Walking In God’s Rest

Matt. 11:28 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matt. 11:29 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.
Matt. 11:30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

One of the greatest promises we have from Jesus is the rest that we can walk in everyday. This rest is often misunderstood and I wanted to share with you how you can live in this rest we have in Christ Jesus. Notice in the above verses Jesus first tells us that we are to come to Him and He will give us rest. The first thing one must do to be able to experience the rest of God is to receive Jesus as the Lord of their life, but that is only the first step to enter this rest. Many who are born again are not walking in rest, but continue to live in worry, fear, doubt, and unbelief.

A key to this rest is what He went on to say in the following two verses. Notice He tells us to take His yoke upon us and to learn from Him, and in doing so we will find rest for our souls. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. First let’s define what our souls really are. For years the church world thought that the soul and spirit of man where the same thing, but they cannot be for Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the Word of God is able to separate spirit from soul. So if they can be separated they are not the same thing.

The soul in fact is our mind will and emotions. Our souls do not get saved when we are born again. The soul must be renewed to the Word of God, and this is a key to walking in the rest Jesus has for us. In the book of James 1:21 we are told that the Word of God is able to save our soul, which means to deliver it from the old way of thinking. This renewing of the mind is what will help us to learn from Jesus how to walk by faith and not by sight.

Jesus and the Word are one. When you come to Jesus (the Word of God) you have the opportunity to learn what it means to live by faith. In 2 Cor. 5:7 we are told to walk by faith and not by sight. When you walk by sight you are not going to walk in the rest that Jesus has for you. Walking by sight you will allow what you see or feel in the natural to govern what you think in your soul. This will rob you of the rest that is available when we walk by faith.

Heb. 3:18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 
Heb. 3:19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

You will find that the children of Israel could have entered a rest available to them even in the Old Testament. We find out the reason they did not enter this rest is because of unbelief. In Hebrew 3:18 we learn that this type of unbelief is the result of not obeying what God had said. Faith hears what God has said and responds in obedience to the Word. True faith will always have action that is in line with what scripture says.

Jesus again in Matthew 11:29 is telling us to come to Him (the Word) and learn of Him, how He lived. Jesus walked by faith. He did not allow what He saw in the natural to move Him. He believed in His heart what God’s Word said, He spoke in line with the Word of God, and He acted upon that Word. This is what faith does. As simple as faith is many believers are not walking by faith and thus they are not walking in the rest that is available to them.

When you walk in this rest you are relying on what Jesus has done for you. You are not trying to do things in your own strength or ability. You are relying upon and fully trusting in what the Word of God says. In doing so you believe in your heart what the Bible says. You don’t question it. As you do you speak in line with scripture. You see yourself in the light of God’s Word, and you then act accordingly. The great apostle Smith Wigglesworth said, “Faith is an act”. Scripture teaches us that our minds are not fully renewed unless we are acting upon the Word of God.

So come to the Word and feed on what scripture says until it becomes a reality in your heart. As you do, make sure you are speaking in line with God’s Word. Watch your words for they are powerful, and faith without corresponding action is dead. You must act upon the Word of God for faith to work. As we do we can walk in the rest that Jesus has provided for us!

May God’s Best Be Yours!