Rest We Can Only Find In Christ!

Good Morning,
 
Within Spring Mill State Park, I have a favorite spot.  There is a stream coming out of a cave and running down the hillside.  It is in heavy tree cover.  When no one is around except the Lord, and I'm there on the bank of that little creek, it seems no different than being deep in the Smokey Mountains.  It's for sure a place of quite rest.  In the middle of this work week, and in the business of family life, do you need rest.
 
In 24 hours the average adult accomplishes much: his heart beats 103,689 times, his blood travels 168 million miles, he breathes 23,040 times, he inhales 438 cubic feet of air, he eats 3 1/2 pounds of food and drinks 2.9 quarts of liquid, he speaks 4,800 words, he moves 750 muscles, his nails grow .000046 inch, and he exercises 7 million brain cells. It's no wonder we need rest!

When God established the laws governing the lives of the Israelite people, He built into their schedule a time for rest. Physically it enabled their bodies to recuperate. Then he said to them, "This is what the Lord has said: 'Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.'"  Spiritually it reminded them that their salvation was not complete. They needed a spiritual "rest" that would come only when the Messiah would take away their sins. The writer of Hebrews makes it clear that even though the Jewish people practiced Sabbath-keeping, the real "rest" was a future event. He declared, "For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God" (Heb. 4:8-9).


In the New Testament the command to "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" is the only one of the Ten Commandments not repeated, and I have heard much discussion about why and why not.  The bottom line is that I know that I need physical rest and spiritual rest, as the Israelite people did, and that God wants to give me that rest.  The spiritual rest that the Old Testament saints looked forward to and which the Sabbath represented is now a reality. Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).
 
If we are to have real rest, it must come for Jesus.  When we are fully trusting in Him, and only Him, we are not ringing our hands in stress, or laboring for salvation.  When tired from a labor of love for God's Kingdom, He will, from time to time, calls us aside to rest in Him.  Let me encourage you to find a little place of retreat, where you can only hear a small creek running down a hillside, and the still small voice of your Lord.
 
God bless you today, and remember that you are loved!!!

Henry