Thursday 25 May 2017

May 25: Hebrews 4:1-10

Key Verse: Hebrews 4:9
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;

Devotion:
Sometimes with a cursory glance, the gospel can seem a daunting place where people can see all sorts of contradictions. But if you are willing to sit down and let God explain it to you as you read, then you will learn so much more than just reading a book. In a few verses we are taken from the beginning of time through to the present day as a reminder of God's promises. The privileges that we have living under the gospel are many and yet so many overlook them all the time.

Taking the simple fact of having a day of rest, how God elected to have the seventh day as a day of rest and ended up getting so cross with man for ignoring the few simple rules that He had imposed a ban of man from entering into rest with Him. That, to us, would have spelt our doom if it were not for His promises. By looking at His promises we can then understand to whom He was saying these words. Those who refuse to believe in Him will not enter into His rest. That promise has stood from the beginning of time and will continue to stand for as long as it takes for all of His promises to be carried out.

In the old testament days they did not have the history of Christ going to the cross. They had to base their faith on nothing more than what the prophets were telling them had come from God. You may think that the miracles would go a long way to persuading people; just look at the miracles which continue to happen around us and the way they are ignored! I'm sure many were ignored in the same way back then. Yet throughout time God has continued to stand by His promise that as long as we are willing to believe in Him, we will find a prefect rest with Him. No matter what man can do, he will never be able to live up to those sort of promises by himself; we always fall short of the mark. We simply have to open our eyes and see the truth and know that God is our one true God. The rest is therefore history...

Points to Ponder:
Do you try to stand by your promises?

Are you living in God's promises?