unless we do it, it will never be done. We feel that if we are not up
and at it, then the whole thing will go to pieces; so much depends upon us.
No
one will think that this is the call for passivity, for abandon of concern for
the things of the Lord; but it is possible for us to have the things of the Lord
on our hearts and yet to have faith in God about them. There are hidden secrets
to a great deal of our weakness and defeat, and unnecessary suffering. They are
the hidden things of something which is other than just restful faith in God.
There are some people who need to take things to heart a little more than they
do, but for many the trouble is perhaps of the other kind. They are thinking
that they have to run God's universe for Him; they must look after things or
else they will never be looked after! ...But to observe the
Sabbath (no one will take that literally as meaning the observance of a
particular day of the week), to recognize Christ as God's Rest through
righteousness, to observe that, to keep that Sabbath, is Life which conquers
death, because it is righteousness which cannot be destroyed.