TAKE A BREAK

Life here on earth can burn you out at times.  So many times we as humans give every effort that we have just to keep our lives from completely falling apart.  It may seem at times that the more effort that we put in to something the harder it gets.  It may feel like no matter how much you give it is never enough, between your boss and your family it may seem like everybody needs you to do something for them, and yet there never seems to be anybody there for you.  It saddens me to say that much of what goes on in the church today is not very different then what goes on in the world.  The world puts heavy burdens on us demanding from us nearly impossible goals, and many turn to the church because we hear about a savior named Jesus Christ that can save us freely and without works.  However as soon as we become saved it seems like we are now being told that we need to work work work for the Lord.  The demands from the church only add to our overwhelming burden from the world.  We hear the message that we are saved when we put our faith in Jesus Christ but for some reason in order to stay saved we are told that we need to dot all of the i's and cross all of the t's or God is displeased with us.  Is there something that changes from getting saved and being saved, do we become saved through fully putting all of our trust in Jesus Christ to save us and then when we become saved we need to work to stay saved.  Is that what God wants from us.  Consider this passage from the bible about what God wants from us.  Hebrews 4:9-11 NASB So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. (10) For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. (11) Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.  Contrary to what you hear from the pulpit today about living by the ten commandments and continually working to stay saved and please God, we are actually told to REST!!!  In the Old Testament God actually gave His chosen nation a commandment to take the seventh day of the week to rest.  God wanted them to do no ordinary worldly work, God wanted them to do His work and that was to rest in Him.  The sabbath commandment was a foreshadow of what God wanted to give His true chosen ones in Christ, and what God wanted to give us was rest.  I find it interesting that the writer of Hebrews warns us that we could fall if we are not in God's rest.  It is very easy to rely on our works to determine where we stand before God.  Our standing before God is always because of what Christ did for us not because of what we do.  We are simply told now to rest and the rest that we have in Christ is not just one day a week, it is part of our relationship with God for all eternity.  True faith in Christ is a continual trust in Christ that what He did was enough to save us and give us everlasting life.  True faith requires that the only effort we make is the effort to enter into God's rest.  Notice that in verse (11) we are told to be diligent to enter into rest.  Any other work outside of Christ that we rely on to please God is called a dead work.  Christ is enough.  Enjoy God's rest!!!