Labor to Rest?

^“Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Hebrews 4:11 KJV).

If you’ve read this verse or heard it preached from the pulpit, you may still be working to enter the rest. We have to work harder. We must not let up a minute. This is works religion.

The work we rest from is the dead work of trying to earn God’s favor. Grace and works don’t mix. Our works flow from love for God and others. It doesn’t mean grace people don’t work, but we don’t work to please God and we don’t work to get God to bless us.

If you don’t believe that God wants to bless you and, indeed, that He already has blessed you with every blessing in Christ Jesus, then you will work and never rest.

^“For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:10 NKJV).

We don’t enter rest by working, We enter rest by believing. We cease from our works—those busy jobs to serve God—to resting in our relationship with Jesus and following His guidance.