The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (many hold this one to be Apollos) presents a new and expanded picture of what it means to enter the rest of the Lord. In 4.4-6 we read: For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: ‘And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.’ God has finished his task of providing everything we will ever need to serve him in this life. We must accept it.

All that is lacking is for us to make the decision to own the resting of our God. There is nothing automatic about entering therein and not everyone will find themselves there. Unless a conscious decision is made it will never happen: And again in the passage above he says, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ Those of us who follow the Lord Jesus Christ in life know God’s rest better than we can even imagine for us.

But we are the resting ones: It still remains that some will enter that rest, We know what it means to be able to rely on the Lord for any and all of those needs which seem to fly in our faces. We experience any number of trials and tribulations in our day-to-day lives of faith, and we are free to turn to our own strength and thereby away from God, but we also know the price of that move—it can be worth eternity to us.

We know what it’s like to deny the power and presence of the Lord in our lives, and we know how easy it is to never submit to God’s authority. Some see submission as weakness and therefore remain errant: and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. I know what it’s like to disobey God, and I’ve come to recover from that sin much more quickly by repenting.