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Relax
by Ron Marquardt
For the last few months,
I’ve been studying and meditating on rest. I will release a new
series on this subject on CD and MP3 very shortly. The following is
a small taste. What got me started is that four times it is
mentioned in Hebrews 3 and 4, virtually back to back, the importance
of the rest we should live in. It even ends with this warning:
to not be as the children of Israel and fall short of a New
Testament promise of rest.
The first quote goes
like this: Heb 3:7-14 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith,
Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as
in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the
wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my
works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and
said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not
known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my
rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil
heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one
another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers
of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. KJV
This verse is talking
about when Israel was in the desert-a place we find ourselves in
often. Yes, we have been delivered, yet the temptation to go back
into slavery is strong. Slavery is all we have ever known. The day
of provocation, or provoking, as we would call it, came about after
they had seen the 10 plagues of Egypt; the parting of the red sea;
the bitter waters of Mira turned sweet. They had seen manna every
day; a cloud by day and fire by night (central heat and air in the
desert). Moses had received the Ten Commandments and now they needed
water, which he ended up getting from a rock.
It was not that they had
not seen God in action. The Psalmist said in Chapter 103 verse 7
“they knew his acts but not his ways”. There is an intimacy in
rest-a personal relationship. Yes, they saw what He could do but
never got close enough to find out the whys. Also, in Psalms, the
nail was hit on the head, so to speak, when he gets to what the real
problem was ( they limited God). Ps 78:41-42 Yea, they turned
back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel..
They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them
from the enemy. KJV
Looking back at Hebrews,
we see that heart error was the problem the Israelites had and the
one we should watch out for. Heart error doesn’t see the ways or the
whys of the situation. We live in the actions and reactions of our
circumstances. To err at a heart level ultimately means-I limit what
God can do for me, then I blame Him for what I didn’t believe Him
for just because He promised. It’s more comfortable to go back to
slavery. I can handle the misery I’m in because I know how to manage
it. I want to be in control. I would trust God if I knew how
He was going to do it. I don’t know what God’s will is. I think it
would take more effort to believe. I don’t know what my spouse or my
friends will say. So, I romanticize about the good old days, eating
slop out of the scrap pots in Egypt, thinking it was free when it
was costing me everything.
God wants you to live
your dreams. He desires that your desires are fulfilled. The Bible
says it gives Him great joy for you to have the kingdom life. He
desires you to enter into rest and an effortless lifestyle of
success.
Today, if you
will, hear His voice. It is our choice to hear the voice of God
in our lives Unlike the Israelites, who wanted Moses to talk to God
for them because they feared Him, we have direct access to a loving
and safe God in whom we don’t have to fear. You deserve all that He
has for you, today, right now! Don’t wait another minute! Let your
heart be tender and not limit His ability to give you all the
promises. Find that your only labor with God is the labor to enter
into His rest. Yes, it will take work to believe “it is finished”.
Labor to believe you deserve because of the blood of His son. But
the effort to believe that you are adored of Him is an effortless
life of living your dreams.
Heb 4:1-5 Therefore, since
the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful
that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also
have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the
message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard
did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter
that rest, just as God has said,
"So I
declared on oath in my anger,
They
shall never enter my rest.'"
And yet his work has
been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has
spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day
God rested from all his work." And again in the passage above he
says, "They shall never enter my rest." NIV
Dare to trust! Rest in
the promise without trying to figure it all out. Know that
experiencing His grace really will bring you your desires without
your effort. God has been finished since the seventh day. Won’t you
join him? Take the limits off of what you are willing to receive and
hear Him today!
Relax, take the load off, and give it to the only
one who can do something about it.
Jesus promised light and easy. Take a break from
your fear and control. It will be alright!
Grace & Peace
Ron
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