The Rest

"There remains therefore a rest to the people of God." Hebrews 4:9
In the journey of struggle, our destination is the promised place of rest. This promise is for here and now on earth. Just as real and certain as is our eternal salvation, so is our eternal sanctification. There is a place of rest for the people of God. Rest from the struggle. This place of rest is found only through the Cross. The place where sin and self were dealt with. The place where we 'know' we are holy and righteous, not because of our conquest of victory, but because He conquered sin on our behalf and has given us the gift of His righteousness. The place where all effort to obtain perfection is abandoned in light of the truth that He has perfected us already in Christ. As we rest in Him, He manifests Himself through us in our daily lives. One of the ways that others will notice we have found our resting place is when the humility of Christ becomes evident in our lives, when they perceive that we love and serve them in ways we hadn't before. The good news is that He is ever leading us in this journey. He is accomplishing a transformation in our lives that only He can perform. And He does it through our struggles. When we see that we don't love as well as we should, we will struggle (labor) to love better. We will work hard at it but to no avail. This is a painful but necessary part of our journey. It is the only way that we will begin to see our need of Him to love through us. We learn that He is faithful to do it, He is faithful to complete it. He can be trusted. This is the journey, this is the rest.
"Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest," Hebrews 4:11