The Welcome Mat Is Out
We are living in uncertain times. There is unrest and turmoil all around; economic challenges, wars and rumors of wars and the voice of fear is working to move us off of the foundation of strength found in our Redeemer! The Bible tells us in Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
There is a rest for the people of God! There is a place where we can live by faith, knowing that God, by the power of the finished work of Jesus on the cross, has provided all we need for life. He has released His abundant life and supernatural power into our own world! There is a place of rest where we stop from struggling and enter into the life Jesus has provided for us through the cross.
Hebrews 4:2 For unto us was the gospel (Good News!) preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest …
What an amazing life God has planned for each of us! So many people come to Jesus and then attend church on a got-to-go maintenance level and never understand the great life that Jesus has come to give us. Oh, there is a place of rest - a place of peace and total victory in every area of life and that place is only found by believing the gospel…the news that is too good to be true, yet it is true!
There is a promise of rest and to enter into that rest we must believe the gospel. With that statement it is important to know in simple terms what the “gospel” is. The gospel is the good news that reveals God’s demonstration of love to all of mankind given through Jesus Christ’s death, resurrection, exaltation and in Him sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and with us.
In the Old Covenant, in order to be qualified, everything we received from God depended on our performance. In the New Covenant, we receive everything that Jesus provided because He qualified all who believe by paying the full penalty for our sin and in exchange giving us His righteousness.
If that was not enough, He also has made provision through Himself for all things pertaining to life and godliness. The gospel includes the following seven major truths:
1. Jesus made peace with God for us so that we can live in the peace of God.
2. Jesus took the punishment for the sins of the entire world from the beginning to the end of time and now freely gives His righteousness to all who believe (right standing with God!).
3. Jesus took all our sicknesses and diseases and gave us His health and vitality.
4. Jesus became poor so that we can always be a blessing to others through our abundance.
5. Jesus took all loneliness and became a friend who will never leave nor forsake us.
6. Jesus took confusion and became our wisdom.
7. Jesus totally defeated ALL the powers of the demonic world and gave us His victory.
This is the Finished Work of Christ! This is the Gospel that we preach! This is what Jesus did for us through His death, resurrection, and exaltation and in sending the Holy Spirit! We live in the New Covenant - the age of grace as we believe and receive all that Jesus accomplished for those who believe.
John 6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Truly the work of God is to believe the gospel! There are so many voices speaking into our life today - the voice of fear, the voice of lack, the voice of uncertainty. But choose to pay attention to the voice of faith and believe the gospel! Fight the good fight of faith to believe. When the winds and waves of adversity are raging against your life…BELIEVE!
We can rest in those incredible last words of Jesus: “IT IS FINISHED!” We can rest by faith in this position of knowing that God is with us. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God!! Once you hear the good news of the gospel, then believe it, embrace that truth by faith and go forward! This is the work of God that brings you into the reality of living the abundant life Jesus provided for you and I. We read in Hebrews 4 “…that those who believed entered, unbelievers did not enter into His rest…”
REST: reposing down, a settling down in the heart and mind, also to cease or to restrain or forbear.
Heb 4:9 There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 He that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11 Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Our mind and emotions can work so much against us as we worry and try to get things all worked out when God has a place where we can rest and receive His wisdom. Jesus is seated because the work is done! He has won the victory and given that victory to us!
In the natural, at the end of our day when our work is finished, we breathe a sigh of relief as we sit down to rest. In the same way, only now by faith, we step into what Jesus has accomplished by faith. There remains a rest for the people of God! In the midst of all the “noise of life” and its challenges, tests, trials and tribulations, move from stress into the place of God’s rest by believing in and receiving the finished work of Christ for our individual lives. The welcome mat is out, Jesus is at the door and His word to you is enter!
