Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'" And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. (Hebrews 4:3—NIV)

The verses above are the key to the rest of God.

There is no saving feature in our finding survival and security in the wicked world system. Trust in the world must be removed from our personality. There is no saving feature in the sinful nature that dwells in us. The lusts and passions of the flesh must be removed from us.

Our will is another matter. Our will is to be preserved and strengthened in God. But it must be dealt with until it is in total harmony with God's will.

God created the heavens and the earth, and the animal and vegetable kingdoms, in six days. He rested on the seventh day.

There was no evening and morning of the seventh day because the seventh day extends throughout eternity.

Everything was finished from the beginning right on through to the new heaven and earth rule of Jesus Christ.

Then God rested.

The whole duty of man is to enter the rest of God; to cease from his own works and do God's will.

God gave us a brain, but not to use to plan our way. The purpose of our brain is to comprehend God and His Word, not to decide to build our own heaven and earth.

Perhaps the most difficult transition any person makes is to pass from governing his own destiny to acknowledging God in all his ways. And he must surrender all to God without lapsing into passivity. He must keep on pressing forward toward his desires while at the same time looking to God for every decision great and small.

God knows all about each one of us.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalms 139:15,16—NIV)

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Think of it!

Since this is so, since our days were written in God's book, since "His work has been finished from the creation of the world," the main goal of our life on earth is to discover God's will and perform it each day. This is how we enter the rest of God: we cease from our own works and do God's work.

To be able to live so as to know God's will, God's work, in every decision we make is the result of a lifetime of seeking God. There are many traps along the way. When we find we have been deceived along some line we are not to faint but ask God to help us extricate ourselves and continue pressing forward in the Lord.

There is only one legitimate will in the universe, and that is the will of the Father. Even our Lord Jesus cried out that the Father's will be done instead of His own.

To be continued.