Prepare for Rest

It's no wonder I need a vacation. I'm exhausted just getting ready for it!

1. Get tune up and oil change for van.
2. Find trip maps.
3. Make reservations.
4. Write three newspaper columns.
5. Coordinate pulpit supply and worship leaders.
6. Format bulletins.
7. Outline Annual Report.
8. Arrange housing for pulpit supply.
9. Balance checkbook.
10. Pay bills in advance.
11. Start outlines for funeral and two weddings (due two days after you get back).
12. Update email addresses.
13. Arrange pet care.
14. Layout Evangel newsletter for production.
15. Prepare worship outline for first Sunday back.
16. Prepare annual meeting agenda.
17. Schedule new members class to start on return.
18. Complete marriage counseling outline for clients to study while you're gone.
19. Get Bible memorization chart ready to work on while we're traveling.
20. Contact "house watcher" with instructions.
21. Turn off well pump.
22. Finish computer transfer at church.
23. Send ministerium meeting announcement.
24. Prepare discipleship reading for new believer.

We're leaving in just five days and I still have to preach three times, pack, clean the car, give Bill his keys, brush my teeth, breathe, and pray for world peace. All this just to go rest!

Here's a question, if we have our long "to do lists" for vacations, what preparations are we making for our eternal rest? Hebrews 4:11 says, "Let us strive therefore to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience." The entire chapter points to a "rest" from God that remains available to everyone who hears the good news and adds faith to it. Those who believe in and trust God enter his rest, and are encouraged to "strive" to do so.

God's rest may mean any or all of four things. I call them four graces. God's rest may mean the future grace of heaven. In order to gain heaven after death, we absolutely must have faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and for a renewed, right relationship with God. If God's rest means "heaven" then we must strive to know the gospel of Jesus and to follow it with all our hearts.

God's rest may refer to the second coming of Jesus, returning grace. On the day he ascended, angels informed his watching disciples that Jesus would also return. He will return to gather his people to himself and to establish his kingdom. That means, if we are to be part of that eternal kingdom, our hearts must be prepared. Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Is your heart humble, grieved over sin, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure, peaceful, and steadfast? These are the preparations God makes in those who believe to prepare them for the return of his Son.

God's rest may also include present grace, the ongoing effects of God's promises realized in the everyday life experiences of his people. God promises and accomplishes great things in the lives of his people (see Jeremiah 33:3), but here's the rub: no relationship with God, no blessing from God. Make the effort faith requires, trust God, believe him and believe in him. This is the labor that gains God's rest.

Finally, God's rest includes forever grace. In referring to God's rest the author of Hebrews writes, "There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." Just a few verses prior the author identifies this Sabbath rest as God's own rest on the seventh day. On that day, God's creative work completed, he began the ongoing joy of relating as God to all that he created. Each of the previous days of creation is bookended by an evening and a morning, but not the seventh day. It goes on forever. The idea is that we enter God's rest when we surrender our lives to him as Lord and God and live in that sublime relationship eternally.

Listen, I have a few things to do to get ready for vacation, but we all have a few things to do to get ready for grace. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Believe God. Trust God. Obey God. Enter God's rest.