Finding Rest

Something in me has been a little anxious and hard to settle. My spirit needs rest. A month or so ago our pastor preached a series on "The Art of Sabbath." This isn't what I mean by rest. And not "rest" from responsibilities of what I have been asked to steward. But, something is uneasy.

Early this week I began looking at what it means to rest "in" Jesus. Not rest "from" Him, or rest from life. I started with Matthew 11. 28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Jesus asks me, one who is weary and burdened, to come to him for rest. In Galations 6:5 it talks about the difference between a load and a burden. A burden is something that we shouldn't carry by ourselves, a load is something that we are supposed to carry. So, what am I trying to do, trying to carry, that I shouldn't be? I started a list. Not to get worked up about, but simply to bring to mind things that I am trying to handle, things that are burdening me, that really have no need to. So far, only one thing has come to mind. One person. My apple throwing compadre at the office.

Another day, I also looked at Hebrews 3. 7So, as the Holy Spirit says:
"Today, if you hear his voice,
8do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the desert,
9where your fathers tested and tried me
and for forty years saw what I did.
10That is why I was angry with that generation,
and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.'
11So I declared on oath in my anger,
'They shall never enter my rest.' "^[a]

12See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. 14We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15As has just been said:
"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion."^[b]

16Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed^[c]? 19So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

I have understood that I need to be aware of not shutting out God. This is a desert time. I must not rebel against Him. I must not harden my heart to God during this desert time so that I will enter a place of rest.