Now the promise of entering into God’s rest is still for us today. So we must be extremely careful to ensure that we all embrace the fullness of that promise and not fail to experience it. For we have heard the good news of deliverance just as they did, yet they didn’t join their faith with the Word. Instead, what they heard didn’t affect them deeply, for they doubted. For those of us who believe, faith activates the promise and we experience the realm of confident rest! 

Hebrews 3:1-3 The Passion Translation

Be and do just like Jesus.

We can serve the Father and have an extraordinary relationship with Him in the same manner that Jesus does. Jesus empowers us to work in partnership with God and rest in His presence by giving us His resurrection life through the Holy Spirit.

We serve and minister far too often without taking breaks. Even Jesus required rest and alone time with the Father. It is an honour to serve God, but it is an even greater honour to be served by God. We cannot do the first without doing the second.  The Father serves us by sending the Son. The Son serves us by dying for our sins and sending the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit serves us by revealing to us that God is love and His love to us, and by sending us forth into the world to demonstrate God's love.

We were made in God's image and are uniquely designed to have a relationship with Him. The strength of this relationship flows from God's provision of love and grace. The more we realise God loves us, the more restful we become. Rest produces faith and faith leads to a life of restful obedience and a life of restful obedience produces restful increase.

When obeying God feels like an obligation instead of an offering, return to the gospel and hear it again. If you have to obey God, then it is not grace at work in you. Grace always makes you want to completely obey God (cf. Titus 2:14). This is due to the fact that our obedience is both the expression and manifestation of our belonging to God.

Being perfectly loved by God, the culture and language of our Christian life and service is not "we have to do", but "we get to do". We come to know God, and really understand Him. We get to share in what belongs to Him. We get to partner with Him. Put simply, we are at rest and peace when God works in and through us.

God is never far from us. God is always and ever ready to meet us. Cultivate a continual awareness of God's presence and live from the reality that God is here.