What Is Resting In God

What Is "Resting" In God?

The word REST in the classical Greek denotes "a causing to cease" or "putting to rest". God's idea of rest for us would be that we cease to exist for ourselves and exist only for Him. His desire would be that we only go through doors that He opens and that we would gladly cut out everything that is not His will for us to do.

It was God's plan to give the Israelites rest after they entered into Canaan. He told them that all they had to do was keep Him #1 in their lives and He would bless them in every way possible.

In Deuteronomy the whole Chapter 28, God lays out for the Israelites the conditions of blessings in the land, and he also tells them the conditions under which they would be chastised for not following his instructions. They had a clear picture of what would happen in either circumstance that they chose. Evidently they just didn't believe that God would stick to his Word. God truly wanted them to walk in "Rest", because he wanted to make it easy for them and bless their every effort without them having to toil and struggle so hard for everything they got. They would still have to work, but everything would be much easier for them than for the other people who were not Israelites. God wanted to show the world how he could bless a people who truly wanted to worship and love Him above all else.

Deuteronomy 28:1-14

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine (cattle), and the flocks of thy sheep.
Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.
And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.
And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:
And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

If they had just ceased to struggle to have their own way and do their own thing their way, God would have blessed them immensely.

A study of the Israelites as they conquered the land and started to live there will reveal that they never fully conquered all of it that God had intended for them to have because of their fear and unbelief. They looked at certain of the peoples who were already there and thought that they couldn't be driven out of the land because they were too strong; and they were afraid to even try to drive them out at all. THEY ONLY REASON THAT THEY NEVER CONQUERED AND LIVED IN ALL THE LAND THAT WAS DUE THEM WAS PURELY UNBELIEF.

They never really entered totally and wholly into God's rest because in much of the land that they conquered, they didn't drive the other people out of it and eventually their idolatrous beliefs drew the Israelites back into idolatry much as they were before they left Egypt.

God wants us to enter into the land of rest that He has for us. Don't let unbelief keep you from living in the wonderful place that God has for you. God wanted the Israelites to drive every person out of the Promised Land, and he told them they would have rest and not war if they would do that. They were not to compromise his Word to them in any way. They didn't follow God's instructions and years later David was still fighting other countries that should have been driven out to start with.

If they had just believed God, they wouldn't have been constantly trying to defend their territory from predators. God would have automatically protected them because they were being obedient to what He had told them to do in the first place.

If we don't learn how to rest in God and obey Him, we'll always be fighting a losing battle over something and continually striving to keep our heads above water. At least that's how it will seem to us. I've heard so many people say that life is a constant battle of just trying to make it. God doesn't want it to be that way for us. His plan is for us to be conquerors in the battle against Satan. We can always win the battle against him if we just obey God.

We need to quit fighting battles on our own that we should be letting God fight for us. We also need to put our own selfish desires and agendas aside and let our main priority be to obey God and walk totally and completely in His Rest. That's the only way that we can be truly at peace and have joy in the midst of trouble and heartache until Jesus comes to take us home.

Home Page

Text written and authored by Cathy Deaton and is her own work.