For anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:10
From "Never Enter" to "Enter In"
As always, context matters here. The author of Hebrews is talking about the Old Testament Exodus, where ancient Israel left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and entered the Promised Land. Now while they're going through the wilderness, the people of Israel started to rebel against God. Because they were rebelling, God declared that—in his anger—"they shall never enter My rest." Yet God still maintains rest as a commandment on the seventh day because God rested from all his works on the seventh day.
Now of course we as New Testament Christians are forgiven by the blood of Jesus. The quote "they shall never enter My rest" no longer applies to us because we have the grace of Jesus, who allows us to enter into God's rest just as we are. Though we can enter God's rest, we have to choose to do it.
That brings us then to verse 9, where the author of Hebrews talks about a Sabbath rest for the people of God. That is what we're talking about here in verse 10. We are now able today to enter God's rest and rest from our work. That means we get to enjoy time with God and we get to enjoy time where we're not working.
I believe that working is good but working all the time is bad. Too much of a good thing, as they say, is a bad thing. Here God is inviting us to rest from our work just as he rests from his.
I like what the author of Hebrews says in the next verse, in verse 11, where they say, "Make every effort to enter that rest." Now this seems counterintuitive because why would we be making an effort to rest? If you're like me sometimes it can be hard to unplug.
Pause on Purpose
I believe rest is one of the most important things we can do as a spiritual habit as a believer of Jesus. We have all week, six days out of the week, to work and to perform and to do all the things that we feel that we need to do. There is a seventh day, one day, just a 24-hour period, where God commands us to rest. I think that that rest is, I'll say it again, the most important thing that we as Christians can do.
We live in a world that is constantly bombarding us with distractions and all these things that seek to draw us away from time with God. We need to be intentional. We need to make every effort, as the author of Hebrews says, to enter into that rest. Otherwise we won't. We don't accidentally fall into habits of rest. Our natural state is to be in motion, to continue working, to just keep doing the things that we have always done. What God is saying through the author of Hebrews is that we are now able to enter God's rest and because of that we should do so.
I encourage you to take an hour, take a lunch break, take some time after dinner, and just pause. Don't do anything and instead maybe read a scripture, read one of these devotionals, listen to a worship song, and just pause from your striving for just a moment and listen for the voice of God.
Prayer
Jesus, I pray that you would help us to rest. Though we continually strive and feel like we need to strive, help us to slow down and to think about You. Help us to still our raging minds. Help us to see you moving in our quiet and in our busy. We pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.