When I was young sleep came easy, particularly as a new parent. My wife and I would joke that if I was given ten minutes in the middle of the day, I could lay down on a rock in a rainstorm and sleep through nine of them. Odd working hours and sleep deprivation certainly were contributors, but looking back I realize there was more to it. I had many meaningful, grownup responsibilities at that age, but I wasn’t carrying the life baggage that I do today.
As I grew older I picked up those bags through the unexpected adversities of life and when it began to interfere with my sleep, I got frustrated. In exasperation I would “determine to rest” which, of course, didn’t work. Worse, I would even become angry, wanting to find someone to blame for my restlessness. Fueling those determination-turned-
Over more time, however, I learned that rest was a gift and not a right. As more baggage was added that led to an increased frequency of restlessness, I learned not to allow it to upset me. I began to recognize the pattern and to create habits that made better use of the time. Instead of being determined to rest, I chose to spend time reading the Bible, praying for my church family and meditating on Scripture. In those hours I have learned to be less like Martha who was “anxious and troubled about many things” and more like Mary that chose “the good portion.” More often than not, and in His timing, the Lord then grants rest.
A narrative example of this is the Israelites that wandered in the wilderness. God had guaranteed the Jews possession of the “Promised Land” where there would be peace and rest. The people did not view that as a gift from a loving God, but a right to be demanded. As a result, they viewed the hardships they experienced before entering that rest with sinful discontent. The New Testament reiterates their failure.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. (Heb, 3:7–12)
God denied their entrance into His rest because they rebelled against Him. What’s more, their presumptuous, entitled attitudes provoked God! The theme of entrance into God’s rest continues into the subsequent verses. They outline how unbelief prevents people from entering God’s rest. God explicitly says that His rest will not benefit them because they will not listen. That is to say that those that presume on God’s goodness and, in their hearts, demand to receive peace and rest, will fail to enjoy it.
However, there is a promised “Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9). Ironically, Christians cannot demand the benefit of rest, yet they are promised to receive it. Consider the seeming paradox in verse 11 that reads, “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.”
To “work to rest” is to exchange your baggage for God’s. After Jesus said, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Mt. 11:28-30). As the believer is relieved of his burden, he must take up another, namely, to live the righteous life that Christ made possible.
It comes down to this. Don’t be discontented (or worse, angry) when good rest escapes you today. You do not have an on-demand right to it. Be thankful for the temporary rest God chooses to grant now as you wait for the unimaginable, uninterrupted rest in eternity future.
When you find yourself struggling with restlessness, acknowledge it, drop that burden at the feet of Jesus and take up His light one. Exchange your mental rehearsal of the if-only list of discontentment for the God-glorifying list of how you can love God and your neighbor. That’s how to determine to rest!