I Want to be Like My Rabbi Jesus, and REST!

If I want to follow Jesus, then I must learn to rest.

I think todays generation of Christ followers have the wrong definition of what it means to follow Christ, in more ways than one I might add. I too have wrong definitions. I'm thankful for Jesus who is my Rabbi and teaches me and changes definitions. We want to be "successful" Christians with big growing churches, a people who serve till we drop, we pour over articles of "how to's" and what we're doing wrong in church so that maybe somehow, someway, someday be better and maybe get a standing ovation from Jesus and the Angels. It's exhausting. This at least is how I live my walk and "following" of Christ at times. But this isn't following the Rabbi at all, but following ourselves and what culture is saying we must do. In our world of fast, and I want it all and now, it has certainly shaped how we live our lives following Christ. There is one word this generation doesn't know, Rest.
God lead me to study Hebrews 4, and in this passage of scripture it talks about a "keeping of the Sabbath." Sabbatismos is the Greek word used here, and it means that we are to enjoy a rest uninterrupted that is of God Himself so that relationship with Him may take place. It refers to two kinds of rest: A rest now that is both spiritual and physical, and a rest to come that points to our eternal home of Heaven. Resting now is a holy experience that produces holiness, and perfects the work of Christ in us. Rest is the one promise and gift from God many of us will never take as often as He gives. I'm the worst offender of them all. Take a look at Hebrews 4:1-11:

God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. 2 For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.[a] 3 For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said,

“In my anger I took an oath:
‘They will never enter my place of rest,’”[b]
even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. 4 We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.”[c] 5 But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.”[d]

6 So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. 7 So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:

“Today when you hear his voice,
don’t harden your hearts.”[e]
8 Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. 9 So there is a special rest[f] still waiting for the people of God. 10 For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. 11 So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.

This rest is apart of the Good News of Christ. The truth that Jesus is enough, and that if we never did another single thing but put our full trust in Him it would be enough. Trust/faith is rest. When we believe in Him we have given up our works and the things that we think will make us better before Christ, or make us more accepting to Him. We trust that God through Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross has already accepted us. It means we are free, no longer slaves working to be enough. This is a rest of grace, and leaning on God that is full, blessed, sweet, satisfying, and peaceful. Slaves don't rest, but free people do, and we are a free people so we must rest.
What's so beautiful about this passage of scripture from Hebrews is that the author is pointing back to Joshua and of the rest promised to the Israelites as they entered the promised land. It says in Joshua 21:43-45 this:

So the Lord gave to Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had solemnly promised their ancestors. None of their enemies could stand against them, for the Lord helped them conquer all their enemies. 45 Not a single one of all the good promises the Lord had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true.

Our lives and our journeys can be compared to the Israelites roaming in the desert all those years just trying to get to the Promised Land...a land of rest. We too are lost in deserts, times we rest seems so far, but I am reminded that even in their wondering they still rested, and God still provided every need they had. We too must lean into the rest promised now, and rely on the promise of Heaven. I love the last verse of the passage, everything the Lord has spoken came to pass, and it's my hearts desire to encourage you tonight to hang on, and rest because Heaven is coming. He doesn't forget His people, and we are His people those of us who trust in His name, and call Him Father, and Lord. I feel like He is warning me to not harden my heart like Israel did in the wilderness. Though they had left Egypt a place of unrest, they often longed to go back. They stubbornly refused to trust the Lord completely. They wanted the old way life, oppressive, and dissappointing as it all was, there was still an alluring appeal. Unbelief forfeits rest.
It is His will that we rest, and I fail so badly at this. I'm not obedient to His rest, I don't have the faith to rest, I fear it will all fall apart and there will be no recovery. I don't rest physically, and I don't rest spiritually though it is given and promised to me. But there are moments when I feel the presence of God Himself come down and meet with me where I am, and he reminds me that life without rest is vanity. In the quest to live above the sun with a God and eternal perspective, and not what I can just see today...it's then He brings me up into His lap and wraps His arms around me and pulls me into His chest and He sings me a hymn as I drift to sleep...rest. An eternal perspective that reminds me everything is going to be okay, and that this is all temporary and doesn't compare to the land He has promised to take me to. There is no place I would rather be, but the alluring appeal of the world, and old ways creeps in, and takes me from this rest.
Resting is a learned action, one only learned from the Rabbi who is the definition of rest. I feel He is calling all of us to rest more. To quit feel like we aren't doing enough, and just be with Him. To learn to trust Him in the deserts.
Yes, I have decided to follow Jesus, and I follow Him into His rest.
I'll leave you with this song: