Take Your Break

Take Your Break

Are you ready to take your break? It was never God’s design for us to sweat (literally and figuratively). Your employment ought to be a reflection of the purpose God has for you. And if your job is manual labor, God’s grace will be more than sufficient for you and you won’t toil.

Hebrews 4:9-11 – This passage tells us that the one who walks in God’s grace discontinues his own labor. As a believer of God’s Word and one who walks by faith, you’ll understand that the rest of God is available to you today. Our work to enter God’s rest isn’t physical; but rather we are to make an earnest effort toward stopping our own works. The Bible tells us we must be diligent in ceasing from our own schemes, plans, and efforts. Our Biblical example of disobedience is found in Exodus 33. Unbelief and doubt prevented the Children of Israel from entering the Promised Land. Only Joshua and Caleb entered, the others perished.

The rest of God is not just stopping your work. A lot of believers are frustrated and are laboring because they’re out of place not doing what God would have them to do. God tells us up front that He will make the way. If you’re unhappy, ask yourself why you’re working the job you’re working?

1. God’s rest is a place of guaranteed success (or victory). What does this definition mean to you?
Matthew 11:28-30 – Jesus is The Rest. He is the fulfillment of all of God’s Word. Bottom line, entering God’s rest is coming to know the living Christ in your life. The stronger leads the way once you’re yoked together. Jesus tells us his yoke is easy, so why are so many believers struggling with a hard life? They’ve been deceived into believing something else, foregoing the yoke of Christ to work their own way out. Peace is intertwined with rest. The spiritual side of ending our own works means all religious, ceremonial, and ritualistic works to be righteous with God must cease. Christ is the righteousness of God, and in Him we are made righteous. How can we add to or take away from this? We are made in Christ’s likeness and image, and therefore more than conquerors (Hebrews 1:1-3; Galatians 3:29; Romans 8:17).

2. Unbelief is what stops a person from entering. Unbelief is disobedience, rebellion and stubbornness – a conscious turning away from your known truth. Entertaining doubt leads to unbelief. Doubt becomes foolishness when you entertain it and allow your present, problematic, challenging, adverse situations to overshadow the true certainty of God’s promises to you.
Hebrews 3:12-14 – We are not “partakers of God” because we say we are. The rest of God is not automatic. An evil heart of unbelief turns back from the truth. Exhort one another! Close ranks and bear one another up. Some of you will prevent all of you from going where God intends all of us to go! Procrastination is the enemy’s tool.

Sometimes you have to fire yourself! Write down all your activities (friends, clubs, associations) and ask the Lord from your heart what you should be doing. Allow God to reveal to you what you should be doing each step of the way. God gives us the grace and mercy to meet our obligations. Once you get a taste of rest, you won’t go back to working! You get the reward of your inheritance. Hebrews 11:6 (Berith’s hallmark Scripture) tells us that God rewards our faith. Stop watching your brothers and sisters in Christ drown in their own fruitless efforts! Lift one another up.

3. Living by faith guarantees that we enter.