It is quite natural that we might find ourselves at unrest at times but God wants us, to just run to His presence for rest, to be reconciled to God, to have peace with God and with other fellow brethren and at home. Whatever comes up, we should not give up our unity, we need to have the light in us and always run to Jesus Christ to learn from Him.

Matthew 11:28, ‘²⁸ “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.’ The word is to ‘the weary and heavy – laden, and I will give you rest’. Verse 29, ‘²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”’ We can have rest, only if we take His yoke and learn from Him. V27, ‘²⁷ All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.’ We see that there is a perfect unity between the Father and the son. Jesus Christ has been revealed to us. It is now, up to us to accept Him. What a privilege we have, to come to Jesus Christ and to have rest in Him.

John 7:37, ‘³⁷ Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.’ Anyone who is thirsty, can come to His presence where, there is fullness of joy, we need to have this fulness of Joy always.

Genesis 2:2, ‘² By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.’ In our lives also, everyday should be good. As we see in Genesis 1:10, ‘¹⁰ God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good.’ And also, in v12, ‘¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.’ Lord did not create any day as bad day for us. Every day should be good. We need to examine ourselves if everyday is good in our lives. Verse 26, ‘²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”’ On sixth day, God created man. V27, ‘²⁷ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.’ V31, ‘³¹ God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good’. His creations are very good. Are we submitting ourselves to God? Let us examine ourselves, whether we have that perfect rest in God, as He created everything and He has given us. There is every tendency in our life also, for us to turn into, an animal and we lose His presence. He created us in His image and He has given us His life. He had made us perfect but the only thing is, we need to enter into His rest, every day.

Genesis 2:3, ‘³ Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.’ On seventh day, God sanctified it and rested from all His work, and was also the very first day, for man, where he needs to enter into God’s rest. Thank and Praise God for the rest He had given us.

Exodus 32:26, ‘²⁶ then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him.’  ³³ The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. ³⁴ But go now, lead the people where I told you. Behold, My angel shall go before you; nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.” ³⁵ Then the Lord smote the people, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.’

Exodus 33:1-14, ‘Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ ² I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. ³ Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people, and I might destroy you on the way.” ⁵ For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the sons of Israel, ‘You are an obstinate people; should I go up in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you. Now therefore, put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what I shall do with you.’” ⁶ So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. ⁷ Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.  ⁹ Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; and the Lord would speak with Moses. ¹⁰ When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his tent. ¹¹ Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.’ ¹² Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know whom You will send with me. Moreover, You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ ¹³ Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” ¹⁴ And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” ¹⁵ Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.’

We also, need to pray like Moses, ‘Lord I am going out, let Your presence go with me, and if Your presence is not coming with me, let me not go out’. Verse 16, ¹⁶ For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?”

¹⁷ The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” ¹⁸ Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” ¹⁹ And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” ²⁰ But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” ²¹ Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; ²² and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. ²³ Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”

If we want the presence of God to go with us, as we are in this wicked world, there will be certain areas in our lives, we seem to be frustrated and we need to cry out to the Lord, ‘Lord, come with me so that Your presence will be with me and I can enjoy Your presence every day’.

Exodus 31:15, ‘¹⁵ For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. ¹⁶ So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ 

This is what Jesus Christ wants us also to have this rest. For Israelites, a day, ‘Sabbath’ was given for rest but for us, we need to have rest 24/7. When we say, ‘this is not possible’, we are easily proclaiming to the Satan that, ‘what you are saying is right’ and we are making God as a liar. We need to come to His rest because God has given us this opportunity and God has revealed His son, Jesus Christ to us, so we need to enter into His rest. It is our disobedience that is not giving us this rest, because we are not taking up the cross at that time and we don’t have a thankful heart.

 ¹⁷ It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.” We see the Lord ceased from His labor and He was refreshed. We need to cease from the fleshly activities and we have to come to the complete rest, give up everything to God, we don’t have to work on it. We should always have a thankful heart every time.

Deuteronomy 5:15, ‘¹⁵ You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.’ We should always remember that God has removed us from the pit, and He has lifted us up and we need to come to that rest. If not, we are not accepting God and shows that we are accepting Satan.

Deuteronomy 1:31, ‘ ³¹ and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’ ³² But for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God,’ We need to strive to enter into the rest that God gives.

Hebrews 3:19, ‘¹⁹ So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.’

They were afraid to enter into that rest. They did not want to come to rest, saying there were giants over there.

Hebrews 4:1, ‘Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.’ This is a wake up call for us, are we coming short of this? let us fear this.  ² For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.’ We have so many encouraging messages every day. We unite by faith. This faith should work in our lives, every day. It is through this faith; we can enter into the rest and with a thankful heart. We have a written WORD, in our hands, the Bible, we have encouragements from our brothers and sisters, it should profit us and this should lead us to rest, a perfect rest.

Hebrews 3:12, ‘¹² Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. ¹³ But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.’ We see here, to encourage one another day by day. It is our job, as we are in the body of Christ.  We do not know the situations, where we will go through but what we can Do is, we can encourage one another, as long as it is ‘Today’, as there is deceitfulness in the sin. It can trap us in any way, but if we heard the Word today, let us encourage one another, who are left behind, and who are heavy hearted and who are heavily burdened. Let us have that rest.

Matthew 11:29, ‘²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”’ We know the yoke has two sides. We will not be worried because the other side of the yoke is, Jesus with us. We can have that perfect rest.

John 13:14,15, ‘¹⁴ If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.’ God has given us this example. In the body of Christ, literally we are not washing the feet but we should have the humility which Jesus had, where He had come down. He was humble enough to wash His disciples’ feet, catering to the needs of the disciples. We also, from our life, we need to have that perfect rest and we need to submit ourselves in whatever situations that come in our lives, we need to follow the examples that He had shown.

Luke 6:46, ‘⁴⁶ “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?’ When God is speaking to us,  ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.’ We should be like a house built on the rock. The rock being Christ. Whatever situations we are facing in our lives, we are putting our faith in Him, that we will not be shaken by anything in our lives. Whatever the pressures are coming up, whatever situations are coming up, at home or work place, we should not be shaken, we are like a house dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock, Jesus Christ.

⁴⁹ But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”- If we are shaken, having unrest in our lives, there is something wrong in our foundation and we are not dug deep, not put our anchor on Lord Jesus Christ. Surely the torrent burst will break it apart. Let us all have our faith, not having unbelieving heart and let us all come to that rest in our lives.

Matthew 11:30, ‘³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”’ Jesus says, ‘when you come to me, the yoke I am giving you is very easy and my burden light’.

1 John 5:2,3 ‘² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.’ It will not be burdensome if we love what is of God. Whatever happens in our lives, we have firm faith in Him and also a thankful heart. God will help us, in coming days.

Romans1:21, ‘²¹ For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.’ Paul is writing this to the unbelievers, but they knew that there is a God, there is a creation and the creation itself proves, that there is a God, they knew there is a God but they did not honor Him as God or give thanks. Every day in our lives also, we need to honor our God and when we rise up early in the morning, say, ‘thank you Lord for giving me this day and help us today and let Your presence go with me today’ and if we still know that and we are not giving thanks, it says here, ‘they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened’ – In this way, our heart gets slowly,  slowly darkened and there will be no way until there is a radical change, God is going to lift us up.

1 Thessalonians 5:18, ‘¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’ Believe the situations are brought by the Lord and be thankful in those situations, saying ‘thank you Lord, for giving me one more time to bear the cross and thank you for helping me have that rest in You, which You want in my life’.

1 Thessalonians 2:13, ‘¹³ For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.’ We see here, Paul’s heart. The Word is working in us. We need to believe God. It is possible to have a life of complete rest and a life of thankfulness is possible. Let us strive to enter that rest.

Hebrews 4:11, ‘¹¹ Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.’ Let us be confident, let us put our hope in Lord Jesus Christ, let us have that complete rest in God and be an overcomer with a thankful heart always.

Thank God for His Word.