Begin with 2 minutes of silence and stillness before God.

When you think of the word “rest,” what is the first image that pops into your mind? Maybe you think of a long nap after church on Sunday. Or, maybe you think of finally getting to that recliner after a long stressful day at work. For me, it’s my wife, Olivia. I know it may sound cheesy, but I’ve always told her that I felt most at home when I’m with her. I give this sort of “Ahhh, I’m finally where I’m supposed to be,” sigh of relief when I finally make it home to her. Even so, the Bible describes a form of true rest that can only be obtained through Christ.

When we read through this section of scripture, it’s easy to see that the author of Hebrews wants us to dial in on what true rest is. I encourage you to backtrack through the previous scriptures in chapter 4 to really dive into this subject. In summary, biblical rest is provided through Christ's sacrifice on the cross for our sins and his ability to advocate on our behalf to the Father. When we’re talking through this subject, we must remind ourselves of this: No matter how hard we strive to be perfect, we never will be. However, Jesus is perfect. When we put our faith in Jesus, His perfection coupled with His death and resurrection makes us blameless in the sight of the Father. (Colossians 1:21-22) This is where we find true rest; that our striving to meet the bar set by the Old Testament is over. Christ fulfilled those qualifications for us.

The author tells us in verse 11 to enter this rest “diligently.'' To do this, we must first fully understand the situation we find ourselves in as humans. For believers, there is a constant battle between light and dark going on within our hearts. Although we are a new creation, our flesh is constantly fighting the will of God in our lives. The enemy uses the shame and guilt associated with our flesh against us to keep us from consulting scripture and asking God for help. Let’s look back at verses 12-13. We should constantly remind ourselves of the fact that God knows us. He knows our thoughts and our hearts. His word often tends to read us instead of us reading it. I’m reminded of James 4:8: “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” Don’t let shame and fear keep you from drawing near to God. Allow His word to carve out the sin in your life and continue to fight back the flesh within you.

Let’s talk about verses 14-16. Jesus is able to give us rest through His transparency. As mentioned in verses 14 and 15, Christ is our high priest. He goes before God in His very presence and advocates on our behalf. Jesus came to Earth in the form of a man and dealt with every hardship faced by humanity. He overcame sin and temptation, and because of this, was able to affirm His place as the High Priest. My David Jeremiah Study Bible puts it this way: “Only those who do not yield to temptation can know its full intensity because they experience the full extent of its force.” In this, Jesus has gained transparency with those who put their faith in Him, because He knows exactly what we are facing when we battle temptation. Find comfort in knowing that Christ doesn’t look down on us for struggling with sin, rather He is sympathetic towards us.

The author wraps up chapter 4 with one of the most empowering verses of the entire book. He encourages us to run to the Father “boldly,” and take hold of His grace and mercy which He freely gives. What peace it should give us knowing that we can approach God without fear of being rejected or turned away because of what Christ has done for us. If there was ever a verse worth remembering, certainly verse 16 is it. What a tool for us to use against any anxiety we might have when praying to God about what we are struggling with.

Take 2 minutes to reflect in silence.

Reflection:

• In what ways do you try to avoid God in your life?
  
• Think about parts of your life that you feel uncomfortable discussing with other people.
  
• Do you feel comfortable discussing those parts with God?
  
• Meditate on what it means to “come boldly to the throne of grace.” Try to implement this in your everyday life.
  
• Prayer: Father, thank You for your grace. Thank You for your mercies which are new every day. Thank You that we can run boldly toward you instead of hiding from You as Adam and Eve did in the garden. Father, draw near to us as we draw near to You, and bring with You reconciliation, peace, and rest. Amen.
  

Family Devo: Hebrews 4:11-16

By: Todd & Cynthia Kilbourne

When partnering with your family to know, love, and follow Jesus, we strive to create and share content filtered by the Head-Heart-Hands model.  

Head: the knowledge of God and His Word | Heart: the personal connection from scripture | Hands: a missional mindset 

Head

Wow, this gives us such hope! We have a high priest who knows exactly what we go through, who resisted all temptation and conquered death for our sins, and who never sinned. Jesus is the one that we should always keep our eyes fixed on. Circumstances can tempt us to disobey God. If we focus on our circumstances too long, then God’s Word will fail to influence our lives. Jesus is the one we should follow and try to be more like every day. He doesn’t come to judge us but to encourage us to follow Him to get us to a place of ultimate peace. That’s why God must help us to stay focused on the One who is most important in our life, Jesus.

Heart

Let’s say we want to go on a trip, and we just start driving without planning out our route. We decided we would just pick roads that looked good without really knowing if they would lead to our goal. The route could lead us to terrain that our car can’t handle, and we have no guarantee that we will end up at our destination. Now what if we had researched our trip using a map that was created by an expert that could guide us on the best route to get us to our destination safely? Shouldn’t we choose this method of proceeding? Just like our lives, we don’t know what lies ahead for us, but God gave us a map to follow so that we could count on Him to lead us. The Bible provides direction, guidance, and things to avoid along the way.

Hands

We should actively seek out God’s Word daily and not let circumstances distract us from our main purpose. When life is going well let’s praise God and when life is hard and there is uncertainty, let us seek Him in His Word and through prayer and acknowledge that He is all-knowing and loves us enough to guide us with hope and peace.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Son, Jesus, who came to earth to become human to experience all the things that we experience. We thank You that He is sinless and that He is the sacrifice that is needed to save us from death. Help us to live each day growing more like Him and less like this world. Continue to guide us, love us, and grow us in our faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.