So you want to go to Disney World?

Monday night I went to bed feeling a good kind of weary; not one created by stress, but coming from real labor.  Bev and I worked together and the  attic got sorted. I carted a load of accumulated junk to the dump. Some yard work was finished that needed to be done in early Springtime. My muscles ached but my heart was at rest! It was a good day off from my daily responsibilities. I slept soundly and peacefully that night.

Is your idea of rest the absence of labor? God made us to work.  Even before the Fall in Eden, Adam and Eve were commissioned to care for the Garden.  They were given a place under God to manage His Creation.  When their disobedience gave evil an entry into the world, the result was not that they had to get up from their hammock and start to work!  It was that the work they were doing was no longer as fruitful.  Now they had deal with weeds and crop failure. Their work became toil!  The work that had fulfilled them, now became a source of frustration.

When we place our faith in Christ, responding to His invitation to receive the life of the Spirit, the Curse is reversed. We do not retire from active engagement with the world of which we are a part, but we can enter into the rest of God, blessed by a release from the sense of futility that possesses so many people.  Our true rest is discovered in deep faith that brings the Kingdom (the rule) of God to life.  Here’s how the Word expresses it.  "Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ." (Hebrews 3:12-14, NLT)  Pointing to the example of the ancient Israelis who refused to follow God’s lead into the Promised Land and died as wanderers, we are warned - "So we see that they were not allowed to enter his rest because of their unbelief." (Hebrews 3:19, NLT)  "For only we who believe can enter his place of rest. As for those who didn’t believe, God said, “In my anger I made a vow: ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’ ” even though his place of rest has been ready since he made the world." (Hebrews 4:3, NLT)

Do you know that God invites us into spiritual rest, to real serenity?  We will not discover it if we spend our time in endless pursuit of pleasure or diversion.  We cannot even experience it in fullness by getting wrapped up in endless church meetings and Bible studies!  We find His rest when we live obediently in the center of His will, doing His work in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Many of us (and I own my part in this) allow ourselves to complain about our work. We believe that joy is found in someplace other than where we are, that we could possess rest if only we could find a place where we would not deal with ‘those people,’ or ‘that boss,’ or ‘this situation.’  It may be true that the circumstances of our lives are less than ideal, but God’s promise is that we can live in His rest – anywhere!  The Psalm says, "You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. … My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever." (Psalm 23:5-6, NLT)

Brother Lawrence, who lived 3 centuries ago, is the author of Practicing the Presence of God, a Christian classic about living in God’s rest. He was uneducated and so could only enter the  monastery as a layman. He toiled in the kitchen all of his life, a dreary place of hard work. But, he found that the Spirit of God could not be shut out by heat, boiling pots, or sweat! He prayed constantly, rejoiced in every opportunity, and was sought for his kindness, gentleness, and willingness to care for others.  He lived with serenity!  We can too, and we don’t have to take a trip to Disney World to try to find it.

Here’s the word from the Word. May we live in the promise. "And so this is still a live promise. It wasn’t canceled at the time of Joshua; otherwise, God wouldn’t keep renewing the appointment for “today.” The promise of “arrival” and “rest” is still there for God’s people. God himself is at rest. And at the end of the journey we’ll surely rest with God. So let’s keep at it and eventually arrive at the place of rest, not drop out through some sort of disobedience." (Hebrews 4:8-11, The Message)

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Come As You Are

Come out of sadness from wherever you've been,

Come broken-hearted, let rescue begin.

Come find your mercy, O sinner, come kneel.

Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can't heal.

Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can't heal.

 (So) Lay down your burdens,

lay down your shame.

All who are broken,

lift up your face.

O wanderer come home,

You're not too far!

So lay down your hurt,

lay down your heart,

Come as you are.

There's hope for the hopeless

And all those who've strayed.

Come, sit at the table,

come taste the grace.

There's rest for the weary,

Rest that endures.

Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can't cure.

Come as you are,

Fall in His arms,

Come as you are.

There's joy for the morning,

 O sinner be still.

Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can't heal.

Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can't heal.

Come as you are.

Ben Glover | David Crowder | Matt Maher

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