According to the writer of Hebrews, we who truly believe may enter into the blessed Sabbath rest of the Lord. So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath rest reserved for the (true) people of God; For he who has once entered (God’s) rest also has ceased from (the weariness and pain) of human labors, just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His own. Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest (of God, to know and experience it for ourselves), that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience (into which those in the wilderness fell). HEBREWS 4:9-11 In the Sabbath rest of the Lord we can cease from weariness and the pain of human labor. What is required to enter this rest? A childlike attitude of faith. We read in Mark 10:15 that Jesus told His disciples: Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive and accept and welcome the kingdom of God like a little child [does] positively shall not enter it at all. A child’s faith is simple. A child doesn’t try to figure everything out and make a detailed blueprint plan of exactly how his deliverance will come. He simply believes because the parents said they would take care of the problem. If members of the church have lost the joy of their salvation, sometimes the reason is the basis of their joy has been misplaced. When Jesus sent out the seventy to minister to the needs of others in His name, they came back rejoicing in their power over demons. But Jesus said to them, ...do not rejoice at this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are enrolled in heaven (Luke 10:20). Jesus tells us we should rejoice, not because we have power over the demons or circumstances of this life, but because our names are enrolled in heaven. Habakkuk 3:18 KJV says, Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The joy of our salvation comes from the joy of the initial and greatest gift of all — God’s love for us as expressed in His Son Christ Jesus. As believers, our joy and peace are not based in doing and achieving, but in believing. Joy and peace come as a result of building our relationship with the Lord. Psalm 16:11 tells us in His presence is fullness of joy. If we have received Jesus as our Savior and Lord, He, the Prince of Peace lives inside us. (1 John 4:12-15, John 14:23.) We experience peace in the Lord’s presence, receiving from Him and acting in response to His direction. Joy and peace come from knowing, believing — trusting in the Lord with simple childlike faith.
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