SUPREME REST: THE REST OF GOD

Within the stress and pace of modern life God’s children desperately need rest from the weariness that seems ever ready to overtake us. Beyond the Old Testament Sabbatical rest, which is a type, God has provided in this “better covenant” time a rest for His children. Hebrews chapter Four speaks of God’s rest as a promise appropriated through the commingling of the promise (i.e., God’s word) with faith: the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness. God commands zealous diligence in entering His rest, not by striving for he who enters God’s rest has ceased from self-effort and self-works. No, the key is found in the total submission contained in the application of faith to the promise. Not only is our Father very intentional, He is also the God who goes before us, so that we are in a sense always walking in His footsteps.”Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I have no doubt You’ve already gone ahead, my fire by night, my cloud by day”. God’s rest is a place of peace and trust, a place of cessation from stress and worry, a place of refreshing and renewing of our strength – a place where God is present – His dwelling place in the Spirit. So we must look within our divine temple to find God’s place of rest. Psalms 91 paints a beautiful word picture of this secret place of the Most High God. In David’s time God dwelt between the outstretched wings of the golden cherubim on the arc of the covenant, and the tent of meeting was uncovered so the people could see the fire and smoke manifestations of God’s presence. Psalms 91:1-2 is David’s personal testimony of dwelling in God’s holiest of holies, lying in the shadows produced by the sun’s rays passing over the cherubim’s wings. This was, to David, “dwelling in the secret place of the Most High…abiding under the shadow of the Almighty”. Now, our bodies have become God’s holist of holies, God’s temple on earth, so we must look deep within our spirit to find this supernatural rest of God. And make no doubt about it; it is a supernatural gift of grace, an “enabling” flowing from His great heart of love. We can rest in this assurance.