Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Promise of Rest… (Hebrews 4:1-2) 110309

I agree with George H. Guthrie, that the author of Hebrews is a master of effective transitions. He begins chapter 4 by weaving his concern that the hearers not “fall short” (the emphasis in his commentary on Ps. 95 in Heb. 3) with an introduction to the promised rest that still exists for God’s people. Hebrews 4:1 offers an exhortation to spiritual caution, and 4:2 provides a basis for this exhortation: Hearing God’s word is not enough; it must be combined with faith. These two verses, therefore, serve as a transition and summarize the content of both 3:7 – 19 and 4:3 – 13, by which they are sandwiched. Further, 4:1 – 2 exhorts the hearers to take action on the basis of the author’s discussion. (Taken from The NIV Application Commentary: Hebrews, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998.)

Yes, hearing the word of God is insufficient to have salvation. The word of God has to be combined and acted upon by faith so that we can experience the rest God has promised. Similarly, faith alone without the word of God, will not give us the full assurance of the rest God has promised. Word and faith goes hand in hand. And F. F. Bruce states that ‘it is not the hearing of the gospel by itself that brings final salvation, but its appropriation by faith; and if that faith is a genuine faith, it will be a persistent faith.

The word salvation is implied by the word ‘rest’ in today’s text. The promise of such rest is something that we all looking forward to. I have been meeting up some young working adults lately and also my financial planner who is trying to convince my wife to join him in his business. They all have something in common, and I believe you too also find this familiar. They are all very busy. They have the perception that unless they work really hard, making themselves busy and effective, they are not going to enter ‘rest’ in the future.

I have nothing against being hardworking and planning for the future. We are all looking forward for some kind of ‘rest’ in the future. For my financial planner friend, he believes that unless he has sufficient amount of money, he will not be able to enjoy the ‘rest’ of his life. But he already has a lot of money! Some young working adults whom I know, they want to give their best shot in their career now and bury themselves in work, and hopefully that their bosses will recognize their effort and promote them accordingly. But in doing so, they have neglected what they also believe as important: the time of ‘rest’ with God.

I am in a life stage whereby I am really stretched all direction. My parents need my care as I am the only child living in Singapore with them (both my sisters are overseas), my family will need my love and attention as my daughter is only fifteen months old and my wife is a working mom, and my ministry is new to me and I have plenty to learn. I can be very busy if I allow myself to be busy. But I have also learnt from my personal experience that I will not last long if I don’t find my rest in God regularly. In fact, I often find strength and encouragement from the promise of rest.

When I rest, God is at work. When I rest, God is taking care of my parents and my siblings. When I rest, God is lovingly caring and attending to my wife and my daughter. When I rest, God is ministering to the people better than me, and refreshing my spirit, soul, mind and body to serve Him and His people in my ministry. When I rest, God is at work.

Are you tired today? Are you weary of pursuing your career by sacrificing your time with God and also your family? Are you tired of spending hours on studies and preparing for your examination but neglect 10 to 20 minutes of time of rest with God? Are you weary of serving and being asked to serve more when you don’t even have time to rest and listen to what God have to say about you? Take a break, take a rest.

There is a promise of rest. You have to rest to know what is that promise. You have to do it by faith, not by merely hearing the word of God. Today you read about the promise of rest in the word of God, by faith, take some time to rest. Especially when we are in this season of Lent, as our desire is to hear what God has to speak to us and response to Him, we need to rest by faith.

I am done for this devotion. I am going to rest now.

HHS…
Abel…



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Abel, I'm so encouraged by your blog. Thanks for sharing your life and devotions with us, I truly enjoy reading your entries everyday.

In His Love,
Fellow child of God.