" IF GOD RESTED, WHY NOT ME "

Can we talk,this week the Lord put " REST " on my heart. Time for me to be very candid with you, I only average four to five hours of sleep per night seven days per week. Yes I'm up every morning praying for all of you whom I've promised to Stand In The Gap for. This week I've learned about balance. Jesus' take on the value of rest;we live in an action-oriented world! There always seems to be something to do and no time to rest. Yet God demonstrated that rest is appropriate and right. If God himself rested from his work, then it should not amaze us that we also need rest. Jesus demonstrated this principle when he and his disciples left in a boat to get away from the crowds. Our times of rest refresh us for times of service. Doing God's work is very important, but Jesus recognized that to do it effectively we need periodic rest and renewal. Jesus and his disciples, however, did not always find it easy to get the rest they needed! God's rest has several meanings in scripture: (1) The seventh day of Creation and the weekly Sabbath commemorating it,(2) The Promised Land of Canaan;(3) Peace with God now because of our relationship with Christ through faith; and (4) Our future Eternal Life with Christ. All of these meanings were probably familiar to the Jewish Christian readers of Hebrews. God rested on the seventh day, not because he was tired, but to indicate the completion of Creation. The world was perfect, and God was well satisfied with it. This rest is a foretaste of our eternal joy when creation will be renewed and restored, every mark of sin will be removed, and the world will be made perfect again. Our Sabbath - rest in Christ begins when we trust him to complete his good and perfect work in us. We must rest from our work and from the toil of our hands. Now God offers us the opportunity to enter his ultimate place of rest - he invites us to come to Christ. To enter his rest,you must believe that God has this relationship in mind for you, you must stop trying to create it; you must trust in Christ for it; and you must determine to obey him. Today is the best time to find peace with God. Tomorrow may be too late. " COME TO ME, ALL WHO ARE WEARY AND HEAVY - LADEN, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST " (Matt. 11:28). Until Next Time... Jim,