Today Our Daily Bread Hebrews 4

Hebrews 4: 1 - 16
1 God's promise of entering his place of rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to get there. 2 For this Good News – that God has prepared a place of rest – has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn't believe what God told them. F20 3 For only we who believe can enter his place of rest. As for those who didn't believe, God said, "In my anger I made a vow: 'They will never enter my place of rest,'" F21 even though his place of rest has been ready since he made the world. 4 We know it is ready because the Scriptures mention the seventh day, saying, "On the seventh day God rested from all his work." F22 5 But in the other passage God said, "They will never enter my place of rest." F23 6 So God's rest is there for people to enter. But those who formerly heard the Good News failed to enter because they disobeyed God. 7 So God set another time for entering his place of rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David a long time later in the words already quoted: "Today you must listen to his voice. Don't harden your hearts against him." F24 8 This new place of rest was not the land of Canaan, where Joshua led them. If it had been, God would not have spoken later about another day of rest. 9 So there is a special rest F25 still waiting for the people of God. 10 For all who enter into God's rest will find rest from their labors, just as God rested after creating the world.

11 Let us do our best to enter that place of rest. For anyone who disobeys God, as the people of Israel did, will fall. 12 For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. 13 Nothing in all creation can hide from him. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done. 14 That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.
FOOTNOTES:F20: Some manuscripts read they didn't share the faith of those who listened [to God]. F21: Ps 95:11. F22: Gen 2:2. F23: Ps 95:11. F24: Ps 95:7-8. F25: Or Sabbath rest. The New Living Translation

~ Lena’s Comments~
Just as….it makes me think, what does God do in His rest time? That’s what I should concentrate on being and doing. I see a few things here that seem to be done in rest- believes, has a place, is ready, no work or toil, which means no stress. There is hearing and listening there, no hardness of heart, and today is the day. (Compared to tomorrow, or yesterday or some other timeframe of influence or priority). I believe the entering into rest is so imperative that it is probably a command of God to do so, and as we are made after his image and likeness, so should we be following in His footsteps, as he does so should we do. If we do not we will surely die (a premature physical death, from the stresses of life, or not caring for our bodies or souls, and if we disobey in one area we will probably become a practicer of its works, and thus put ourselves in a vulnerable place to become dead - even spiritually speaking) all at the expense of disobedience? See all sin has its penalty, even if it takes awhile for the penalty to show its due.
It seems the main thing here is to respect and love God enough to even hear Him, then listen to Him and then actually do what He’s said. We know how to tune sounds and voices out or listen to them with no intent of ever doing or even taking suggestions from them. It shows what kind of relationship we have with the persons we listen to or hear from or do the words of. How we hear, or listen to, or obey God’s voice shows us our own relationship and the quality of our relationship with God. If our relationship is wanting upon our evaluation of it, we can make changes as necessary, and it is necessary for the quality of both our natural, and spiritual lives.
God’s word (and the voice of it and its effects on our lives ) is powerful, alive, ready and willing to change us from one glory to another. Seeing and being able to forgive and deal with our failures. If cancer is hidden it will kill, if it is found, there are chances that it can be taken out and not kill. It is the same with hidden sin. If it is exposed, opened up, and sought out, the word can take care of it so we do not perish. Wouldn’t it be better for us here to stand before God and open ourselves up to Him, and the examination of His word that actually finds what ails us and removes it, than for all of that to be hidden from us and then stand before God all filled with "cancer" that was not dealt with? He sees it all anyway, the grace is in the revealing of what He sees. When I see it, then I may say, "Lord, I find in my being, my need for Your grace, for Your help, for Your surgery, for Your health to live inside and be continually alive and activated inside of me." We need help. We need help from God. Pride stands in our way from admitting and surrendering to that confession and the action it takes to fulfill that need. Rest is coming to God, believing, and living with Him, inside of His will. Toil and labor comes when we live for and with ourselves and in what we so desire to do and be, We quickly find we have an end – to ourselves, our strength only takes us so far, before we need rest. Thank God for that, That means we get other chances to change over and over again!