Hebrews 4:1 NKJV
Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
In the bible, God reiterates ‘fear not’, ‘worry not’ ‘be not afraid’ countless times.
But there is only one place in the bible where He explicitly says to fear.
No, it is not the ‘fear of God’ which has been defined by Jesus Himself as the ‘worship of God’ (Matthew 4:9-10), which means reverence and honouring. It is not a fear that distances us from our loving Father.
In fact, there is no more a fearful expectation of punishment/wrath from God, because every bad that we deserved has already been unleashed on Jesus’s body once and for all at the cross. And He was raised up so that we are made righteousness in Christ 🙂
So what is it that I need to fear?
The only fear, is to fear that we are not at rest (Hebrews 4:1).
The only labour, is to labour into rest (Hebrews 4:11).
Today, God’s rest is the Promised Land for His believers – it is the place of blessings, the land flowing with milk and honey (abundant life).
It is not the life of toil, hard labour, stress and strive, which has been redeemed by Jesus when He sweated blood at the garden of Gethsemane. To be specific, Jesus’s blood redeemed this curse that was placed on Adam –
‘…By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread…’ (Genesis 3:19)
God had redeemed us! No more blood, sweat and tears! No more toil or hard labour!
oh! but the world is toiling! the economy looks bad! don’t you know it’s a dark world out there?!
You would know that that’s the voice of you-know-who.
And very often he would point to your behaviour to drive you out of rest:
how can I not be doing anything! how can I be irresponsible/lazy! can anything actually happen if I do nothing?
That’s not your voice, it’s from you-know-who 🙂
We go straight to Abba to receive His rest.
We rest in the Finished work that He has already completed for us.
Our flesh, you-know-who, and even people around us may shout:
do!
We proclaim:
Done.
Only rest.
And see His power working mightily in us, in our circumstances, accomplishing His works 🙂
… Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today…
(Exodus 14:13 ESV)
Amen!