There remains a rest....
Faith is composed of two basic principles: (1) To cease from man’s own work, and (2) to wait for God to work. Ordinarily we consider faith as trusting, depending and waiting for God to work; not realizing that there is the prerequisite of ceasing our own work first. To cease from man’s own work is reckoned as a work of faith. Waiting for God to work happens in the believer’s heart, hence it is invisible; but ceasing from one’s own work is external, therefore it may sometimes be seen. The greater work of faith is manifested in the believer ceasing from his own work rather than in waiting for God to work for him. The importance of such a step cannot be overemphasized. For God is never willing to mix His own work in with the work of man’s flesh. What God requires of the believer is to cease from all that is of his own self, including his idea and strength. No doubt God is pleased to be trusted and relied upon by the believer. But how is such faith in God expressed? By being still and completely resting from one’s self. This is the first step in the work of faith. Where can you find a man who is still busily plotting and working after he has fully trusted his friend? If God is trustworthy and His power is sufficiently great, will He need our help? If we believe God will work for us, is there any room for worrying? Are we afraid that He may not be able to do it well? Such attitudes prove that we do not really believe. Faith demands us to be fully rested: neither worrying in heart nor laboring in body. If we have no rest in body as well as in heart—that is to say, if we are yet laboring and worrying—we show ourselves to be people without faith!
Heb 4:9 (Williams NT) It follows that there still remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
Heb 4:10 For He who has been admitted to His rest, has rested from His works as God did from His.
Heb 4:11 Let it then be our earnest endeavor to be admitted to that rest, so that no one may perish through following the same example of unbelief.
Heb 4:12 For God's Message is full of life and power, and is keener than the sharpest two-edged sword. It pierces even to the severance of soul from spirit, and penetrates between the joints and the marrow, and it can discern the secret thoughts and purposes of the heart.
Heb 4:13 And no created thing is able to escape its scrutiny; but everything lies bare and completely exposed before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Heb 4:14 Inasmuch, then, as we have in Jesus, the Son of God, a great High Priest who has passed into Heaven itself, let us hold firmly to our profession of faith.
