What if I told you that everything was in exactly the right place that God wanted it to be, right now? That in all of the history of eternity, what is happening, at the very second that you read this, is exactly what is supposed to be happening? That it was all planned and determined?
If you turn on the news or look at an advertisement, you will hear an opposite message.
The news will tell you that things are very, very wrong.
That the ship is headed off course, careening toward a rocky outcrop. That the countdown to total destruction has already started.
Advertisements will tell you that you aren’t what you should be, don’t have what you should have, don’t look how you should look and that you don’t feel what you should feel.
What if I told you, that YOU are in the exact right place that God wants you to be, right now?
That in all of the history of eternity, what has, is, and will happen to you is exactly what is supposed to be happening?
That God knew you, before He created the earth.
That He planned out and plotted a course for your life.
That He saw the decisions you would make and the events that He would put in place around you and accounted for them?
That, right now, you are in the exact right place, as determined by God, from before the beginning?
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Anxiety is defined as an “emotion in which an individual anticipates impending danger, catastrophe, or misfortune.”
Anxiety is the fear of the unknown.
It is the opposite of rest.
Hebrews 4:10-13
So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.
God wants us to rest.
He commanded us to keep the sabbath, so that we would rest.
His most repeated command in The Bible is “do not fear.”
Fear being the opposite of rest.
Hebrews 4 is a pleading for us to not miss out on this rest.
To try and explain what this rest is, would be impossible.
This rest, in it’s true form, is something that only God has experienced.
After creating everything which was created, He entered into this rest.
To explain what that rest looks like, is as unfruitful as trying to explain what God Himself looks like.
Just as no one can see God’s face, no one could describe something that He created for Himself to enjoy as a reprieve from creation itself.
Yet His believers HAVE seen His face in Christ Jesus and this rest that He created for Himself to enjoy, He extends to His children for them to enter into as well…
To describe this rest would be pointless.
You can not buy it with all of the wealth of the entire earth.
People search for it their entire lives but can not find it.
Through religion, philosophy, determination or ways of thinking, countless people have claimed “here it is, I have found it!” yet come up empty.
You can sell everything you own, quiet every thought, shun every distraction and forsake every noise… you will not find it.
It’s gates are shut up by the one who created everything.
Only those who He allows to enter, may enter.
“There is a special rest waiting for the people of God”
To describe it would be pointless but we have a clear example of what will cause us to be denied entry.
Hebrews 4:2, referencing the Israelites in the wilderness, says, ”For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.”
The Israelites heard about this rest.
It was described to them just as it is being described to you now.
They lacked something.
It wasn’t knowledge.
It wasn’t a desire.
It was a belief.
In the garden, Eve was experiencing this rest and she lost it.
Why?
She heard the message, just as you are hearing it now.
She lacked something.
It wasn’t knowledge.
It wasn’t a desire.
It was a belief.
The way that Satan attacked Eve and the way that He attacks you is the same.
Every day, from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep and even in your sleep, He attacks one thing…
Belief.
God says “for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations”
The news tells us that we have lost control and evil is ruling.
We believe the news, and we miss out on rest.
God says “people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps.”
An advertisement tells us that we must do more, buy more, feel more, experience more…
We believe the advertisement and we miss out on rest.
God says “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest”
We look at a circumstance or a situation and we believe the lies of the enemy and we miss out on rest.
The words that we hear from God, not being mixed with faith, do not profit us.
I can’t tell you what this special rest looks like.
I can’t describe what it feels like.
You won’t find a 10 step program that tells you how to reach it and there’s no breathing technique that unlocks it for you.
It is created by God, special, for you.
He holds the key. He opens the gate and lets some in.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts,
as you did in the rebellion,
in the day of testing in the wilderness,
where your fathers tested and tried Me,
and for forty years saw My works.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
and I said,
‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known My ways.’
So I swore on oath in My anger,
‘They shall never enter My rest.’”
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.