Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

Hebrews 4: 1-2

This weekend Patrina and I traveled from our home to visit Jacque and our grandsons in Phoenix and back home again on Sunday afternoon. In a little more than two days, we assembled new beds for the two youngest boys, spent some extended time with a long-time friend who has relocated to the Goodyear area, watched seven flag football games at two sites across the city, swam in the pool, attended an early morning church service, enjoyed a Mother’s Day brunch, and then dropped off at the airport. It was a whirlwind of a weekend and we heard that everyone was considering a more restful afternoon.

Physically we can feel spent and in need of rest, but the promise of rest mentioned by the writer of Hebrews means much more. It speaks of a wholeness for the entire being.

God’s promise of Rest is available today and at some point during each stop this weekend, each had an opportunity to hear at least a portion of the Good News whether it was in a devotional before bed or in church, but how many of us have received the benefits of His Rest?

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”

Hebews 4:6-7

The writer of Hebrews tells his readers (and us) that, like the people of Israel in the Exodus who failed to believe even though they experienced God’s presence first-hand, we run the same risk when we hear but our hearing is not united with a living, active faith. He echoes James who says that those who hear without acting are sadly deceiving themselves. (James 1: 22)

I do not want to be deceived. I do not want others to be deceived. I want to enter His Rest, don’t you?