The Reward of Labour

Read Hebrews chapter four:

As a regenerated, born again son of God, man is eternally united with the Spirit of God and capable of spiritual warfare. As such God is able to use our bodies as sentient beings to be instrumental in spiritual warfare. The labour spoken of in Hebrews chapter four speaks of spiritual warfare (II Co 10:4; Eph. 6:10-14) and not labour as we commonly understand it and not labour that is physical in the strictest sense, but will involve physical attributes that we use in everyday functionality. Spiritual warfare can be very taxing on the physical system because though we are spiritual beings, we have a body which is the seat of sin to contend with and many times to fight against in the struggle with spiritual strongholds.

The book of Exodus gives us the account of the Israelites as they are considering the entrance into the land that God has promised to them for a possession. They are instructed to send spies to evaluate the threat from the inhabitants of the land and the potential for survival according to the natural provisions existing in the land. The conflicting reports from the spies are voiced to the people and the response is overwhelmingly negative from the first. Even though the fruit of the land is great testimony that there is ample provision and abundance, even to the cluster of grapes that had to be carried by two men it was so large, and other things that testify to the positive report, the people choose rather to believe the negative report that the cities are walled up to heaven and we are grasshoppers in comparison to the inhabitants of the land and we don't stand a chance against them.

Not unlike us, they believed the negative reports rather than to believe God and enter the land being encouraged by God that he would be with them and fight for them. Having rejected the encouraging reports and rejecting the instruction to believe God and go into the land and take what God has given them, they decide to rebel against God's man and his instruction. The scripture tells us that the entire congregation wept that night and murmured against God and against God's man deciding as one man to rebel against the advice of God's appointed authority. God then tells them the result of their rebellion and fear to enter as he has instructed them and that they will wander in the wilderness for one year for each day that the spies sought out the land which was forty days. Now they know that they will go in circles for forty years in the wilderness because they did not believe God and enter the land at the first.

When they hear this indictment, they decide to go in their strength and fight the inhabitants of the land even though they are instructed to not do so and are miserably defeated by the Amalekites and the Canaanites. The book of Hebrews chapter four tells us that they entered not in because of unbelief and failed to partake of the rest that only God can give. What a lesson for us as present day Christians and an instruction about how that we are to have rest in Christ by taking God at his word and by faith battling the enemy strongholds as God gives instruction and the blueprint for victory.

Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. Hebrews 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. These two scriptures tell us how important it is for us to realize that we must seek to enter God's rest in the same manner that the Israelites were instructed to enter the Promised Land......by labour. These two terms, labour and rest, are very important to our understanding of this text of scripture in Hebrews chapter four.

The term labour occurs 87 times in scripture. Webster tells us that labour is toilsome work; pains; travail; any bodily exertion which is attended with fatigue. After the labors of the day, the farmer retires, and rest is sweet. Moderate labor contributes to health.

Webster = LA'BOR, n. [L. labor, from labo, to fail.] Webster is telling us here that to labour is to fail. We know very well that the way that we learn is by trying and failing and trying and failing, again and again until we learn to do a certain thing right. This is the concept that God is teaching us in the fourth chapter of Hebrews.

The term rest occurs 275 times in scripture. Webster tells us that rest is cessation of motion or action of any kind and applicable to any body or being; as rest from labor; rest from mental exertion; rest of body or mind. A body is at rest when it ceases to move; the mind is at rest, when it ceases to be disturbed or agitated; the sea is never at rest.

God set a standard for rest when he rested on the seventh day from his labours of creating the universe. He then established the Sabbath system for the benefit of mankind and the observance of his laws of Sabbath to be observed in the Old Testament economy. The rest that God is teaching in Hebrews chapter four is rest that only God can give after we have laboured to enter that rest. The Israelites eventually entered that rest, but only after the ones who rebelled against God initially were destroyed in the wilderness. This represents our flesh that must die, or to be more clear, our fleshly efforts to attain a victory that only God can give, which is rest.

When we attempt a home project such as installing a faucet in a sink, this is something that does not lend itself to a set of hard and fast rules. In my most recent experience of installing a faucet, I attempted several times before I was successful. I would think that I had it right and then I would realize that something was not quite right so I would take it apart and start over again. I cannot remember how many times I went through this but I was determined that I would get it right so I kept trying and failing, trying and failing, trying and failing until I was satisfied that it was right and working right. When I was finally convinced that it was together as it should be and functioning as it should be, I could be at rest, confident that it would serve the purpose for which it was intended. In the 1980s I worked as a commercial dairy delivery and sales driver. I have had many jobs that were very physical and demanding and this particular job seemed to demand more from me than most of the others. The work was very taxing, heavy and long hours, sometimes stretching into twelve to fourteen hour days. I was handling around 4 tons of dairy products on and off the truck every day plus delivering to forty plus stops. When I first started the job, I thought sure that I would die from sheer exhaustion. Now of course that is not true even though it seemed like it at times. As time went along and I became more accustomed physically and mentally with the work, it seemed easier and eventually became a matter of daily routine and I could rest in the confidence that I was able to do the job efficiently and to my boss's satisfaction.

Ok, you might ask, how does this apply to me? How do I enter into rest? According to the scriptures, only Jesus can give rest Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. But we must labour before God will do what we cannot do. The rest of forgiveness is a gift of God according to this scripture as well as rest in any other area in which we are in need. I cannot forgive within myself, but I must labour on forgiving before God will do what I cannot do and that is to place true forgiveness in my heart. You may have to come over and over again and say to God: I do not feel forgiveness, I do not want to forgive, I would rather have revenge for what the person I am angry with did to me but by an act of my will, I choose to forgive _________for ______. You may have to labour in this manner for many days or weeks before the rest comes, but it will come as you are faithful to continue in the battle (II Co. 10:4) You try and fail, try and fail, try and fail, and you keep coming back to God and asserting that you CHOOSE to forgive. It is not in your heart, but you keep asserting over and over again; labouring because you believe that God will do what you cannot do. You think that the thing is gone and then here it comes again like a freight train down the track!! Again you labour on it and keep that up until one day God does what you cannot do; He puts the rest of forgiveness in your heart.

All malice gone
All desire for revenge gone!!
Only God's forgiveness remains----REST!

You see, you cannot forgive within yourself. Only God can bring the rest of forgiveness. (Matt. 11:28) But pride says, I can do this, I don't need God. WRONG!!! Heb. 4:10

On thanksgiving - I Thess. 5:18 In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Eph. 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; In a situation that you hate and had nothing to do with creating, you do not want to thank God for it but you labour on it. In a situation which would not normally merit thanks, you keep coming back again and again and asserting thanks, and one day God shows you why you can truly give thanks for this situation. Remember, God will not show you why you can truly give thanks until you by faith labour on giving thanks.

Remember: God will not do what you cannot do until you do what you can do.

KEEP ON.........
LABOURING ON FORGIVENESS
LABOURING ON THANKSGIVING
LABOURING ON RESISTING THE DEVIL
LABOURING ON RENOUNCING SATAN (I renounce you Satan and all of your works and ways)
LABOURING ON RESISTING TEMPTATION (I will not yield to __________)
LABOURING ON REFUSING TO DOUBT GOD AND HIS WORD (I will not doubt, I will not doubt!!)
LABOURING ON LOVING MY ENEMY (I will love _________because God's grace is sufficient to do this)

Psa 30:5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest,